Blast Off Into A Good Book

Our rocket is set and ready for take off! 

This is the time of year we start Accelerated Reader for 1st grade. 

Students are excited to show their understanding of the books they are reading at home.  

Mind you we started Monday and each book they read is only worth .5 points. 

I was so impressed with their enthusiasm!

A few even made goals to read one book a night and take one test each day ... how PRECIOUS!

At the beginning of each year and all throughout I use reading logs and ask that students try to read a little each night. I love watching their advancements in reading!

Pick up a set of my reading logs HERE!

They are a great visual for students and its nice for them to see their own progress in reading.

I think the hardest thing about AR at this time in the year is that they are all so excited to take tests and make their 10 points but read through books too quickly and try to take tests on books they are just not ready for. 

God love em! I do enjoy teaching them how to pick their just right books. 

Students were given their reading levels and are encouraged to pick books from their just right reading bins. The scores they receive on their tests are too show their books may have been too hard for them or they didn't read them close enough before taking a test. 

I have pinned close pins to their book boxes displaying their reading levels and am hoping this challenges my kiddos to read their just right reading books and not something too hard or too easy. 

This week we ended with "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and completed a little recall and retell activity. 

You have got to love this story and the idea of all of these animals fitting inside this itty bitty mitten. Children's books never fail to amaze me. 

My kids loved the story and those who haven't read it found it very entertaining. 

Inspired by The First Grade Parade I used this anchor chart to follow up the reading of the book. We sequenced the characters as we retold the book. 

After reading the story students put a book together! 

They sequenced the animals and described each one. 

They did a great job and used some great adjectives to describe each animal. 

 

Next time I would cut the mittens out so it looked more like a mitten book but I loved the way these came out! Students cut out each character and placed it in the empty box on the mitten. I was really impressed with their ability to pull words from clues around the room and from the book. They really used their resources (super proud teacher right here)!