THIS IS HOW YOU TEACH YOUR ANIMAL STUFFIE HOW TO READ

Greetings to All

It  started because I have a Mouse friend who really likes books.  He is always getting me to find him "Just Right Books".  This  mouse is enthusiastic about reading. He has all his forest friends joining him for story hours, book clubs and book exchanges.  It is really quite unusual! 

I guess I was getting quite used to my reading mouse, because when he told me that his friends would enjoy getting more one-on- one time with Little Children, it seemed to make sense to me.  

He was of the opinion that Little Children are very good with animals and have the knowledge and kindness needed to help all types of animals to make progress in their reading skills. He also reminded me that Little Children have a good sense of humour and can make reading fun. 

As you may recall, Jayden and Ethan have a welcoming teacher who doesn't seem to mind animals (stuffies) in her classroom. She decided that because it was almost the holidays, the kids could read and teach the animals-as long as it didn't take up too much time!  

That was all I needed to get myself into to gear and match 24 animals with a "Just Right Winter Holiday Book", put both into a nice new zip-lock bag.  I arrived on the last day before the winter break with a book and an animal for each student.


  All I said to the class was that the animals wanted their help to learn to read and to hear some fine winter holiday stories.  I wasn't sure how interested the class would be in this request...I thought if they gave it a go for ten minutes I would be really impressed. Everyone knows, Grade Twos don't have that long of an attention span and they are really just learning to read themselves, so who knows if this is a good idea?  But I had promised my Mouse I would give it a go.



Well I learned that Grade Twos have a very long attention span, they know a lot about reading and they are the best darned teachers I ever met! (And I have met a lot of teachers!)






This is a picture of Jayden's table forty-five  minutes into the session.  Kids have introduced themselves to their animal, given them cuddles, reassured them that they were welcome and loved. They made word lists to help focus on some key words and vocabulary, they reviewed those pesky sight words and always used a gentle encouraging voice.  All this was accomplished without a word of direction from moi! 







They thought of creative ways to engage the reader, made up a "Reader's Response" pages and  wrote follow up stories for their animal to take home with them.   






I noticed the children were able to gently, but firmly, re-direct a distracted  little seal pup. Notice how the little beaver kit is encouraged to keep "eyeballs to print ". 


I have included these pictures to provide  you with evidence  that the animals and the Grade Twos were incredibly focussed and directed.  But what the snaps don't show are the conversations that were taking place between reader and the children.  A particularly artistic illustration sparked long grand conversations that went back and forth.  The children posed interesting open ended questions, such as..."What do you think might happen next?" , or "What does this make you think about...Have you wondered about..?"


OMG! Those Grade Twos didn't even want to go out for recess...they were too busy teaching.  So much for short attention spans! 


Thank you Madame Kim for allowing your class to pass on the Legacy of Literacy to all the animals.  

Enjoy your Winter Celebrations.
Donna, aka the Book Lady, aka Grandma