Summer Reading

For my project I wanted to not just get the kids reading but to get them to have fun while reading. I know as a mother that if I can make something fun then it doesn't seem like such a chore and I felt like reading is no different. I decided that if we could read in the park this would be more fun for the kids and also get them out of the house and doing something outdoors. When we had our first reading in the park on May 26th 2015 we only had about 20 kids come. On the last day that we got together we had 58 kids come and participate in our activities that day.

 As the program progressed we changed things that to make them better for the kids. We started doing an independent reading when we first got there. For this we would read for 20 minutes independently or in small groups with older kids pairing up with younger kids. At this time I would also walk around and take time with the younger kids and help them read books that were on their reading levels. I feel that this part of the program was extremely important because it offered kids to time to make sure they got reading in and to read books that they like. One of the things that came from this that was not something I planned was the older kids got to learn and practice leadership skills. The older kids would get to where they didn't even need to be asked to get into groups the older kids would just get with some of the younger kids and make sure that they knew what they where doing and help them read or read to them. 

This is what it looked like
when kids read in small groups
with an older kid reading to younger
kids

This is what it would
look like when kids would
independent read.

The next thing that we did for the day was read a book as a group. When doing this I would have the kids take turns reading the book. By taking turns it gave the kids each a turn to read out loud. Reading out loud helps improve ones reading skills and is an important part of reading so something that I wanted to make sure we did. After we would finish reading the story we would get into small groups and do retail of the story. Retail is where someone will retail the order that events happened in the book and also point out important ideas that happened. This was something that I wanted to make sure I really focused on this summer because if someone can't remember what they read and what happened then it doesn't do them much good. Retail is something that is used in the elementary schools in my area and wanted to help improve these skills.

This is one of the kids reading
out loud during the main
reading

For the rest of the day we would work on a craft that went along with what ever book we read. This was also an other time that the older kids were able to use their leadership skills to help the younger kids do the craft and help them get a snack.



*All parents of kids pictured consented