Be There Bedtime Stories is the newest kid on the technology block, connecting families far apart by offering webcam bedtime stories - also known as Webtime Stories! I post weekly to the Storyblogger, where all storytellers can connect and share ideas on ... moreBe There Bedtime Stories is the newest kid on the technology block, connecting families far apart by offering webcam bedtime stories - also known as Webtime Stories! I post weekly to the Storyblogger, where all storytellers can connect and share ideas on bedtime stories, early literacy and the surprise lessons we learn from developing our kids' gray matter. Join the conversation!
This week I am turning my blog temporarily over to a guest blogger. Before I do, I want to remind everyone that writing is reading. The act of writing and revising requires reading and thinking. What a great way to grow your literacy! Blogging can be one way to allow kids to practice their literacy, […]
Just when you thought all the reasons to read were on the table, here come some more! The feast of reading includes acquiring grammar, vocabulary and strong writing skills. As a matter of fact, according to decades of research, we gain the majority of our vocabulary knowledge and grammar skills through the act of reading […]
Consider a reading resolution for this year! I might suggest to you to make reading nonfiction to/with your children a priority. By nonfiction here I mean an informational text that might be on a specific topic such as dinosaurs, pets, Mexico (the list is endless). Chances are teachers in your child’s school have shifted to […]
Anyone get a fluency reading score coming home from school for their school-age child recently? You may have recently received a report that gives a single number which represents the number of words your child read in one minute. Anyone wondering why we are timing our students to see how many words they can read […]
I was recently co-teaching in a middle school classroom where the teacher reminded his students that looking at pictures is not a bad thing. I thought it very insightful of him to anticipate that his students might feel this way. They may think that lingering over pictures is babyish or considered “cheating” because it is […]
Have you ever said anything remotely like this, “If you continue to do —–, then you will have to go read in your room.” As a classroom teacher who wants to make learning an enjoyable experience, I pledged long ago to never put the words “have to” in front of “reading” or “writing”. Don’t create […]
Ahhh, summer vacation is here and my good friend and neighbor suggested something brilliantly simple (which are my favorite kind of brilliant ideas). She is reading every morning during summer break with her daughter for 30 minutes. They each read what they like but they do it together. She calls it a reading club. She […]
Reading and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly. They complement each other and make the other stronger. Teachers who use best practice in their classrooms know this and incorporate writing daily with their reading instruction. Consider yourself. When you read something and put it down it is often the end of it. If […]
That is an engaging question that I am going to start using more in my classroom instruction. Brilliantly simple and so powerful! I recently read a blog posted on the importance of this question to preclude ‘What are you wondering?’ because naturally we have to notice something before we may wonder about it. The minute […]
1. Have Repetition and Be Predictable: Do you remember how smart you felt, as a kid, when you figured out what was going to happen next in a story? With toddlers, it’s important to include books that contain repetitions, as they mature, add predictable and rhyming books. Read stories again and again. Your toddler enjoys repetition and it helps […]
