March 25

Our exciting deep dive into the Meli series was fantastic! The students were fully engaged in their learning and becoming Meli experts. Each day, they eagerly anticipated working in groups to discover new information about Meli and compare what they learned from each book with their peers.

The students continue to play with their "Roll and Read" games at home and school. There is a choice of materials and books taking place in the reading group, and the fast-paced, multifaceted nature of the reading lessons is enjoyed by the students.

They especially enjoy comparing different book genres and becoming character experts. I intend to continue this practice with the students until the end of the year.

As we wrap up our current cycle, I would like to provide more opportunities for play with various materials. The students and I have been considering using different items to enhance our learning. I am thinking of introducing Play-Doh to see how it can help improve the students' comprehension.

Another group decided to lead their learning by taking a deeper dive into learning about the post office.  We read the book The Fun Club Goes to the Post Office, and we researched how the Scarsdale Post Office operates.  The students wrote letters and mailed them home to our parents.  

Questions: What other ways can I implement play to best meet my students' needs?  

Reading is hard. How can I make it more fun for my struggling readers? 

Hi Collette, I would love to work together to think about the best ways we can incorporate play with various materials. When I think about incorporating play into reading comprehension, I think of the readers' theater that we do with our "Classic Tales". Play-Doh could be a fun way to help students' express their thoughts about their reading and guide setting and character work.  I'd love to think about additional fun ways to bolster comprehension. -Jessica  

Collette I love the tactile version of bringing comprehesion to life with play doh! Great idea! - Maddy H