Reading

My children love to read. We have more books than we have room to put them, and yet the kids still yearn for even more books. The words "Scholastic order" makes them giddy with delight.

Tucker's class is a big-time reading class. Everyone in his grade completes 3-4 chapter books per WEEK. They read for an hour during the school day and then are required to read for 30 minutes in the evening as well. They participate each week in a Reader's Workshop where they break into groups of 5 or 6 and read parts of a play together.

This year, Griffin's reading has taken off. He jumped several grade levels in reading recently and was chosen to participate in the Kindergarten's first Reader's Workshop. He and 3 of the other best readers in his class did a reading of "Beauty and the Beast". Griffin read the part of the merchant (Belle's father), and as you can tell by the pictures, had a good time doing it!

And might I interject...how adorable is it that the girls are so much taller than the boys? (FYI - I heard both these girls read at the Author's Tea and they read aloud better than me. Seriously. Anita and Megan, you girls ROCK!)


Not to say that Griffin and Miles didn't totally smoke the reading. They were on FIRE!

This just may be one of my favorites of Griffin. I love the casual-ness of the Reader's Workshop. It's this way in Tucker's class as well. The kids are invited to sit or lay wherever they are comfortable. All the classrooms have mats, bean bags, sofas and chairs for the kids to sit in while they read.

Bravo, Bird Class Readers!! (That was a tough play to read. We read through it with Griffin a few times and it had some challenging words in it!)

I am so glad that their school emphasizes the importance of just simply reading. I have so many wonderful memories of reading books as a child and I often am amazed at the little details I remember about some of my favorites. (Like the fact that Harriet from Harriet the Spy always had cake and milk when she came home from school. I read that book in 2nd or 3rd grade and still remember wanting to come home and have cake and milk because of Harriet. Of course I still want to come home and have cake and milk, but now that has nothing to do with Harriet. I just like cake. And milk.)

Signing off now to read a book to Sissy.

And maybe have some cake and milk.