Hop on Pop - Follow up

I have received two copies of Hop on Pop from two kind regulars at Readerville. This morning I also received a handful of I Can Read books (Danny and the Dinosaur; Mouse Tales; Frog and Toad, etc) from a great friend who has kept us in books this year.

The arrival of this package was just perfect because I think the girls are at the right stage to give them a stab. I had them each read Hop on Pop aloud on Monday evening this week. M was able to do it more fluently than T, and she didn't get frustrated when she got stuck on a word. She even had a very good try at Constantinople. I suggested to their Grandmother that T might get her eyes checked. Because I noticed that she rubbed and rubbed at her eyes while she was trying to read, and she struggled with several of the pages, especially at the end where there is a small yellow box with a smaller red text of several short words in a row. She almost cried when she got to that part, so I wondered if perhaps it had to do with being able to see well enough.

After they took turns reading it aloud, I read it aloud. Then I read them the first in the Catwings series by Ursula K Le Guin. What a lovely little book! They seemed to enjoy it and asked questions when they didn't understand things (who are the flying tabbies?? etc) part way through the story.

At the end of the story I asked them what they liked best about it, and they were able to tell me parts they thought were interesting/fun. Then they told me that their birthday in June but they didn't know when that is, so we sat down and talked about days of the week and months of the year. I gave them a sheet of paper with all those things written clearly down and asked them to practice sounding it out during the week.

Next week I'll see about having them each read a short-ish I Can Read book aloud. I really think that most of what they need is practice reading.