Welcome!!

Welcome to the Grade 1/2 Busy Bee classroom blog!! We are so excited you have joined us in our learning journey! Mrs. Herbert is super excited about all the wonderful learners buzzing in our classroom! You are welcome to comment and join in our learning conversations and share our blog with family and friends! We can't wait to share what we are doing in our class with everyone! Here we go!!

Reading

Reading

CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION!! Please check back for updated information soon!

Our Busy Bees participate in many different kinds of reading: independent reading; shared reading; guided reading; and read aloud activities. During each of our reading tasks your child will be focusing on their foundation skills of reading through various activities including, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, orthographic mapping, word knowledge, word solving (decoding) strategies and comprehension strategies. These are guided through the Ministry of Education's Language Curriculum and backed by the Science of Reading. Having the foundations of reading and writing in place is essential in early learners. We have many programs in place to meet each child's needs in reading, specifically, and look forward to supporting your child in finding all the success possible to reach their true potential in our class! 

The following is some information pertaining specifically to the components of our reading program.  

Our Grade 1/2 Word Solving Strategies:
Students will be specifically taught different skills in order to decode words using their letter/sound knowledge. In the early primary years, this takes some time to become fluent and apply these skills with ease. 

Comprehension Strategies:
As students are able to focus less on decoding words, they are able to spend more time focusing on reading for a purpose and understanding. Throughout the elementary school years, we develop these skills for students in various ways. 




 Supporting your child's reading ability is important. We do daily reading at school but reading at home is essential to skill development.
 readingmatters 

One of the most important things we can do to support our children’s success is to read every day. Research tells us that students’ daily reading practice of 20 minutes will continue to strengthen skills in all domains. Have your child read to you; read with your child; and/or read to your child. Nagy & Herman have submitted that reading for 20 minutes every day will expose students to over a million words a year, and those students usually test in the 90th percentile. Students who only read 5 minutes a day are exposed to less than 300,000 words per year, and typically score in the 50th percentile. Reading for 1 minute means exposure to only 8,000 words and test scores are only in the 10th percentile. When it comes to reading, every minute with your child counts!

In “How to Instill the Love of Reading”, LeVar Burton says as educators, we strive to promote literacy in all students, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to reach one’s full potential without being able to read. Literacy is the pathway to lifelong learning and is essential to being educated individuals. You can help to inspire your kids to continue these practices at home with these helpful tips:

  • Meet students in their comfort zone: TV, video games, music, & movies are all mediums that can kick start imagination. Talk to kids about what they like and expand on those concepts, characters, and activities.
  • Surround kids with good books: the more books that are available, the more enticing it can be for a child to find a new story; to choose for themselves what they learn next.
  • Read books aloud: a “low-pressure and foolproof” way to spend time with your kids
  • Show kids how much you love reading: parents & teachers know that modeling is among the most effective modes of teacher. Creating passion in yourself will promote passion within a child. 

(Read the whole article by Mr. Burton at www.edutopia.org/blog/instill-the-love-of-reading-levar-burton)

Other Activities for Reading
Students can do more at home then just picking up a book to read. Students c
  • Making Words - there are 
  • Raz-Kids - Each student is encouraged to read at home every night. Kids have the option of bringing home classroom books and/or reading on the computer using Raz-Kids. They have a specific log in with reading assignments just for them. Students can listen to reading or read to themselves/someone. 
  • ABCya
  • Starfall
  • Teach Your Monster to Read

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