Spreading the love of reading is my main focus at this age. Getting children to love to read begins with getting their hands on books that they are interested in, are able to read and are able to access. I remind my students that there are many different ways to read a book.
Ways to Read a Book
1. Read the words.
2. Look at the pictures.
3. Look at the pictures and make up your own story.
With that being said, I took on a big project this fall: organizing the classroom library! One of my students came to me in tears back in September because he could not find a Curious George book that he knew we had in the room. I sat in our library with him for a long time, searching for this book. We never found it. Reflecting on this disappointing kindergarten moment, I decided to take on the project of organizing the library to give students the freedom to find books that they are interested in. I am thankful for my sisters and my mom, who came after school one day and helped me with this big project! Five hours, one pizza and about 2,000 books later we called it a night. Thanks to Teachers Pay Teachers I was able to find some adorable book bin tags that were relevant to the books in my library.
For the “grand re-opening” of our library, I gave the students a tour of our new classroom library and we had quiet reading time in place of nap time that day. Now when the students want to read a book, they grab their shelf marker and browse. When they find one they like, they stick their shelf marker in that basket so they remember where to put it when they are done. Of course this system is not completely flawless, but we are hoping for the best! They love their shelf markers because they have their face on them and they cherish it like a library card. A few days later during free choice time, I noticed a student sitting in the library area, holding a book like he was reading to others. He was making up words to go along with the pictures. At this moment I felt overcome with a feeling of pride for my kids and happiness for myself. I realized that I had in fact spread my love of reading to them.
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| Comfortable reading in the kitchen together. |
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| 8:00 at night and we are done sorting! Next comes the labels. |
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| Reading around the room. |
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| The labels and a shelf marker. |
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| Sharing a class favorite. |
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| Another popular basket after our Farm Unit! |
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| The girls in the room were thrilled to find out there were this many fairy tale books! |
Thanks for stopping by my blog and telling me about your awesome library! Mine has a lonnng way to go, but your pics are very motivating! I will get there someday:)
Kelly
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"Kindergarten Kel