Together our goal is to cultivate and nurture life long wild readers, not classroom readers. To do this we need to enable readers to find their reading niche. Readers need to have choice and it’s important to try everything! Readers are motivated by choice, choice in books, genre, & choice in when and where they read.

Today your child is beginning a reading adventure. Readers are bringing home books from the classroom to share with you. At this time, we are discussing the variety of reasons readers choose books. Your children are enjoying the classroom library and learning about the books available to them. While our classroom is filled with books that beginning readers can read and understand, our shelves are also filled with books that may be challenging to read and understand independently. We’ve talked a lot about using the pictures to think about the story which is an important beginning reading skill.

As we begin, books coming home will be marked “me”, “you”, or “us”. This will help you to know if your child has chosen a book he/she can read (me), a book to be read to her/him (you), or a book for you to read together (us). Each day your child will choose a book, record the book information, and bring it home to you. Remember it's important to respect and honor the readers choice in books. Please take time to talk to your reader about the story and read together if the book is marked as a "you or us" and remember to return the book the following day.

Soon we will begin conversations about finding “just-right” books. In other words, they should be able to read and understand them. While they may have to pause occasionally to figure something out, they should be able to do the work. When these conversations begin, I will more closely monitor the books your child is choosing, and the wording on the log will change from “me”, “you”, and “us” to “easy”, “just-right”, and “challenging”. If the book is easy or “just right,” your child will read to you. If the book is challenging, please read it to your child. Beginning readers need to hear good models so reading to your child is still essential.

Each evening read or talk about the book with your child, sign the sheet in the front pocket of the reading folder, and return it to school the very next day.