More Growing Readers

I typed this post out and clicked something strange and lost 3/4 of it…grrrr…

Here we go again…
I was rereading Growing Readers (clearly the best book ever written for first grade teachers) by Kathy Collins and I thought I’d share my thoughts (not that you asked) about reading preferences in first grade. If you’ve taught longer than 5 minutes you’ve met the teacher pleaser kid. The kid that will deny how she (it’s usually a she)  really feels about something just so they can make you think they are more precious then everyone else.

It always goes down something like this in my room:

Me: We’ve been talking about all different kinds of books. Would it ever be OK for you to not like a book?
Kiddos: Nnnnooooo (a few tentative yesses)
Teacher Pleaser kid: You should always like every book because reading is fun!

In order to create a culture of diverse reading interests in a first grade classroom, I think we may need to actually directly teach the fact that it is OK (and even important) to all have different reading interests.

To drive this home for the kids, I tell them that I do not- under any circumstances- like reading books about dinosaurs. I tell them I will not do read alouds about dinosaurs (unless someone begs) and we won’t read many non-fiction books about them either. I don’t like dinosaurs. I think their names are hard to pronounce, I think they are scary looking, I don’t ever care to read a book about dinosaurs. Now, I know that most six year olds enjoy dinosaurs, so I have a dinosaur tub full of books just waiting to be read by first graders because they will not be read by me. Ever.

After this discussion (which is slightly controversial to the kids who think that teachers love every book ever printed) the kids turn and talk to their neighbor about different reading interests they have. Then we do the following activity.
The kids get a piece of manila paper and fold it into fourths (This is a lesson in itself considering it’s the first week of school!
Unfold the paper and trace over the fold lines so you have four equal parts.
I give each kiddo a strip that says: Who am I as a reader? I just cut the questions apart into strips.

Click here for download.

Then, the kids glue that strip to the middle of the page and then draw and label one thing (in each section) they enjoy reading about. It may say: space, dinosaurs, Junie B. Jones, etc. I promise when we're back in school, my projects will have pictures of the kids's work for you visual learners out there!

We share these with each other and discuss how fun it’s going to be getting to know each other as readers. This is a cute bulletin board display, too. This activity helps kiddos recognize that they are readers and we are going to work together to discover their reading likes, dislikes, and passions!

Back to School Fave!

Hi all! Jodi at Fun in First is having a linky party where bloggers link up to share ideas. This one has teachers sharing their favorite back-to-school activities! I've already found a ton of new ideas to use this year in my room! I'd like to join the fun since I've learned so much!

Here's an activity I've used for the last several years:

First, I give the kids this printable, and they have to pick just one color to color with.

Really watch- there's always one or two that don't "hear" that part... Then I have them draw a picture on the side that says "one color." I model this since it's the first day of school! I usually draw a picture of a house with a sun, cloud, etc. Remember to only use one color. I usually ham it up and say, "Wow, my picture is so boring...I wish I could use more than one color."

Then, I have the kiddos come to the carpet and I read The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf.

This book is so presh! This little girl is in a toystore and she overhears a box of crayons fighting with each other about how each one is better than the other. She takes it home to color with them all to show them that they are all needed to make the pictures beautiful! (Plus, it rhymes and it's darling...)

After we read the book and discuss the author's message, I have them go back to their papers and then they get to draw a picture using however many colors they want. We come to the carpet and share our pictures. We agree that the pictures look better when we can use many colors.

Then we talk about how our classroom is like a box of crayons. All of us are different- different colors, ages, talents, etc., but we will all work together to have a super year in first grade!

The last thing I do is put all the pictures into a class book.

Click here for the cover!

What is your favorite back to school activity?

Growing Readers

I've been blogging for about five minutes, and I've never tried to link to a printable before. Let's see if this works!

Growing Readers by Kathy Collins may just be my favorite professional book ever written. Most reading books are written for elementary teachers, but this one is written from a purely first grade perspective. Love it!

My team always does her mini-lessons during the first few weeks of school to prepare the first graders for a year full of reading fun. I made up this little activity for the kiddos to do after the mini-lesson about their favorite reading memory. The kids talk about their favorite memories with family or friends and then they get to record it. There's not much writing space because we usually do this the first week of school!

Click here for the download!