Continue to Help the Bees Build a Beehive!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Many of my students are still reading on a kindergarten reading level and find it frustrating and not very fun when they read independently. They've expressed interest in many non-fiction themes like animals and sports. Please help them fall in love with a good book!

I grew up with books in my everyday life both in school and outside.

My mother read to me and soon I began to read to her. I can't think of my childhood without reading being a part of it. As a teacher now, it's interesting to wonder how my life would have been shaped without this staple. I can tell you that 8 out of 12 of my students do not read with their parents at home. Whether its due to their busy lives if they have a job or they're choosing not to, it does not happen at home as much as I require it for homework. Though the statistics of our community are staggering-- one of the poorest Congressional districts in the US, has over 1,100 children in grades 3-8 and 100% of our children receive free lunch-- almost all of my students have every video game you can imagine. I'll continue to push for the partnership of my students' parents, but the weight of practice and fostering their growth in reading lies solely in my classroom.

My Project

I think my students are at a tipping point in their lives. They are third and fourth graders, ranging in ages 8-11 (which is sixth grade level), and all of them read on a kindergarten level. I watch them while I read being mesmerized, like any other child would be, by the stories that they are escaping to in their minds. Then when we transition into our independent reading, for some, but not all, the life slips from their eyes as the 20 minutes each day that they dread is about to begin. They are reluctant to read and find it frustrating. While I can hardly blame them, I spend much of my time being their cheerleaders and my mission today is to find more books and literacy center options that are on their reading level, but are also on their interest level! Non-fiction books are of high interest at this age, so any books about animals or sports are perfect. I'm also asking for a subscription to TIME for Kids which is a magazine of current events from around the world written for kids.

Much of what I'm requesting are literacy supports that I will use to help teach them to read with plenty of variety since they get frustrated easily.

Doing literacy and math centers daily helps exercise what I've taught them and allows me to differentiate based on their varied needs. Centers are wonderful for my students as it builds their independence while being short blocks that cater to their attention span.