Reading Update

The common theme to our literacy activities this week was animal rescues. Our whole group story was called, “A Harbor Seal Pup Grows Up.” It was about a young seal that is unintentionally abandoned by its mother as she waits on the beach for her to return with her food. She is rescued, helped, and released back into the ocean. New vocabulary words from this selection include: examines,hunger, mammal, normal, rescued, and young. The comprehension strategy we focused on this week was summarizing. We did this by sequencing the key events into 3 parts: the beginning, middle, and end. This is a simple way to do a comprehension check with your child once they've finished reading a book at home, too! We made sure to include sequencing words that included: FIRST, NEXT, THEN, and LAST as we practiced this skill. The children also met in their small guided reading groups. Each group read about another animal who was endangered. Bald eagles, tigers, and whales also need our help! After each group read their book, we looked up a video of these animals on You Tube to see a short video segment of these actual animals, their actions, and characteristics we were just reading about. Its important to connect the books we are reading to the ourselves, the world, or to additional texts in order to deepen our understanding. The kids were excited to see a few minutes of a whale jumping out of the water, and a couple of tiger cubs playing!