Homeschooling Reading Circles
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2 Books for our Circles:
"Pancakes for Breakfast" by Tomy Depaula
& "Pancakes, Pancakes" by Eric Carle |
Reading Circles. This is the term for our themed reading time during lessons. My daughter has the attention span of a gnat so to get her to sit and listen to a story and talk about it is VERY difficult. Create a hands on experience adventure and that's a whole other story!
Day 1: Prior to her waking I cut out a craft to go along with the stories (I love my Cricut), after our morning routine I laid a blanket on the floor (which peaked her curiosity--she asked if we were having a picnic while doing lessons), found a tin of small tea light candles, and got B all excited about our new thing.
I read somewhere while doing research on Waldorf educating about lighting candles during quiet times. So, I applied that to my student. She picked out which scent she wanted to burn and I explained the goal is to not make the flame go out. This meant she had to be very still and not talk during the reading. Worked like a charm!
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| Day 1: Pancake Craft |
After the stories were read she worked on her pancake craft while retelling me the stories and answering questions I posed. The covers of the books were used as intro to reading while I had her sound out letters I did not cover up and say what the new word was.
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| Day 1: Final Result |
Day 2: The night before I sat in my cold basement and sewed three play pancakes to use for our next Reading Circle. She woke and actually asked to do a reading circle, grabbing the candles and heading toward the living room. Knowing I had to spice it up a bit to avoid boredom I gathered all her kitchen play items that would be needed to go along with the first story "Pancakes, Pancakes" by Eric Carle.
We lit the candle and as the story proceeded she performed the tasks that were being read. Once the stories were finished she cleaned up her kitchen and we moved on to the rest of the day.
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| Day 2: getting ready to make pancakes |
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| Day 2: Pouring the batter in the pan on her grill |
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| Day 2: The final result, a plate of maple syrup covered pancakes |
Day 3: We lit the candle and I let her
read me the books. When daddy came home she
read them to him too!
I am working on some other ideas for the Reading Circle because this is a total WIN for our homeschooling day!
