"Read to Self" in Kindergarten

Reader's Workshop looks different during every single month of kindergarten.  Kids grow and change so quickly at this age!  Kids who did not know their letters and sounds in September, can read independently now.  So, what are we reading?  What does Reader's Workshop look like in Kindergarten?

We do a modified version of Daily 5.  In kindergarten we do Daily 3.  We read to self, listen to reading, and work with words.  We don't have the chance to do all three, every single day, but we do the best we can. 

This month, in our "read to self" work, we have added book shopping to our Reader's Workshop.  Instead of reading books from the book tubs the teacher put on the table, kids are selecting their own books.  Most of our kids are reading Level A or B books on their own now.  So, when we select books I ask that kids choose 3 books from the A and B tubs.  These are books the kids will be able to read with little or no support.  Here, you can see my little friend is pointing to the words as she reads the story out loud.

We want to be sure kids are reading for pleasure as well as practice.  At the beginning of the year, we talked about the 3 ways we read books.  We can read the words, read the pictures, or retell a familiar story from memory.  Obviously, in the picture below, this little friend won't be able to read Ariel's adventures on her own. (Maybe you know a few kindergartners who can, but I don't have any in my class this year!)  Kids are asked to choose 2 books from our classroom library to add to their book bags.  They may not be able to actually read these books, but they love telling the stories. 

At the end of book shopping day, each child will have a bag filled with 5 books, 3 of them are easy readers, and 2 of the books are their own choice.... something they are interested in, but that they may not necessarily be able to read on their own.  I think book shopping day is their favorite day of the week!

Happy reading!