One of our daily routines is reading independently.  During this time children spread around the room and find a space by themselves where they can focus on reading quietly.  This will be especially important when I begin direct reading instruction.  We began this routine by talking about three ways to read a book- read the pictures, read the words, or retell a familiar book.  While children are not yet able to read words, they do an amazing job of using the pictures to tell themselves both familiar and unfamiliar stories (sometimes their versions are even more interesting than the actual story!)  This has been a time when the class has been completely engaged and we have been reading to ourselves for up to 15 minutes.  Several children have also expressed a great desire to learn to read words, so this week I also introduced reading bags, which will become an essential part of our independent reading routine.  Right now children have two books in their bags, Children in Mrs. Beattie's Class, and another book called I See with just three words on each page and a predictable pattern.  With these books they are able to practice reading each other's names as well as some simple sight words such as "I" and "see".