1st Grade Crew // March Is Reading Month!

“The more you read, the more things you’ll know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” says Dr. Seuss. I shared this quote with my first graders at the beginning of the month and they instantly shared many ideas with me on how we can make our reading month the best month ever! I was pleased with all of their ideas and enthusiasm! First grade was ready to begin a meaningful yet exciting month and this is what we accomplished.

First, every morning we did D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read). As an entire school, on Monday morning, during community crew, we would stop whatever we are doing and read for at least 5 minutes together. During this time, many students and staff would try to read something new to bring an interest or try to finish a chapter book that we want to finish reading by the end of the month. Once the timer went off, I always asked the crew if anyone would like to share their book with the class. I also asked if they would recommend this book for someone else to read, it usually was a yes! 

Next, we read the chapter book Charlotte’s Web by E.B White. It was one of my childhood favorites so I knew my crew would enjoy it as well. Everyday during snack time, I’ll read the chapter book to the class. Once I get done reading 2-3 chapters for that day, I would try to revisit the text and see if students could recall important events in the story. My crew looked forward to us reading Charlotte’s Web daily and asked if we could watch the movie once we were done with the book. I thought it was a wonderful idea so at the end of the month we had a “Movie Day” and watched the movie Charlotte’s Web. 

Finally, with making reading so much fun I decided to do a progress check to see if students were growing with their reading levels. We grew to recognize and read sight words and students grew with their reading levels! I asked my crew to reflect on our reading month with what they enjoy and what we could do better to make reading more meaningful. Overall, they all enjoyed focusing on reading the entire month of March and asked if we could do it more. Therefore, I know what I can do next year to make reading more impactful for our DAA 1st Graders!