Reader's and Writer's Workshop

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop, the children have been working on building their stamina when independently reading books.  We've been learning about non-fiction (all about the world books) and fiction (storybooks) books.  The two books we've been using as mentor texts for the lessons are An Alphabet Beetle Book and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

During the lessons, the children have been learning:

• About concepts of print
• how to choose books from our classroom library 
• how to read books from cover to cover
• how readers reread 
• how readers learn from words in books
• how readers work hard to make the words they read match the page they are reading

The children have heard the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff several times.  We've had discussions about the who the characters were in the story, where the story takes place, and what the problem was. They have been working on retelling the story with their reading partner and using props to retell their stories.  If this is a book at home that you have, have your child 'read' the story to you.  

Next week, we'll be moving into our next unit focusing on Super Powers: Reading with Print Strategies and Sight Word Power. 

Writer's Workshop  

The children have continued to write stories.  They have moved from writing stories onto one page to writing stories in a book (3-4 pages).  They've learned to label their pictures in their stories by listening for the beginning sound of the word and writing the letter that represents that sound.  They've also learned how to stretch our words to write even more sounds, how to add speech bubbles to their writing, and making sure their adding details to pictures.  We will be wrapping up the launching unit and moving into writing pattern books later next week.