Summer vacation

Forced relaxation.

It’s summer vacation! Summer is a time to rest, relax and rejuvenate. For me summertime means spending time at home with my daughter and husband. I love reading books, swimming in the pool and crafting. This summer is a little different. I’m recovering from foot surgery so I’m experiencing what I call “forced relaxation.” I’m in a cast and have to keep my foot up so my normal summer activities are limited. I’m not complaining but you can only sit around for so long before you are tired of sitting. In a week and a half, I’ve read four books, watched two full seasons of shows and even crafted a bit but I finally needed a break from relaxing. Typically, I wait till the end of July or the beginning of August before I start getting organized for school, but this year I started before the end of June. My brain just needed to work. I’ve been creating materials, re-vamping forms, planning new lessons and creating lists of more things I can do for school.

Anchor chart for how to read a book.

Every year I struggle with book time. We have a story time so my students can listen to a story read by an adult but when it comes to looking at books by themselves they’re lost. Many of my students come to preschool with little book experience. They don’t know how to handle books or look at books without an adult reading or directing the activity. I know this isn’t a skill they should necessarily come to school with, but it’s a skill I can teach. This year I have a plan for teaching what to do at book time. I was reading a post on Love Those Kinders about the five R’s of summer. She featured a picture of her book area and the light bulb went on for me. I need an anchor chart and some mini lessons to present around how to read a book. I can cover these lessons over the first two weeks of school so the children can quickly learn what’s expected at book time. I searched trying to find the chart in the picture with no luck, so I made my own. I also expanded upon each of the steps to include more details in a mini poster. I plan to pair the chart, the mini posters and the book How to Read a Story by Kate Messner to create my lessons on how to read and handle books. I’m hoping it improves book time in my classroom this fall. 

Mini posters for how to read a book.