Global Frig Door

Reading Comprehension Strategy: Synthesizing

is a great site for learning reading comprehension strategies.  The student side of the site explains the strategy and then let’s them try it themselves. There is a teacher side has a lesson plan and resources like graphic organizers and videos that I will use to teach the strategy before they try it themselves on student side.

The focus for this week will be on Synthesizing what they read with what they already know to get new ideas.

I’ll use the videos first to teach the kids about Synthesizing.

We’ll use a graphic organizer to practice the skill with a reading selection.

Then the kids get to try it themselves.  They will create a username so they can save their progress.  At the end of this activity they are supposed to be able to email their finished bookmark.  We’ll give that a try so you can see what they make.

Welcome to 3rd grade

Welcome to your new third grade year.  I am excited that you will be in my class this year.  Our reading theme this year will be

Reading is Out of This World.

Classrooms Care

Scholastic Book Clubs is sponsoring a classroom reading service project.

We have committed to do our part by reading 260 books by December 17th.  That’s a 10 book goal for each student.  I told them that I want them to make it books that are on their reading level.  For most, that means chapter books.

You can read the parent letter about the program.

If we reach our goal, Scholastic has committed to do their part of this Classrooms Care program.  If we do our part, they will help donate 1,000,000 books to classrooms in underprivileged communities through 

Not only are they helping themselves by reading, they are helping others.  You can see

I think we can show our class progress toward the goal.

After we meet our goal, you’ll be able to find us on the Classrooms Care

Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.

Today we watched a live Read Now webcast by Nick Cannon and Taylor Swift. It was sponsored by Scholastic in celebration of their 90th anniversary. It is part of their global literacy campaign.
At the end, they invited us to enter the reading sweepstakes.
They were more excited about the poster of Taylor Swift than the free books, but excitement is good. They can enter once per day until November 26th. They will need a parent’s e-mail address, but they can enter my email address jsigler@cjr1.org if they don’t have their own e-mail address.

The whole purpose is to get kids excited about reading. Time to get started!

Episode 17 – “Why the Sky is Far Away”

We read the Reader’s Theater play “Why the Sky is Far Away” by Benchmark Education.  Here is the recording of our performance.

Thank you Benchmark for giving your permission to record this play.

Why the Sky is Far Away [ 11:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download