A Little Book Love

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I love to read.  I love to curl up with a good book and get lost.  I love that books can take you places you've never been, introduce you to people you've never met and send you on journey's you've never even imagined. 

I so badly want my children to love to read for all the same reasons and more.  So far, they do enjoy reading.  However, there are other activities they also enjoy and often reading loses.  I am hopeful that this will change as they grow older.  As they grow their book selection options also grows and I think, at some point, this will help their desire to read increase.  Until then...it's still something we do every day.

At school, I also want my students to gain this desire to want to read (and to learn to read!).  I try to find books that they are interested for guided reading and strategy lessons.  I try to choose wonderful books for reading aloud.  I've brought poetry into the classroom as an option.  We have studied authors to encourage a love of books and writers.  We have lots of favorites...Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, David, The Gingerbread Man (they love that tricky fox!), etc.  Many kids in my class this year enjoy reading and they look forward to independent reading time.

And then...there's Jordyn.  She began kindergarten, at age 5, reading a level H.  Yes, I said H.  She has always had a love of books and she's the type of child who asks when she doesn't know something because she truly wants to learn every single thing she can.  She is the child you teach something to one time and she remembers and can do it forever.

Last week, Jordyn brought a book from home and asked if she could read it before school when she was waiting at her locker for the bell to ring.  Um, YES!  Of course!  When the bell rang, she asked if she could keep her book in her mailbox to read during independent reading later in the day.  Um, YES!  Of course!  This has been her pattern ever since.  She's reading a series of books and is loving every minute.

Today, I noticed that she pulled out her book during free choice (play) time!  At first, she wandered around the room as she was nose-deep in her book.  Eventually, she walked over to the rug where she stood reading for about five minutes (when I snapped this picture) as others played around her...literally, driving cars and building with blocks around her feet (just inches to her right).  Finally, she moved to the edge of the rug and sat down to read until clean up time.

It is so refreshing to see this type of reading enjoyment!  I just love this little girl and her love of reading and I truly hope that she's a trend-setter for her peers.