We had another celebration of reading this Wednesday! The Reader's Workshop party was slated for Monday, but with so many friends absent, we wanted to postpone until more kids were here. Reading should be connected to excitement and enjoyment. This is perhaps THE biggest reading skill we build in Kindergarten. Emergent reader's must have motivation and desire.

Why do we read? we read to learn information, gain new meaning, relax...the reasons are different for everyone. During the emergent reading years, teachers and parents should make a consistent effort to foster interests and provide encouragement as your budding reader takes new challenges. There are several great questions you can ask after reading something. We use these same questions in here to retain knowledge and test for true comprehension.

What happened at the beginning/middle/end?

Who was your favorite character?

What was the setting?

Was there a problem that got solved?

When we think about reading, we think of it as a solitary activity, which is such a cherished time. There is nothing better than an avid reader to sit down with an incredible book, and get lost with many new character "friends" and lose track of the real- world. That is completely correct. But....when you are an emergent reader, learning to read with your friends in tow - and doing it together can be equally as powerful. We do this  a lot. We buddy read, we have group shared- read alouds at carpet, and this week we built more word families as a group, working with letter vests. We have not done this in a while and we had all forgotten how powerful it is. Here, the kids  actually BECOME the letters and build these words with movement, and we help each other.  We are reading kinesthetically. Very. Exciting. Stuff.