reading about guineas

Today, we read a lot about guinea pigs, thanks to everyone’s interest in our new pets, our friend, Heather, who let us borrow some super-cool Fluffy books, and to Maddy’s Summer Kindergarten Calendar.

It was a riot! Who knew these guineas would be so much fun?

Here’s how it went:

• Fluffy Books: Written by Kate McMullan and published by Scholastic, this series is available–I believe–only through the school market. They are, however, super-affordable if you do some searching on Amazon.

This series is a level 3, which is way too difficult for Maddy and Owen, but they are high interest, so they want to read them. These books feature a very silly, brave, and smart guinea pig, so my kiddos would do anything to be able to sit down and read by themselves.

While I read the books, I would stop every so often and say things like,

Hmmmm. What sound does Fluffy begin with? What letter makes that sound? Can you use your detective eyes to find the word, ‘Fluffy’ on this page? Right! How did you know that? or,

I read the word, ‘boots’ three times on this page. Can anyone point to the word, ‘boots’? or,

Wow! There are sound words on this page–‘Whoop!’ and ‘Beep!’ They are written differently to show readers that they are sounds, so they are in italics, or slanted. Can you point to ‘Whoop!’ or ‘Beep’ and say the word in a funny voice? or,

I have read the word, ‘fire’ many times in these two pages. I read ‘firefighter’, ‘fire truck’, and ‘fire’. Think about what letter makes the ‘f-‘ sound, then use your strong reading eyes to find one of the ‘fire’ words.

And they love this. They love the book because it’s high interest and funny, and they love that they are able to find–and read–words on a page. If they make an error, I say something like, You’re close. Try again. or, Think hard about (whatever I asked) and let me see you give it another try.

• Summer K-Work: Maddy and I worked on an activity that asked her to find a book about an animal and then write down three things she learned about that animal. Then she was to draw a picture of where that animal lived.

She knows our guinea pig book inside and out, so we walked through it one more time to refresh her memory before she started writing. She decided on a few facts–Guinea pigs eat berries. / They play in a box, and we did shared writing just like we always do. Then she got rockin‘ on her picture.

I like that this activity focused on a non-fiction text; it seemed to be a cool pairing with our Fluffy series! Thanks again, Heather, for lending them to us!

And that was our learning for the day–busy weekend for this mama ahead!