I have about ten things started and it's hard to know which to finish.. but I do best when I just go with what I am inspired by in the moment, so here's what I've been working on this week!
I have wanted to create a simpler version of close reading for a long time. I have made a few and used them with my class and they really loved them. I have been doing lots of reading and research and finally got the ball rolling to make quite a few of these. Essentially they are little kid friendly "articles". They are very age appropriate, great for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and some first graders. They are especially written for pre-readers, but are also perfect for little ones with emerging reading skills.
I am crafting these articles to share facts, introduce vocabulary, and answer questions, providing authentic print awareness experiences. Print awareness is the understanding that print on a page has meaning and is related to the spoken word. Young children are not wired to naturally understand that
print on a page has meaning and that all of those funny looking symbols on a page actually mean something!
Gaining familiarity with the printed word and the different ways it can look requires many different interactions to feel comfortable with it and understand that print is helpful to us in so many ways. Print awareness focuses on how text is used rather than how to read it. Research tells us that children who have a greater understanding of print awareness will be more deeply skilled at comprehension, thus more successful at reading later on. I think my little learners will LOVE having their very own “news” to learn about, share at home, and report on! I would use the resources for a one day mini lesson, over several days, or to integrate and enrich thematic learning.
Multiple ELA, writing, speaking/listening, and science standards are addressed, but these resources are really intended to enhance learning skills by providing an easy, accessible way to integrate print experiences into themes and scaffold print rich activities for students to naturally and easily become aware of print!
If you have used my Close Reading resources I bet you'll really like these!
They come with:
Full page article (color, newsprint, b&w)
Half page article (color, b&w)
Quarter page article (color. b&w)
The small sizes are great because they save paper and ink and are great for take home copies
and ELA or Science notebooks!
There are 3 different reporting/writing prompts, open ended and also come in color and b/w.
There are also Anchor Chart elements for creating a class chart to discuss the article, and
vocabulary cards to teach about the media sources used for non fiction.
I have plans for many more of these, so check back soon! (The picture below is a link)!
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