Reading Marathon

On Tuesday May 5th, we celebrated "Beach Day". Originally, Ms. Leom had the opportunity to travel to Mexico (think nearly two decades ago), and when she returned, she brought the beach experience to share with her students. At the end of each year, when students are surveyed about their best memories, "Beach Day" remains at the top of the list, so the tradition continues! Each year the event has evolved and changed with the curriculum. This year, we are doing a "Reading Marathon".

Students receive a Reading Marathon Map. This breaks apart the day into steps and lets students know an overview of our reading experience. We get ourselves organized, then the fun begins.

Students need a book, a Reading Marathon Poster, a Reading Marathon Map, and a sticky note. If they brought along a beach towel or blanket, they find a comfortable spot in the room, and begin.

We read for ten minutes at Beach Leom ...

Then we work on our poster for ten minutes ...

Then we begin ten minutes of reading ...

 

Followed by ten minutes to work on our poster ... 

 

There are many ways this day is a special day of learning! First, students are engaged and READING. They don't want to put their books down! Second, when they have the mental break to think about and process what they are reading, some time to share their thinking with a friend, they are ready to focus when it is time to read! Students use sticky notes during the reading time to mark a page that may fit one of the examples they want to include on their poster. The poster is a review of the reading strategies we are learning about in class and an opportunity to practice our skills of finding evidence from the text to support our examples. Students choice in selecting their book, we had book check out this morning, also makes this interesting to students.

It can be hard to be motivated to come of school in the Spring. The weather warms up... The sun is shining ... so we provide opportunities for students to have fun as they continue their learning and development of skills. We look for ways to help keep them motivated and excited for school. Just another marathon day of learning in fourth grade!