102 FINAL Scholastic Orders + BSI Library FINAL day!

By , 03/14/2017

Dear 102 Families,

I will be placing the FINAL class Scholastic book order on Thursday, June 15. Please submit all book orders online by then. Our class code is: H882F

https://clubs.scholastic.com/

Below are some perfect 1st and 2nd grade (developmentally appropriate) series books that I highly recommend, for summer reading. I also cannot stress enough the importance of fostering and nurturing a reading life OUTSIDE of school. When I have been conferring with students the last few weeks, the first questions I ask students have been “Talk to me about your reading life outside of school…do you read daily? How do you feel about reading? Where is your favorite spot to read? Do you have favorite characters or a series that you love? Why do you love it? What are you working on as a reader? Sometimes…the responses I’ve been getting from students have been “I don’t have time to read” and this saddens me. Please, please, please continue to nurture your child’s love of reading, love of books, love of curiosity and exploration with books and book stores and libraries etc. Reading is not a race either…if your child is zooming through books without self-awareness, monitoring for meaning and stopping to notice, think, wonder and talk about what’s happening and why in books then you need to have a conversation about the purpose of reading for pleasure with your child. You need to make reading a ritual in your household and also model, for your child what it means to be a reader. The reading race is to nowhere and fostering a lifelong love of reading with quality books is pivotal. Your child’s goal may be very different than his/her friends…some children may be working on decoding and building strategies to figure out word sounds and meanings by using context clues. They may be working on reading smoothly with fluency and intonation, while another reader might be working on deepening comprehension strategies by stopping to notice and think more, ask more questions, slow down to self-talk and think aloud more. I recommend that your child practice forming these highly metacognitive complex thinking strategies in easy books, so that he/she could easily transfer complex thinking into more complex texts later on. The books below will support readers’ developmental growth. I, especially, love the theme in these books grounded around FRIENDSHIPS (the relationships and issues around friendships, the diverse traits of characters and how they resolve their conflicts and problems by helping each other, social-emotional)

Fly Guy
Biscuit
Fancy Nancy
Junie B. Jones
Judy Moody
Katie Kazoo
Pinky and Rex
Iris and Walter
Henry and Mudge
Frog and Toad
Commander Toad
Flat Stanley
Nate the Great
Ivy and Bean
Amber Brown
A to Z Mysteries
Magic Tree House
Mr. Putter and Tabby
Little Bear
Fox and Friends/Fox on Wheels
George and Martha
My Weird School series
Stink
Cam Jansen
Mercy Watson
Poppleton
Amelia Bedelia
Heidi Heckelbeck
Horrible Harry
Ready Freddy
Zelda and Ivy
Andy Shane
Ramona
Bink and Gollie

You can find these series books along with some other genres such as nonfiction in the Scholastic magazines that were already sent home. Class code: H882F Deadline to submit online orders: June 15 Happy shopping, reading, vocabulary building, brain-shaping!

Great resources to check out:

http://www.readingrockets.org/ (find author interview videos here, too!)

http://www.storylineonline.net/ (listen to stories online)

http://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

For parents, on the importance of reading:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/importance-reading-widely

https://www.pearson.com/uk/learners/primary-parents/learn-at-home/help-your-child-to-enjoy-reading/why-is-reading-so-important.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adriana-george-sifakis/reasons-why-reading-with-_b_6113840.html

What are some questions I can ask my child to engage in a book talk with him/her? (tune in to the next blog post to grow your level of questioning in your parent reading tool box)