New Routines: Book Bags

The Cottontails have been gearing up to become strong readers by creating personalized book bags to transport the many books they will read back and forth from home to school. Throughout the first month of school, we decorated one side of our book bags with hand-drawn illustrations and on the other side we used our handprints to create a flower - an ode to our yearlong Connections to Nature theme. It was such a fun project to work with your child on. They loved the tickle of the paint brush on their hand and worked hard to detail their favorite part of Kindergarten on the other side of the bag. Ask your child about their illustration!

Your child's Book Bag (and the books inside) need to travel back and forth from home to school each day. Each week you will see your child's collection of paper books grow. It is important that these books return to school each day as we will use these books within daily classroom activities. You will notice that the books chosen for your child fit with their current literacy needs. Please take time to read these books with your child each night. You will find that with a little help your child will be able to read some of the books independently.

For your help, I have included a reference key to help explain the black and white book's star system.
Colored Star = I can read this all by myself!
No Star = I may need some help with this book.
Red Star = This book can stay at home.

I ask that you have your child refrain from writing or coloring in these books while the are in use for classroom activities. While at school, we may highlight words during word hunts or become authors and illustrators while adding a page or two to the end of the books. We discussed that the students are to only write or color in the books when they are given direct instructions to do so. We will be cleaning out the book bags on a regular basis so they don't get too full. The paper books can be kept at home (and colored in if your child so desires) when a red star sticker appears in the top right corner of the cover.

Please let me know if you have questions. Look for an email to further detail your child's reading progress in the coming week. Enjoy that reading time with your child! They are excited to read to you!

PS: A big thank you to Alicia and Holly for volunteering to help assemble our black and white books!