Reading
At EES, we work with each kindergartner to develop positive reading skills for life. We want our students to love reading and learning. To do this, we utilize small group instruction and individualized instruction when needed to help students develop and excel at their own pace. Students will bring home reading homework approximately 2-4 times per week, and when they bring books home they are encouraged to read them to family members several times to practice their skills. We work to find strategies to help students learn and excel when reading any type of text. Some of our favorite reading strategies include the Reading Buddies: Stretchy Snake, Chunky Monkey, Lips the Fish, Tryin' Lion, Skippy Frog, Eagle Eye, and Flippy Dolphin to help us decode unfamiliar words. We also cover 122 beginning sight words during the kindergarten year.
During our Literacy Block (Reading & Writing), we utilize our NEW Benchmark Advance resource. Benchmark Advance utilizes the workshop model to ensure ample time for explicit modeling, guided practice, and daily application of skills. This resource helps build knowledge and language through 10 three-week units focusing on a science, social studies, and/or literary topic. These units spiral, and students will build knowledge and skills across grade levels. Students will build a strong literacy foundation through explicit modeling, guided practice, and daily application of skills.
Click here for more information on Benchmark Advance.
Links to Promote Literacy:
Bookflix.com is a website that you can access from home through our school license agreement. It is a great site to help our young students begin to develop and enhance their reading skills. There are hundreds of books to choose from in both fiction and nonfiction topics. Please contact me for login information for this site.
Vooks.com is an animated storybook collection where books come alive! There are hundreds of books to choose from, and the book selections are updated frequently. There is a monthly and/or yearly fee.
Starfall.com is a free website that has both reading and math activities for your kindergartner to use. It is a fun site for kids as they begin to use the computer, and it has opportunities for them to read and listen to stories, and interact with different learning activities.
ABCya.com is another fun website for kids that has lots of reading and math activities. It is free for you to use, but it does have some advertisements that may pop up on occasion.