Teachers use creative ways to keep children excited about reading

Learning to read is an exciting time. Recognizing that you can read is even more exciting.

“I’ve got one,” exclaimed D’Nija Guice, 6, in Melissa King’s first-grade class at Troy Elementary School.

Guice’s “one” was a specially built ad in The Messenger that said, “I can read!”

About a dozen ads were placed in the newspaper on Friday so the first-graders could search them out, cut them out, and glue them to a piece of paper – proving that they, indeed, are readers.

“It’s so neat to see them working together,” King said. “Some of them are still learning letters where others are more advanced. They are just so excited to learn.”

Guice said she reads newspapers with her aunt, “so I think I’m a good reader.”

Students in each first-grade classroom worked on the project Friday morning.

“So many of them think they can’t read because they can’t pick up a book and read the whole book,” said teacher Laurie Jordan. “This exercise lets them make the connection to environmental text and helps to spark excitement about reading.”

Addison Armstrong, 6, is in Jordan’s class and said that she likes to look at pictures, too, when she reads and she prefers “stories that are real.”

In Lauren Bolger’s class, Takorey McSwain, 6, and his classmates had already found half a dozen “I can read” ads each only about 15 minutes into the project.

“I like to read. I can read that book over there,” McSwain said, pointing to a nearby shelf.

The first-grader said he thinks he’s “pretty good” at reading “I Went Walking.”

“It’s about a cat and a goose and a dog and a horse,” McSwain said. “I like that book.”

And liking books is what the “I can read” project is all about.