By the end of the school year Kindergarteners have started to figure out how to read for themselves. They are voracious learners that are thinking of themselves as readers. How can you keep them reading when they go from this reading environment...
to this summer environment...
Children who read during the summer gain reading skills. Create a summer full of reading with these
If kids see adults reading they will understand the importance of reading. My 8th grade son and I still love to read side by side, especially during the summer. This summer I have been reading in these fun pajama pants.
Schedule Time to Read
Swimming, camps, sports events, vacations and many other activities are fun things to do during the summer. It is important to help young readers fit reading into their busy summer schedule.
Environment Full of Books
Make sure that early readers have a variety of reading materials on hand. They need their own copies of stories that they love along with a combination of informational text and storybooks or early chapter books. Subscribe to a children's magazine to give little readers something to look forward to reading every month.
Read Together
Summer is a great time to read a chapter book to your little reader or practice your storytelling skills. Improvise with different character voices to make stories come alive.
Be a Rainy Day Reader
The best thing to do on a rainy day is to read a book. Make a list of rainy day books so that you are ready when the clouds roll in. Happy Summer Reading!
I love stumbling onto random websites that turn out to be super cool! Does that ever happen to you?
Today, I came across a fun online reading community called Bookopolis, where kid readers (mainly ages 7-12 years) can explore new books, create a bookshelf, share book reviews with friends, and earn points for rating, reviewing, and book reporting. The mission of Bookopolis is to ignite a love for reading and to connect kids with other young readers about books and reading. Teachers and librarians can use this website (for free) to build a community of life-long readers in the classroom. Students can connect with friends to share book reviews and also swap book recommendations.
Bookopolis is a free website (which is the best kind of website!) where educators can sign up, create classes and add students by giving them a username and password. Educators and students can log onto Bookopolis from a computer or a tablet. Once classes are created and students added, educators can monitor and view their students' Bookopolis reading activity (the reading activity information is below). Plus, if a student had an account the previous year, the website will prompt you on how to merge their accounts so students can always have access to the books that have been read.
Let's dive into this website together to see what it has to offer. I created some fake student accounts onto my educator profile to walk you through all that this website has for your students.
1. Student Profile Page
Each student has a profile where they can do a multiple of things. Students can create a "world name" (which is what their home page will be called), add their gender, birthday, genre preferences, and choose from a large variety of pictures for their avatar character.
2. "My World" Page
Each student has a homepage which is called "My World" (or whatever name they change it to on their profile page). "My World" is where students can see their reading activity progress. It will show their total minutes read (if recorded...definitely an optional feature), total number of friends that they can share books ideas with, book ratings, number of books on his/her bookshelf, number of book reviews and book reports written, and their total points earned (students earn points for everything they do in Bookopolis). Students will also have access to the books that have been recommended by friends.
3. "My Books" Page
"My Books" is where students can search (by using an online search engine) for books to add to their bookshelf. Once a student searches for a book, a summary of the book will pop-up, along with the genre, grade level, interest grade level, Lexile level, guided reading level, and a large number of student reviews of the book. Students can add the book to their account bookshelf and categorize it by "Reading It Now", "I Read It", or "I Want To Read It". If the book is read, students can include the finish date, the number of times read, a 5-star rating, and a written review.
Students can also write a Book Buzz (which is a new feature that was added last fall) and a Book Report. A Book Buzz is where students share a short book summary, a description of their favorite part, the reason why they read it, and why other kids HAVE to read it. Book Buzz is basically a way to SELL the book to others. A Book Report is more in depth about the story elements of the text. Students can also go into the class roster and recommend books to certain friends and give a short reason why they think their friend will like the book. The recommendation message is then directly sent to the friend's account.
4. "My Badges" Page
Students can earn points for everything they do in Bookopolis. Then, those points will turn into badges. Students can get 5 points for adding a book, 5 points for rating a book, 10 points for reviewing a book, 20 points for writing a book report, 10 points for inviting a friend to join Bookopolis, and 5 points for sharing a book suggestion with a friend. Once a students reaches a certain point level, a treasure of badges can be unlocked and put on the student's Bookopolis page. Students can collect as many badges as they can by adding, rating and reviewing books, doing book reports, and inviting and sharing book ideas with friends.
5. "My Friends" Page
"My Friends" page is a way for students to view their friend's Bookopolis activity ("friends" basically means everyone in their class). Students can view their friend's Book Buzzes, Book Reviews, Bookshelf, and Awards/Badges.
6. "Recommended to Me" Page
This page will show the reader the books that have been recommended to them by other classmates (or friends). Students can click on the book that have been recommended and read a book summary and multiple reviews. Students will have a chance to add the book to their bookshelf and categorize the book by "Reading It Now", "I Read It", or "I Want To Read It".
There is so much more to explore and I recommend you go check it out. Unfortunately, I just came across this website and have not been able to use in my classroom with students yet. But-I'd LOVE to hear what you think or if you have used it before. Do you think this would be worth using in your classroom?
Here is a quick, 3-minute video on the introduction of Bookopolis.
With summer vacation here for many and just around the corner for others, we hear a lot about summer reading and making sure kids read at home while not in school. But what about writing? Reading and writing go hand in hand. So, whether you are finishing up the school year or at home with your kids on summer vacation, don't forget to encourage them to write! Here are some simple, fun, and authentic ways to incorporate writing at home this summer (and all year round)!
If you are a teacher, consider providing your students with your address or an email address so that they can write to you about their summer adventures. As a parent, encourage your kids to write letters to relatives whom they may not see as often or friends that have moved away. Or find them a pen pal...even if it's a kid just a street over, it would still be a blast for younger kids to write back and forth. It's also usually possible to find an address for celebrities your child may be interested in online...can't guarantee a response though!
Post cards are so cheap to buy! Purchase them when you go out of town and have your children write about their experiences and send them to a friend or family member. Super easy and quick writing practice.
The year is so hectic we often run out of time for handmade cards when school is in session. Have your kids get ahead by making birthday cards for relatives in advance. They could even make cards for upcoming holidays or decorate thank you cards to use in the future (just leave the inside blank).
Have your kids write reviews about movies they see, books they read, restaurants they eat at, and places they visit throughout the summer. They can rate the places using stars and then describe why they gave the rating they did. You could even compare their ratings to those found online.
Do your kids have friends over throughout the summer? Any family barbecues or birthday parties? Have your children make invitations for these events complete with the date, time, place, and events.
Get some neat note pads and use them for lists. Your children can write lists of what they need at the grocery store, things they need to get done on a particular day, books they'd like to read this summer, etc.
Visit the dollar store and stock up on post its. Encourage your kids to use them for reminders and messages for family members. Maybe a message to mom to get some more popsicles at the grocery store, a note to dad wishing him a good day at work, or a reminder to clean up the play room tomorrow.
Have your kids keep a journal of their daily activities. If you have a little girl, she'd probably love a diary with a "lock" on it and it would probably encourage her to write about her summer days. Or bring a journal along on vacation so that your kids can write about their trip, the places they visited, and the observations they made.
Before playing a game, have your child write down the step by step directions. Follow them and see how accurate they were. You could do the same with recipes before making lunch or even how to get somewhere in the community.
Do you have any other ideas? Leave a comment and share them with me!
Our literacy team took a new direction this year with our school-wide reading incentive program. We wanted to establish a literacy-rich environment where all students were given the opportunity to participate in literacy celebrations. We did away with required nightly reading minutes, signed reading logs, and rewards given only to students who completed the reading challenge. Alternatively, we focused on creating opportunities for students to enjoy authentic reading, writing, and discussions.
We planned several school-wide activities throughout the year to promote literacy: graffiti walls, book swaps, mystery readers, and Flashlight Fridays. For today's post, let's take a look at Flashlight Fridays.
For many of us, summer vacation is officially underway! Our days will soon be filled with fun, sun, rest, relaxation, friends, family, travel, and maybe even a book or two. ;)
Here at Adventures in Literacy Land we've been planning our summer book study. We're so excited to announce that the book we've chosen is...
Reading Wellness: Lessons in Independence and Proficiency by Burkins and Yaris.
Reading Wellness offers teachers a series of lessons to help children read closely and carefully while still honoring their interests as readers. Join us in July as we learn how to instill confidence, curiosity, and the joy of reading in our students.
The book is available for purchase or to read online {for free} through Stenhouse.
Not only can you comment here on the blog, but you can also link up your posts throughout the week with your own blog posts and thoughts.
We can't wait to hear your thoughts on Reading Wellness!
Epic. I am a HUGE fan. Have you tried it out? I know there have been many great posts about the features and benefits of Epic. And I want to certainly echo those points here; however, this year Epic added some additional features and a great summer incentive to families. I can't wait to share all this information with you!
(If you have not used Epic, check out Jennifer's post about how to set it up-Here!)
But first things first...after a year of using Epic in the classroom and at home, what did I observe?
Excitement--students would be so excited to share with me the books that they found.
Motivation--Epic provides such high quality texts that my students were so motivated to keep reading and exploring new texts.
Independence--the app is really kid-friendly, easy to use, and navigate. This means more independent students!
As a teacher (and mom), here is what I love:
It is free for teachers!
Each child has their own account.
Nonfiction to fiction ratio is great.
Books are based on student interest.
Some books are read aloud to students.
I can see who is really trying to read the books and who is just flipping though them.
New books are constantly being added.
Actually the list could go on and on. As I was writing this post, I got lost myself in the sea of books that have been added this year. There were so many that I wanted to click on and read for myself. But let's move on...
What's new to Epic? As of April 28th, students can access Educational Videos on Epic. And they are popular!! The video that I heard most often at the end of year was "Money" from Flocabulary.
When I doing some research on their site, you do have some controls over these videos because they can be pretty exciting and hard to stop watching. You can check out that information HERE.
Another addition that occurred in April was the Home Access Program. Teachers can give their families access to Epic at home for one month FREE without providing any credit card information. This is wonderful because I am always looking for more ways to add to their home library!
Right now Epic is providing free access to families through July 31st with the hope that this will help with the summer slide! Yes!! Just direct your families to www.getepic.com/summer and they can read, read, read until July 31st!!
Do you have a favorite feature from Epic? I would love to hear about it!!
At the end of each school year, we have had an End of the Year Reading Challenge. This can really be done anytime throughout the school year, but we find it keeps the kids reading right up until the end of the year. We do the Reading Challenge for one month (usually May). The challenge is between all of the First Grade classes and we set a class goal of 500 books. If the class gets to 500 books, then we have an ice cream party. We also have some other requirements. Each student has to have at least 20 individual books. Of course, you are always going to have a few kids who don’t do their reading and they haven’t since the beginning of the school year. We make sure that they also hit the goal. We have them record their books read during independent reading or they stay in for recess and read a book or two before going outside. We really want to make sure they are doing their fair share and contributing. Most times, the kids who haven’t read at home all year will do some of their reading at home during this month. We really talk to them about responsibility and how they can do it themselves without the help of their parents. We have monthly reading logs and add up the books once a week. We have a big graph that hangs in the hallway and the kids love to see how everyone is doing. All of the classes met the goal this year and we asked parents to donate toppings for the ice cream and we provided the ice cream. Who doesn’t love a friendly competition and ice cream??? I made a little freebie if you ever want to try a Reading Challenge! Just click on the picture above!
I'm Pixie Anne from Growing Little Learners and I have a round up of some of my favourite activities for independent spelling work today. These are all fun, practical ideas I've collected from my many hours of professional development on pinterest that I have used and found my little learners to enjoy. So thank you to all those who originally shared - you can link to the original sites by clicking on any of the images.
Many of you may be on your summer break already. Unfortunately, after this one week off, we still have close to 8 weeks left until we break up...8 WEEKS! If you are on your break already, these may be some ideas you can use with your own little ones at home, or you can store them up and pin them yourself for when when you're back to school.
Here we go...
These 2 activities I love because they build those all important fine motor skills too. Whilst the picture above (right) shows numbers in that tub of water, I obviously used it with plastic letters. I had small groups of 2-3 children work together with our key words on flashcards. One child chose the card and read the word aloud, and the other had to build it. They then checked together and rewarded each other with counters if they got it right. Most counters wins!
I love using scrabble tiles! They are so cheap to buy in bulk on ebay and have so many uses (I like to use them to craft a lot too). I'm also a big fan of resources I don't have to go to too much effort to make. I have made my own sets of lolly sticks and cups for example with letters on in the past but have to say that pre-made resources like magnetic letters and scrabble tiles will always win with me! I'm also guilty of always buying a pack of the plastic eggs when I see them because they are just so versatile in the classroom and when I saw this idea (combined with the scrabble tiles), I had to try it! The kids love it and it keeps them busy for ages unscrambling and building those key words!
These ideas are a favourite because they also help us work on our letter formation and handwriting. Building words and rearranging letters is fun and definitely worthwhile, but actually writing the words out builds that all important muscle memory. The sensory aspect of writing in salt, rice, sand, paint, shaving foam, play dough etc. always engages those in my class who are more reluctant to pick up a pencil and hate copying out their spellings. They love the reward of being able to draw or write whatever they like once they have completed the activity or scored a certain number of points for correct spellings too.
There is a great post by Lisa from Growing Firsties on sight word spelling practice and this tic-tac-toe grid has been popular with my class. We also made up our own grid with different ideas (building with the scrabble tiles, magnetic letters for example) and it's an activity we use often at school and copy to send home.
The final idea I wanted to share today was this one from Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts. I made my own version (as I live in the UK and needed different coins!) and love how we get to work on our money total and addition skills while building words. Again, I like my class to work in pairs with one choosing a flashcard with one of our key spellings and reading it aloud to their partner. The partner spells out and builds the word. Together, they then work out the money total. Such great practice and collaboration!
So there you have it. Some of my favourite activities and, more importantly, the favourite activities of those in my class!
I'd love to hear about what works well for your little learners so do leave a comment below.
By the end of the school year Kindergarteners have started to figure out how to read for themselves. They are voracious learners that are thinking of themselves as readers. How can you keep them reading when they go from this reading environment...
