Reading Update

This week we followed a farm theme in our reading lessons! Our whole group story was a fantasy, called "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type." The children are practicing the comprehension strategy of visualization. We know that good readers create mental images of what they are reading. It helps us to better understand if we can see what we are reading about in our minds. Also with this story, the children deepened their understanding of cause and effect. There were tons of examples of this! In the story, the cows find a typewriter, and type a note demanding an electric blanket from Farmer Brown to keep them warm. When the farmer says no, they go on strike. No milk! Through reading this story, the children are able to see that when one thing happens, it causes something else to happen, and so on. Our vocabulary words this week were: demand, emergency, furious, impatient, sincerely, and snoop.

We also practiced using the computer to find synonyms for our vocabulary words. When I asked the children where we should search for these words, they suggested Pinterest! They are so funny! We went to webster.com and clicked on the "thesaurus" tab. The kids got a huge kick out of the juicy words they found that we could use in place of our vocabulary words! Instead of "demand" we found request or require. In place of "emergency" we found crisis or predicament. In place of "impatient" we could use anxious or restless. The online dictionary/thesaurus is such an easy resource to use- and it makes our vocabulary so much more colorful and interesting! Make sure to use it as a resource at home, too!