Reading is an important part of our first grade curriculum. The more children read, the better readers they become. In 1D we do several activities to help your child become better readers and to learn to love to read.

Reading Word Lists - Your child will be given a reading word list for each reader in our reading series and will be counted as part of their effort grade. It is important that your child learn the vocabulary words for each new story before the story is introduced in class. A red line will be drawn as a stopping point and a sticker will be placed by each list mastered to help you know which word lists still need to be studied. The vocabualry words build as each new story is introduced with previous vocabulary reinforced in new stories. Children that do not keep up with their reading vocabulary are at a disadvantage with their classmates and easily fall behind. After the entire word list has been mastered it will be to your child's advantage to review it once a week.

Lap Reading - Lap reading is a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to snuggle up with a good book. Each month your child will be given a lap reading log to record the books they read to you and the number of minutes spent reading. The logs are returned at the end of each month with the total minutes added up. Every time your child reads a total of 1,000 minutes they will receive a free book from me. In the past our class has averaged 5,000 lap reading minutes a month and I give away at least 4 books per month. Children that participate in the lap reading program are some of the best readers in our class. Remember, the more children read, the better readers they become. The biggest reward of lap reading is enjoying a good book with your child and watching them grow as readers. To help your child decode unknown vocabulary words use these easy vowel rules.

Easy vowel rules to remember:
1. First try the short sound for the vowel.
2. Then try the long sound.
3. An "e" at the end of the word will make a vowel say its name (take).
4. When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking (goat).
5. One vowel in the middle of a word will usually be short (cat).
6. One vowel at the end of a word will usually be long (me).
7. Sometimes "y" tries to be a vowel and it either says "e" or "i" (baby and fly).
8. If you have tried all of the above rules try sounding out only the consonants (mother would be mthr).

Sight Word Poems-The poems will be sent home as a homework assignment. Your child should not memorize the poem but learn how to read it fluently.

Sight Word Readers - Sight word readers will be sent home as a homework assignment. Fifty to seventy-five percent of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Basic Sight Word Vocabulary of 220 words. Sight words are just what the name implies. They are words that you must learn to say when you see it. Some of them follow the phonics rules, some of them don't. Sight words are those words that you must see 35 to 45 times before it is stored in long term memory. After your child has read the sight word reader to you please sign it and send it back to school with your child the next day. It will then be returned to your child as part of their sight word reader collection at home. For troublesome sight words use them as "passwords" to enter the house or a room. Sight word readers will count as part of your child's effort grade. Remember, the more children read, the better readers they become.

Scholastic Book Orders - Once a month your child will be given the opportuntiy to order from the Scholastic See Saw Book Club. This is a good way to increase home libraries at a reduced cost. Every time we order from Scholastic we earn books for our classroom and for the lap reading rewards.

Library - Once a week your child will visit the Leu Elementary library to check out books. Library books should be returned by the next week in order to check out again and to avoid library fines. Please help your child get in the habit of putting library books in their bookbags after they have finished reading them. Children will be given other opportunities to visit the library after books have been returned.

We often make classroom published books in 1D. These will be available for check out through our classroom library. They should be returned promptly the next day.