home poem

As we transitioned back to school this week we engaged in conversation about the importance of rereading. Why do readers reread? Many children shared that you get stronger and learn more and more words. Sebby explained that sometimes our reading is crumbly, but rereading helps to make it less crumbly. Rereading is important, because it helps make our reading more smooth and it supports our growth as readers.

As part of this work I introduced a new poem for us to reread independently and as a community. There are familiar sight words in the poem and new and challenging words. Words that encourage students to use different strategies; sound power or picture power. Words that rhyme. Words with blends and digraphs. Words that invite exploration.

Our new poem connects to our work with homes from November and provides a connection to the work we will do in our outdoor classroom and science journals around animal habitats and homes this winter.

On Thursday I introduced the poem Home during our morning meeting. The children used their picture power to represent 4 of the creatures living in a log home; bug, slug, chipmunk, bee. Their pictures will provide them with the visual they need to read the poem independently. They worked on a first draft during morning meeting and a final draft during reading workshop. They added a colorful nature sticker and circled the common sight words in our poem.

On Friday we practiced rereading our poem again, supporting the children's fluency and knowledge of new and challenging words. They worked together on the rug to carefully cut around a drawing of a hidden home inside a fallen tree and glued it to their final draft.

We will continue to reread and explore our Home poem. Their first drafts now live in their nature journals and their final drafts live in their personal libraries for them to access at anytime in our day!