Tuesday, 1 October 2013

What reading looks like

Hello everyone!

The readers in Area 24 have been growing their reading muscles and we are almost at 13 minutes a day! Here is what reading looks like in our classroom:

We have also been working on our vowel sounds, which will really help us as we begin reading and sounding out. So far, we have practised words with 'a', 'e' and 'i'.

We have done activities such as search for words in the classroom or in books (write them on a sticky and then share them with the class), circle the sound in the morning message, read short poems that highlight that vowel sound, and add words containing that sound to our personal dictionaries.

In our classroom, we have sound posters that show each sound that we will study this year with a word that uses it and an illustration.
The vowel 'a' sounds just like it's name in the French alphabet - think Tamara!

Some words that contain 'a' are:
la, papa, maman, arbre, avion, ami, chat

The vowel sound 'e' is not like our English 'e'. It almost makes the sound 'uh' - think "the". 

Some words that have it are:
le, je, veux, peux, bleu, neuf, feu, renard
(e's best friend is u - it doesn't change the sound at all)

The vowel sound 'i' is like our English 'e', sounds just like "ee". 

Some words that have it are:
il, ici, Pia, petit, souris, ami, chien

It would be great if you could review these sounds at home regularly. We add a new one every week or so, and it's important not to forget old ones! Parents have told me that they make flashcards with some of the words posted here, or you can look for these sounds in books you read, you can even just look at this post with your reader and see if they can make out some of these words and tell you what they mean.

Happy reading!
Tamara