Joyous Chinese Cultural School 2013

Ms. Mary Beth's Crew Fall Climbing 2013

Each of the children challenged themselves while climbing with Mr. Doug.  They were so proud and I was too!  Enjoy these photos.  Thanks again to all of you who helped belay the crew.

Reading...It's contagious

 I just love this photo...
The boys are so engaged in this animal book and they had a lively conversation about the alligators.  I had the pleasure of sitting back on Friday as the children dug into the crew library. What joy to watch them share books!

Three months into the year it is evident that the students now "feel like readers."  It is a gift that keeps on giving.  Now we are off and running.
Our work is to learn how and why people talk about books and we begin learning the "thinking tools" that good readers use.  I love this part of the year!

What's up this week?

• Belaying in PE. Thanks to all who are able to belay!
• Math test on Thursday.
• Library on Tuesday.  Remember to send in the books.

Have a wonderful week!

Mary Beth

Our Reading Tools

We have learned so much about reading!  We know that we have to have more than one reading tool in our tool belts...not every tool works every time.

Here are the tools we have learned to use.  Please ask me about any of them and encourage your child to use these tools while reading at home.

Looking at the pictures helps us think "what makes sense?"

This is a very powerful tool!  It should be tried every time we get to a tricky word.  It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

To use this tool we put our finger under the word and quickly try all of the sounds we know.
Then we think about "what makes sense".

We are working on this tool.  Word endings like ed, ing, and er are also part of using this tool.  It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

Not all of us are ready for this tool but some of us are.
It's always followed by "what makes sense?"

As you have noticed, this tool must go hand-in-hand with every tool.  The meaning of the story is what reading is all about!