Beanie Reading Strategies!

Hello!

I hope you are having a wonderful winter! As you are enjoying spending well deserved time with your friends and family this holiday season, please continue to encourage your child to read, read, read! 

One way that we have practiced our reading is through meeting several "beanie friends" that help remind us of different reading “fix-up” strategies. I know students have been referencing these buddies often during their independent reading time. If you have ever wondered, "What on earth is 'Stretchy the Snake?!?'" then here is some info for you! Below, you will find a description of all of the beanie friends that we have met/studied:

*Please note that this is not an original idea created by me. This idea has been used and replicated by many creative teachers in many different classrooms. These posters were found at http://www.bainbridgeclass.com/. 

Repair Bear:

It is SO important to THINK when you read! The Repair Bear reminds us to turn our brains on, think when reading, and to STOP if something doesn't make sense. This bear reminds us to STOP and use a strategy if you come to a word you don't know or if the story becomes confusing. He is what you might call a "fixer-upper!" :-) He reminds us to use other friends to help, such as…

Chunky Monkey:

This monkey helps remind us to find word chunks that we know, such as -ing, th, or ch! This helps us to sound out unfamiliar words.

Stretchy the Snake:

Stretchy reminds us to slowly s-t-r-e-t-c-h out the unfamiliar words we are trying to read.

Eagle Eye:
Eagle Eye tells us to look closely at the pictures to help us figure out unknown words.

Skippy the Frog:
Skippy reminds us that we can skip over the word, read to the end of the sentence, and then “hop” back to figure out what word would make sense in the story!

Picturing Penguin:

We learned how good readers always have a "mind movie" playing in their brains as they are reading. Picturing Penguin reminds us how fun reading can be when we use our brains to picture what is happening!

Peekin’ Poodle:

The Peekin’ Poodle helps us continuously peek at both the pictures and words in a story so that we can “cross-check” our words. (To cross check, we ask, “Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?”)

Flippy the Dolphin:

Now that we have learned how “super-e” can change the sounds of vowels and consonants, Flippy reminds us to flip a sound if it doesn’t make sense! You can trade “short vowel” for “long vowel” sounds, or flip the sounds of consonants (such as using the /j/ sound for a letter G)!

Does your child have a favorite reading buddy? Take a moment to vote in order to see which reading buddy is the most popular!

Thanks and have a great evening!

:-D Mrs. Brignac