Blossoms of Blue

Have you heard of the Global Read Aloud? I just heard about it, and it sounds like such a wonderful activity to do with your class. Starting October 5th, you begin reading a book with your students over a six week period. Other classes around the world are reading the same book, and then you can connect with them and discuss the book. You can make as many connections as you want, and put as much or as little time into it as you want.

I think this project would have so many positive benefits in a classroom. It will help your students continue to gain a love of reading, and also connect with other classes around the world. I think it would be great to just choose 1 class to connect with, and then continue connecting throughout the year. You can discuss the book, but you can also learn a lot about other cultures, the way other schools are run, and the thoughts and beliefs of other people from different places.

Here is a class in Madison, Wisconsin connecting with other students.

What a great activity! There are a few different books to choose from, so you really could do this for any grade you teach. There is also a Pinterest page that has some ideas for lessons and activities to go along with the books here. 

If you want to join in and be a part of the Global Read Aloud 2015, click here.

As summer break gets closer and closer, teachers often worry about the dreaded "summer slide." If you haven't heard of the summer slide, it not a water slide or a park slide. When students get off for summer break, a lot of the time they think it is a break from learning and anything school related. They end up making no gains in learning over the summer, and even falling backwards and losing some of the skills they had gained.

As a teacher, you can't follow your students home and make sure they are reading and learning. It is up to the parents to make sure this happens. But you can give the parents some tips to help them along.

Here are some ideas for you to give to parents.

Visit your local library

Many libraries have summer reading programs for kids. Some also have story time and other activities that can be a lot of fun.

Read aloud with your kids

Reading aloud to your kids has different benefits. It helps them hear how reading should sound; it brings you closer together; it helps them see your love of reading. You can even use props and silly voices to make it more exciting.

Send home a summer packet

There are a lot of different packets available for purchase, or you could make your own. I have one for sale that has a variety of different types of activities to keep kids active and learning. You can click the image below to check it out.




Do activities that go along with books

Encourage parents to do fun summer activities and read books about what they are doing. If they go to a baseball game, they could read a book about baseball. If they go to the zoo, read some animal books. There are books on every subject you can imagine.

Set goals and celebrate

Parents and their children can set goals about what they need to work on. They could also set time goals, like working every day for a certain amount of time. If they meet their goals, celebrate! They could go out for pizza or ice cream, get a special prize, or any other type of celebration.


These are just a few ideas that can help you and the parents of your class stop the summer slide. Hopefully some of them will be helpful and your students can have a fun, engaging summer.

When I was teaching, we started a program called Reading Horizons. This program helps students learn to decode words. As they do this, they prove that they are reading, spelling and pronouncing the word correctly.

Ideally, you would start in kindergarten, but I taught my second graders these skills, and it really helped a lot of them become better readers. For younger students, the program starts with teaching the 42 sounds of the alphabet. Then you move on to 5 phonetic skills, and 2 decoding skills. Here's an example of what students will be able to do:
I know it probably doesn't make any sense to you now, but each marking helps in telling you how to decode the words.

These are the 5 phonetic skills that go along with the words above:

• Phonetic Skill #1: When one guardian consonant — and nothing more — follows the vowel, the vowel will be short.
• Phonetic Skill #2: When the vowel is followed by two guardian consonants and nothing more, the vowel will be short.
• Phonetic Skill #3: When a vowel stands alone, it will be long.
• Phonetic Skill #4: Silent E makes the first vowel long.
• Phonetic Skill #5: When vowels are adjacent, the second vowel is silent, and the first vowel is long.

I started thinking about my students and how to increase their enthusiasm for reading. Some kids are already excited about reading, but many kids don't find it enjoyable. Here are some ideas to help get your students excited about reading:


1. BOOK GROUPS: What second grader doesn't love hanging out with their teacher? Think about starting a book group with your class. Assign a book each month and have 4-5 copies available for check out. On the last Friday of the month, anyone who has read the book can eat lunch in the classroom while you ask questions and discuss the book together. Your students will LOVE the extra time they get to spend with you.