Raz Kids = Reading Fun!

Last week, I sent home a parent letter with students about our new online reading program called Raz-Kids that I have subscribed Room 214 to. Each student in our class has a password (which is actually a picture) as well as the website address for Raz-Kids taped inside the front of their agenda.

The Raz Robot: Build and personalize a robot with all the reading points you earn!

This service will allow students to read books at their level (I've already set them up at their current reading level) on any device or computer that has a connection to the internet. They can log in from anywhere and choose from over 1000 books that will help them to become fluent masters of reading! There are also assignments that challenge students to use their comprehension and memory skills to answer questions about the books they read.

Personalize your Raz Rocket with more reading points!

All of their progress is tracked by me and as of next week, parents and guardians will be able to log in and track progress too. If you are having any trouble logging your child into Raz Kids, please let me know as soon as possible and I will provide you with 'tech support' and help you and your child to get it up and running.

Here are a quick set of instructions to get you going:

1) Go to Raz-Kids (http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login)

2) Enter the teacher name: zaksmith

3) Find your child's name in the list and click the button above their name.

4) Click on the picture (or pictures) that is the password for your child (found on the slip of paper taped into your child's agenda).

5) Start reading!

Here is the link to the Raz-Kids App for Apple users.

Here is the link to the Raz-Kids App for Android users.

**Note: You do not need the app to use Raz-Kids but it does make it easier...

A Virtual Tour of What's New in Room 214...

In the last few weeks, I have made some changes to the classroom and I thought it would be good to share some of these changes through a mini virtual tour.

The Interactive Word Wall

Students can get up close and personal with the new interactive word wall in our classroom. The reason I call it an interactive word wall is because students can actually walk right up to it and take a word to help them right from the wall. Then, when they are done with it, they can stick it right back onto the wall! This is a great practice in independence, responsibility, and makes for properly spelled words on their work. Students will also be encouraged to add their own words to the word wall to make it more enriching. Here is a picture of a small part of the word wall:

Math Wall

As we learn concepts in math, we learn new terms and symbols that will help us to show our knowledge. I now have all of these terms and symbols on our new Math Wall. Students can always look to the math wall if they need help with words and symbols. The math wall is also a place where work is posted after three part math lessons have been completed. Students can look at the math wall to get a better understanding of some of the different strategies their classmates have used to solve the same problems. Here is a picture of the math words and symbols component of our math wall:

Stayed tuned for another update on the Wonder Wall that is currently in the works!

NEW Language Resources!

I have just posted a number of great phonics and language online activities and games on the 'Important Resources' page.

Please go and check them out with your child and let me know if you have any questions. These games and activities are meant to help build some of the most important foundational skills students need to become better, more efficient readers. Some are better suited to readers just beginning to gain independence, some are good for readers who struggle with specific aspects of language, and some are just fun and help to cement prior knowledge.

Have fun playing these games with your child!

The Music Man Comes to Visit!

Last week, students in our class were treated to a very memorable experience. Tinh's father Scott, also know as the Music Man in our class, shared with students his passion for music, creativity and fun. He explained to students that music is about rhythm, and rhythm is about patterns. We have been learning a great deal about patterns in math, but it's always helpful to see how patterns are everywhere. We even spent some time writing new verses to the popular standard, 'Down By the Bay', in which students were challenged to find patterns in language through rhyming words, also called phonograms.

Scott teaching students about the importance of patterns in music

Students just had to dance when the Music Man pulled out his electric guitar!

We have continued with this work and will be exploring rhyming through poems for the next couple of weeks. Students will learn about some common word families and will start creating their own dictionaries of words they are learning. It is time to expand our vocabulary and our minds!

Please take the time to encourage your child to find rhyming words at the dinner table, before going to sleep, or on your way to school. These practices help growing minds to put letters together into recognizable chunks, something research has shown to help new readers progress more quickly.

'Take Home Books' begins this week!

Starting today (Monday), students in room 214 will begin the 'Take Home Books' program. Students were assessed early in the year to determine their accurate reading levels and have been practicing their voracious reading ever since. Initially, students were given full autonomy to choose their own books to read using the comprehension strategies of:

• Read the words
• Read the pictures
• Retell the story. 

Students will now be asked to take these strategies home with them. Students will sign out black and white levelled books on Mondays and will return them on Fridays.

Once we have a routine set up, after a month, students will be asked to write book reports on the books they are reading. This means they will be required to have read the book at home first, as very little time will be provided for reading these books at school. Please sit down with your child once a night to read the stories they bring home (repeatedly reading them is good, not bad!) and take the time to ask them questions according to our 'CAFE' menu. We will be using these take home books to build a comprehensive literacy program that includes the 'CAFE' menu of:

• Comprehension (understanding what is being read)
• Accuracy (reading the words and decoding the text)
• Fluency (reading with expression, getting into character)
• Expanding vocabulary (increasing the number of interesting words we know)

Sarah the Book Fairy Comes to Visit

This week, students in Room 214 were visited by Book Fairy (and Room 214 parent), Sarah, who made a special donation of eight books for us to add to our classroom library. She spent time telling us about each book she brought and during free time later that day, students were already digging in to some of the new titles. We owe a big thank you our Book Fairy and hope that she might come to visit another day if we all keep working hard on building our reading stamina!

The Book Fairy introducing a 'Picachu' book!