Reader's Workshop by Karissa

Bridges to Kindergarten, my summer school class, has finished week one of three!  We are already on the road to a seamless transition from pre-kindergarten to Kindergarten. 

In our summer class we are introducing key components of the Kindergarten curriculum in small ways.  Monday and Wednesday are devoted to Reader’s Workshop.  This week we discussed how we care for our books and what good readers do.  My coordinating teacher presented a mini lesson on book care.  She encouraged students to notice what her body looks like, sounds like and feels like when she is reading a book.  They also discussed where the books are stored in our classroom and why.  I love watching four and five year olds really take on responsibility of themselves and our classroom materials.  On Wednesday I posted a question to our class: “What do good readers do?”   Our list was plentiful.

            Good readers:
    read because they like to
                        read because they want to learn something
                        read because they like books
                        read when they want to rest
                        read when they want to laugh
                        read because they wrote it
                        read because their mom and dad do
                        read because there are boxes of books
                        read because there are Sponge Bob books

Each student spent 15 minutes reading.  They are allowed to read as many books as they would like as many times as they would like but they “keep reading until we stop!”  It is fun to watch some students get a slow start, but then not want to put their books away!   After our free reading time students are invited to share their favorite book with the class.  This non-threatening sharing opportunity helps students become comfortable with sharing their work with others – an important social and academic skill.

Writer’s Workshop is another key component to our district’s kindergarten curriculum.  Look for more information about Writer’s Workshop in my next post. 

Comments

[J.M. Holland]

Great transitional activity for pre-k students headed to K. Thanks for sharing Karissa.

[clitoral orgasm]

Is not normal to find good stuff in the Internet but I read your article and is really good thanks for give me something to read.