We have been reading and reading the last couple of months and I am amazed at the progress.  As children are moving from relying mostly on pictures and predictable patterns to actually reading words we have talked about strategies for reading the words accurately.  One strategy we have been practicing is pointing to the words as we read, making sure that what we say matches what is printed.  Another strategy we have worked on is getting our mouth ready with the beginning sound of a word.  For example, if the picture is showing a bunny, but our mouth is ready with the sound for r, we know the word must actually be rabbit.  Finally, we are continuing to work on learning sight words, which can make a huge difference in reading accuracy and fluency.

For several weeks before the vacation we worked on a project in the computer lab with our nature names.  The children all wrote, typed, and illustrated a small report on their nature name animals.  This project is nearly complete and this week we began paper mache projects to accompany to go with the reports.  A little messy, but very fun, and a great way to spend our recess time during Tuesday's rain!