Interacting with Books in Kindergarten

Kindergarten students are interacting with books read aloud during reading workshop in a variety of ways. Book or Bell? by Chris Barton and Where's Rodney? by Carmen Bogan and illustrated by our visiting author/illustrator Floyd Cooper are two books read aloud where kindergarten students engaged, acting as the main character. 

 
They were able to describe the main character's emotions through this process and better understand the events in the book. Kindergarten students are learning how to make connections from the book to their own lives. In Where's Rodney? some students connected to going on a field trip, observing ants, climbing rocks, finding a bird's nest and to other elements in the story. Students also experimented with expressive reading and realized how this helped them to understand the story better.  At the end of the book, students engaged in a retelling of the book, and then visualized the part that they wanted to remember forever. Each student then shared this part with a partner. Speaking of partners, kindergarten students have also had the opportunity of reading books with a partner. 

Students in kindergarten are reading in a variety of ways, all of which are just right in kindergarten. Some children are reading a few words, others many words, and some are able to read a book, through the clues in the pictures. Students are also beginning to recognize repeated words in a book. An effective technique for emergent readers in kindergarten is to first read a book to the child, engaging in discussion, making connections, talking about the character, setting, problem and solution.  The adult reader can then reread the book, pointing out any repeated words, running one's finger under sentences, pointing out rhyming words, and then reading chorally or echo reading sentences from the book with the child. The key is to have the reading experience be engaging and fun!