Low, our pet Owlet, gave our class a reading challenge for the year. He challenged us to read 3000 books! We have accepted the challenge.
Your child will be receiving a reading log this week to start keeping track the books he or she reads.
Here are some details:
- Your child is completely in charge of the reading log. He or she will fill out all the information for each book. You do not need to do anything with the log, except, perhaps, you could encourage your child to keep it somewhere safe so it does not get lost over the course of the year. I find that a sock drawer is a good place to keep something! :)
- 3000 books sounds high, but since we have 27 students in the class, it works out to about 111 books for each child during the year. If you divide that by 10 months, it's only between 11 and 12 books a month. That is very possible.
- Once your child has read 25 books (which may take 1-3 months), he or she will bring the log back to school to show me. Once I verify that they have hit the 25 book level, they will receive an "owl" with their name on it. We will have a special place for our owls and will keep track of our progress by counting our "owls".
- The books that qualify for this challenge are picture books OR chapter books. Your child should be reading books at their approximate reading level. That means if they are reading chapter books with ease, reading a baby board book (only a few words per page) to a little cousin at a family brunch wouldn't really count as reading a book for this challenge. Conversely, if your child is having difficulty reading, please make sure that your child has appropriate books to read at home so they can feel success. Struggling through a chapter book for a month is not a positive experience. If your child needs to have "shared" reading (child reads a page and then adult reads a page, etc), that is ok, but I would like the child to do as much of the reading as possible with each book.
- All you get to do is support your child and enjoy listening to them read books! You may wish to take your child to a Public Library so they can get an armload (or basketful!) of books to read and enjoy at home.
The best way for a child to become a proficient reader is to READ! Low has set a "lofty" challenge for us, but I know that by reaching this goal the benefits for each child in the class will be enormous!
Please watch for the Reading Log to come home this week.
On another note, please go to the HOMEWORK section to read about our Spelling program. I had a few questions at Open House tonight, so I hope this makes it clear.
