Read Alouds

One part of our literacy approach that is sometimes overlooked is the importance of read alouds.  Second graders are not too old to be read to!  They benefit from it in many ways, and it is a shared class experience that all the children enjoy. Reading aloud is great time to focus on story comprehension, including themes, predictions, characters, and setting.  We are currently reading "The Children of the Noisy Village" written by Astrid Lindgren (who also wrote Pippi Longstocking).  Ms. Risberg (Elsa's mom) originally told me about this story.  Coincidentally, our wonderful Music teacher Mrs. Ryan kindly checked out the book for us while we were in the midst of our International Night study.  We were in the middle of reading Pippi at that time, but it has now been a lovely way to extend our  exploration of Sweden. The children (and I) have truly been enjoying the charming and sweet simplicity of this book. In today's chapter, one of the character finds a "krona" on the ground, and the children were very excited that they knew what a krona was!  One child then asked how much a krona would be equivalent to in US currency, so we looked it up and found that currently one krona is worth about 12 cents: an opportunity for a math connection as well!