Learning to read - explaining our strategies

One of the biggest accomplishments in kindergarten is learning to read! Some students come in learning to read, some learn during the year, and some learn shorty thereafter. But all of our kindergarteners make giant leaps in understanding how to read pictures and words, retell a story, figure out unknown words, ask questions about stories, and learn from non-fiction texts. Each day of the week we have Shared Reading time, where we learn one reading strategy related to these literacy skills. For example, we might learn that looking at the picture will help you figure out a word you don't know. Or that stories have beginnings, middles and ends.

Then on Fridays, we do a little meta-cognition where we think about the strategies we're using. Below is an example of one strategy called "Pointy Pig," which encourages emerging readers to point to each word as they read, so they can track the print and help their brain know which words to focus on. The kids drew a representation of the strategy that turned out great!

Also, I just thought these were some fun pictures:

Reading a new favorite book with a parent visitor - The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak!

And writing letters in the snow with sticks!