Reading all day long

There is not just one time in the day for reading.  Reading happens through out the day.  

We start every day with a poem. Reading and writing poems help children fall in love with words.  Poetry helps build vocabulary.  Poems celebrates the sounds and rhythms of words.

We read the same poem for several days.  This gives the children time to get to understand and know the poem well. Some children even memorize the poem. I read the poem the first time and then children can volunteer to read the poem to the class.  Some children who are less comfortable in front of the group, or with reading, prefer to point to the words, while everyone reads the poem together.  Other children prefer to sit with the group and recite the poem as a group.  All these are perfectly acceptable options.

I started the year reading "The Chanticleer" by Katherine Tynan.  I read the whole poem to the class and they tried to guess what a "chanticleer" is from the clues in the poem.  Working together they figured out that a chanticleer must be a rooster because it was a farm bird that was colorful, had a comb, and summoned the day.  At morning gathering we just practiced the first two stanzas.

Of all the birds from East to West
     That tuneful are and dear,
I love the farmyard bird the best,
     They call him Chanticleer.

Gold plume and copper plume,
     Come of scarlet gay;
'Tis he that scatters night and gloom,
     And Summons back the day!

He is the sun's brave herald 
   Who, ringing his blithe horn,
Calls round a world dew-pearled
     The heavenly airs of morn.

Oh, clear gold, shrill and bold,
     He calls through creeping mist
The mountains from the night and cold
     To rose and amethyst.

He sets the birds to singing,
     And calls the flowers to rise;
The morning cometh, bringing
   Sweet sleep to heavy eyes.

Gold plume and silver plume,
     Comb of coral gay;
'Tis he packs off the night and gloom,
     And summons home the day.

Black fear he sends it flying 
     Black care he drives afar;
And creeping shadows sighing 
      Before the morning star.

The birds of all the forrest
     Have dear and pleasant cheer,
But yet I hold the rarest
     The farmyard Chanticleer.

Red cock and black cock,
      Gold cock or white,
The flower of all the feathered flock,
He summons back the light!


Stay tune for more reading opportunities during the day...