What should my child be reading?

I have  had some great questions about reading material for your readers. I can tell that some of you have not just been reading daily but also engaging your students high order thinking by asking the questions I placed next to their weekly readers. This is so important for them to see the purpose and fun in reading! 

Here is another visual for those questions: 

The types of books that your reader is reading is also important in genre,level and purpose.

Each student should:

• Read a variety of fiction, non-fiction (newspapers, biographies, books),  and poems

       

• Fun books that are geared towards what they are geared towards!! If your kiddo loves video games, find books about video games and help him read it!
• Then we've got leveled readers-these are books that will turn your beginning reader into a fluent reader aka-a kid that can read by themselves!!  
• Most books have been reviewed and given a level that coincides with reading standards. Each of your students have a current reading level in their folder that can help you to find the right books. This can be tricky sometimes. 
• There are several different types of levels. At FCA we use the DRA level. Here is a converter site where you can get the lexile level for your student and then convert it to the DRA level using the chart below. For the site there are two ways to find books for your reader. You can look them up by your student's level or at the top right you can type in a book and it will give you the level in a colored circle and then you can use the chart to see if it matches your student's level. 
• https://lexile.com/fab/ 
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Here is a great site about chapter books for beginning readers: 

http://imaginationsoup.net/2015/03/10-engaging-beginning-chapter-books/

I would also recommend these two collections (you can buy the books individually): 

http://www.amazon.com/Billie-Brown-Complete-Collection-Books/dp/B00TONWIHW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426540025&sr=8-2&keywords=billie+b+brown+collection

http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Jack-Complete-Collection-12/dp/B00TOO1EEE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1426540025&sr=8-3&keywords=billie+b+brown+collection

Here are two games that we have currently been playing that the kids LOVE!

I know that this all seems overwhelming but I have had a lot of questions and knowing the right book for your student will help you and them for several more years but please let me know any questions that you may have!!

Dr. Seuss Week

Ms. Claudia is a retired Kindergarten teacher (and Ms. Lauren's mother-in-law:) who loves to dress up! She came to our classroom as the Cat in the Hat and read us The Cat in the Hat Comes Back! She also put on these adorable cat noses and whiskers that the kiddos loved!! (Lauren has a much better camera and photography skills:)




I am NOT Going to Get Up Today-Pajama Day

Cat in the Hat Day

Fox on Socks-Crazy Socks day

The kids loved reading the Dr. Seuss books independently. They searched through the books to find sight words!

Wacky Wednesday-wacky clothes day (we also worked on the -ing chunk that day so some kiddos have on King on -ing crowns)

We read The Lorax and worked in small groups to record and illustrate and then explain to us the elements of the story. They did great working together!

Favorite Career Day!

Ella lost her first tooth among all the fun!! 

Favorite Dr. Seuss character day! 

Micah's mom made us these REALLY cool Lorax cupcakes to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday!

On Friday, we read Green Eggs and Ham and then tasted it. (Pudding and a vanilla wafer) There were mixed emotions :)

 Then we created our very own class book titled, "We don't like green eggs and ham but we do like..." We used magazine pictures to find something we do like to eat and then made up our own words just like Dr. Seuss did to rhyme with it! We then got to read it together as a class.

 It was a great week!