I am so excited to be a member of the Wapping Elementary School Community.  I cannot wait to meet all of you!  Have a wonderful summer!  See you at the Meet and Greet on 8/31 from 8:00 - 9:00!

 Readers Workshop

During readers workshop, reading instruction takes place with the whole class, in small groups, with partners and individual students.  Development of reading strategies is the focus for this time.  Guided reading in small groups or with individual students utilizes leveled books.  During the independent reading portion of the workshop, students read Just Right Books - books they select that can be read without help.  Our classroom has a wide variety of books and poems for shared reading, posters, magazines, computer activities, and a teacher who loves reading to children and teaching them about reading!

Independant Reading Strategies

By: Jill Marie Warner

When I get stuck on a word in a book there are lots of things to do, I can do them all, please, by myself; I don't need help from you.

I can look at the picture to get a hint, or think what the story's about. I can "get my mouth ready" to say the first letter, A kind of "sounding out."

I can chop the word into smaller parts, like on and ing and ly. Or find smaller words in compound words, like raincoat and bumblebee. I can think of a word that makes sense in that place, guess or say "blank" and read on until the sentence as reached its end, then go back and try these on:

"Does it make sense?" "Can we say it that way?" "Does it look right to me?" Chances are the right word will pop out like the sun in my own mind, can't you see?

If I've thought of and tried out most of these things and I still do not know what to do, then I may turn around and ask for some help to get me through.

Do Anytime Activities

• These activities are fun to do with your child at home, and they will reinforce the skills and concepts your child is learning in school.

• Divide a deck of cards evenly between you and your child and put the cards facedown. For each turn, players flip their top card face up and decide who has the larger number. That player collects both cards. Continue playing until the deck has been used.

• Have your child create tally marks in batches of five until you say "stop." Then skip count by 5's to see how many marks were written.

• Let your child count the dollars and coins in your wallet. Together brainstorm the items that you can buy.

• Count orally by 2s, 5s, and 10s, sometimes starting at numbers other than 0.

• Have your child measure items in the house using his or her hand spans (outstretched fingers). Before measuring, estimate how many hand spans it will take to cover the object, then compare the estimate with the actual number.

• Choose a time "on the hour" and help your child set an analog clock or watch to that time.

• Have your child create and tell you number story that goes with a given number sentence, such as 4 + 2 = 6.

Reading and so much more...

Through experiences with read aloud, shared, and guided reading; your children will read grade appropriate text and use multiple intelligences to apply each of these comprehension strategies and related skills:

Predict

~Using information from text to make predictions.

~Confirm and revise predictions.

~Set purpose for reading.

Monitor

~Self-correct to preserve meaning.

~Use a variety of comprehension monitoring strategies (rereading, reading ahead, clarifying, searching and retelling).

~Self-question.

~Adjust rate according to text difficulty, purpose, and genre.

Make Connections

~Make relevant connections (personal, text, and world).

Visualize

~Create multi-sensory images to describe and extend text.

Question

~Ask and answer own literal and inferential questions before, during and after reading.