Bella's Reading

Bella asked us to teach her to read when she was 3.5 years old.  Now at 5 years old and in Kindergarten I wanted to know how she was doing.  I found an assessment over at Let's Go Learn.  It said that she was reading on a mid-K level, has an oral vocabulary of a mid-2nd grader, her phonemic awareness is mid-1st grade, and she needs to work on spelling, fluency, and some comprehension.  It also said that he is at Guided Reading Level C.

To help with fluency we are going to work on sight words and word families.  I have the Bob Books: Sightwords - Kindergarten on its way as well as 100 Words Kids Need to Read by First Grade and Learn to Read by Starfall.  I also plan on letting her spend more time on Starfall playing games and reading books.

Bella loves the BOB Books!  We borrow them from the library a lot and I know she is going to love it when she finds out she will have her own set!!!

As for spelling we had already gotten a spelling book but we have not been focusing on it.  She has not spent much time writing things down so we are going to write a book together but I am going to have her do as much of the writing as she can on her own.

For the most part I think Bella's reading comprehension is okay.  It seems that she is not thinking while reading and that is causing her to read slowly.  We had purchased and started using Memoria Press' literature studies called Storytime Treasures.  Even thought the books are above her reading level I think it will help her process the stories more.

She is enjoying reading Little Bear and is doing well with it.  It has her practice and discuss new/hard words before she reads.  It has her do a picture walk before she reads as well.  She seems to understand and enjoy the discussion question and activities that go with it.

Most importantly I will be having her read every day.  Some days it is a struggle to motivate her but most days she is excited and willing to read!