3rd Grade/Kindergarten Reading List Part 2

Last quarter was another bad quarter for reading books. We only did 20. *shudder* So this quarter I'm making our minimum goal 20.

This quarter I'm determined we'll do better!

Now, for our reading goals:

• I STILL cannot find what I'm looking for for Optimus Prime. We'll just work on level 1 and level 2 books for now. I am so annoyed. He is beyond ready to tackle chapter books. I just need to find what I'm looking for. I have to this quarter, otherwise I'll start him on our Scooby-Doo chapter books. 
• I'm going to have Bumblebee work on level 1 books. Optimus Prime reads a book a day, I'm going to try for half a book a day for Bumblebee. We'll see how that works. 
• Scooby-Doo has no actual list that I'm reading to him this quarter. I'm bringing back Concept Weeks for this quarter, I didn't care for my "experiment" with them last quarter where I turned them into Concept Months. So, we have to read a book every day, seven days a week for our Concept Week. So for now that doubles as Scooby-Doo's book list.

Our 20 book long reading list:

• The Dark Knight: Batman and the Villainous Voyage
• The Dark Knight: Batman vs the Cat Commander
• Magic Tree House: Dark Day in the Deep Sea
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Double Take
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Unicorn Uproar 
• The Hardy Boys Secret Files: The Bicycle Thief
• The Hardy Boys Secret Files: A Monster of a Mystery
• The Hardy Boys Secret Files: The Missing Mitt
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Pilgrims
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Titanic
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: American Revolution
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Rags and Riches
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Dog Heroes
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Dolphins and Sharks
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Vikings
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Leonardo da Vinci
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: China
• The Flash: The Attack of Professor Zoom
• The Flash: Captain's Cold Arctic Eruption

3rd Grade/Kindergarten Reading List Part 1

Last quarter was a bit of a bummer for our reading list. After reading 32 in our Spring Quarter I was hoping to at least meet that goal in our Summer Quarter, but no such luck. We were just too busy. It really was a good thing we only did spelling and reading - we had no time for anything else! This quarter we'll just have to try and do better! And at least we did met the goal I set last quarter...

Anyway, onto reading goals:

• Optimus Prime is reading a mixture of level 1 & level 2 books. Mostly level 2 books but I did buy some new level 1 books. I decided to move our schoolwork away from so many worksheets and focus more on reading so we needed new books anyway. Plus, Bumblebee will need them for when he finally gets to level 1 & level 2 reading. Next quarter we should certainly be on chapter books if I could just find what I'm looking for...
• Bumblebee is still reading level pre-1. We did tackle some level 1 books at the end of last quarter but he still wasn't ready so I switched him back to level pre-1. HOPEFULLY we can get him up to level 1 by the end of this quarter. 
• Scooby-Doo has some reading goals too! Since I've decided to start him in kindergarten this upcoming quarter (as I was writing up his schedule I started thinking maybe he's becoming bored with pre-k schoolwork...) I decided it was time to make him a reading list as well. He and I are going to be reading a lot of short stories and poems, one a day, every day, even on days off.

Now, our reading list. Last quarter I set a goal of 19 and we read 23. This quarter I'm setting a goal of 19 again. I'm worried of a repeat of last quarter:

• My Little Pony: Fluttershy and the Fine Furry Friends Fair
• My Little Pony: Applejack and the Honest-to-Goodness Switcheroo
• My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!
• My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell
• My Little Pony: Rarity and the Curious Case of Charity
• My Little Pony: Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare
• The Haunted Library
• The Haunted Library: The Ghost in the Attic
• Magic School Bus: Dinosaur Detectives
• Magic School Bus: Expedition Down Under
• Magic School Bus: Electric Storm
• Magic School Bus: Butterfly Battle
• Magic School Bus: Food Chain Frenzy
• Magic School Bus: Fishy Field Trip
• Magic School Bus: Color Day Relay
• You Choose: Can You Survive a Zombie Apocalypse?
• You Choose: Can You Survive a Virus Outbreak?
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Pirates
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Twisters and Other Terrible Storms

2nd Grade Reading List Part 4

This last quarter was a HUGE quarter for reading! We have read 34 books! We probably would have read even more but we had company...

Anyway, onto our goals and plans:

• Optimus Prime is NOT going to start reading chapter books. I don't know what happened, but he's seemed to backslide a little. I have no idea why or how, but we are going to keep working on level 2 books to help strengthen his skills. I don't understand what happened, he was doing so good! But, this past month he's been tripping up left and right in his reading. Hopefully another quarter of level 2 books will help him out. If it's just a little glitch and he's back on track soon then we'll see about giving it a go with chapter books. I hope this is just a temporary hiccup and he didn't backslide or something.
• Bumblebee went to the eye doctor's. We finally got an appointment! Turns out he has two problems. One is that he needs glasses. The second is that he might have dyslexia. The eye doctor noticed that he was having a hard time reading the letters in order. He could read them correctly, but he read them out of order. Meanwhile, I have written up a VERY easy schedule for him. He is basically going to focus on level pre-1 for most of the quarter with shifting into level 1 towards the end of it. Hopefully this will help him to build the skills he needs to read. I'm starting to get worried here.

Now, for our reading list. I've decided to up it to 19 books for this quarter:

• Magic Tree House: Seasons of the Sandstorm
• Magic Tree House: Night of the New Magicians
• Magic Tree House: Blizzard of the Blue Moon
• Magic Tree House: Dragon of the Red Dawn
• Magic Tree House: Monday with a Mad Genius
• Clue Jr.: The Case of the Clubhouse Thief
• Magic School Bus: Polar Bear Patrol
• Superman: Bizarro is Born
• Superman: Cosmic Bounty Hunter
• Superman: Deep Space Hijack
• Superman: Little Green Men
• Superman: Super-Villain Show Down
• Superman: The Kid Who Saved Superman
• Superman: Parasite's Power Drain
• Superman: Prankster of Prime Time
• Superman: Live Wire!
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Pandas and Other Endangered Species
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Ancient Rome and Pompeii
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Snakes and Other Reptiles

That's pretty much it for our reading goals.

2nd Grade Reading List Part 3

YAY! Reading List! I got nothing to say, except:

• Next quarter Optimus Prime is going to try reading chapter books on his own!!! This quarter he's doing mostly review for his reading.
• Bumblebee STILL isn't reading good. I'm beginning to suspect dyslexia, but we're taking him to the eye doctors to rule that out first.

Also, somehow we missed these two books from last quarter (though, we still surpassed our goal of 16 books):

• Magic Tree House: Revolutionary War on Wednesday
• Magic Tree House: Twister on Tuesday

And, here is our reading goal (still 16 books):

• The Berenstain Bears and the School Scandal Sheet
• The Berenstain Bears and the Wheelchair Commando
• Clue Jr.: The Case of the Mystery Ghost
• Clue Jr.: The Case of the Karate Chop
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Ghosts
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Dinosaurs
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Ninjas and Samurai
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Space
• Batman: Killer Croc Hunter
• Batman: Scarecrow, Doctor of Fear
• Superman: The Deadly Double
• Superman: The Shrinking City
• The Magic School Bus: Voyage to the Volcano
• The Magic School Bus: Rocky Road Trip
• Ballpark Mysteries: The Pinstripe Ghost
• Ballpark Mysteries: The L. A. Dodger

We also have a new book report layout. I'm going to do a post on our changing book reports once I get a chance.

2nd Grade Reading List Part 2 & Book Reports

Okay, we still have our reading goals:

• Optimus Prime is alternating between Level 1 and Level 2 books. I mostly let him guide me here. If the Level 2 book is so hard he isn't reading it but just stumbling and guessing then I tell him to pick something else out.
• Bumblebee is reading some Level 2 books, but only the really easy ones and just because he is jealous of his brother! He is still struggling at Level 1.

And, we have our book goals for this quarter:

• The Hardy Boys Secret Files: A Rockin' Mystery 
• The Hardy Boys Secret Files : Sports Sabotage 
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Sleepover Sleuths 
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Pony Problems 
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle 
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Cupcake Chaos 
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Cooking Camp Disaster 
• Magic Tree House: Revolutionary War on Wednesday
• Magic Tree House: Twister on Tuesday
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Horse Heroes 
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Magic Tricks from the Tree House 
• Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Soccer 
• The Magic School Bus: The Great Shark Escape 
• The Magic School Bus: Penguin Puzzle 
• The Magic School Bus: The Insect Invader 
• The Magic School Bus: Amazing Magnetism  

Still a goal of 16! And, since we did 30 books last quarter I don't imagine we'll have a hard time meeting this goal!!!

Lastly, we are still doing book reports. I was going to have them give me their favorite character and their favorite scene on top of the sentence and picture they already had to do, but in the end we just went with their favorite character. I'll save the favorite scene for another quarter.

2nd Grade Reading List Part 1 & Book Reports

Okay, this quarter we have some reading goals:

• Optimus Prime just learned how to read and is ready to move beyond Level 1 books, so he'll be working on Level 1 &2. I don't want to completely cut off Level 1 yet, I want to make sure he has it down a bit better, he still stumbles on a word here and there. I'm thinking a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio (Level 1:Level 2). He'll also work on reading completely on his own. Right now I hold the book, help him out, etc., but I'm going to hand the book off to him and see how he does all on his own.
• Bumblebee needs to work on getting Level 1 down on his own, but to be honest I don't see that happening this quarter.

Then, we also have our chapter book goal list. And, SOMEHOW, we missed a book AGAIN from our February-April goal list:

• Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-Up

I would say we are doing that one first, but the problem is I just took the last two Ghost Detector books from the library, so clearly we will be doing THOSE two first. However, the Ballpark Mystery one will be next, I mean third, I mean... I promise... ?

Anyway, here are our book goals for this quarter:

• Ghost Detectors: Draw!
• Ghost Detectors: Don't Read This!
• Clue Jr: The Case of the Missing Movie
• Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics
• Magic Tree House: Tonight on the Titanic
• Magic Tree House: Buffalo Before Breakfast
• Magic Tree House: Tigers at Twilight
• Magic Tree House: Dingoes at Dinnertime
• Magic Tree House: Civil War on Sunday
• Batman: Arctic Attack
• Batman: Harley Quinn's Shocking Surprise
• Batman: The Man Behind the Mask
• Batman: Catwoman's Classroom of Claws
• Batman: The Maker of Monsters
• Wonder Woman: Creature of Chaos
• Wonder Woman: The Fruit of all Evil

Two things:

(1) We're still doing book reports. Right now it's really easy, just a sentence about the book and a picture from the book. I've written up 14 of those forms (each), then after those 14 are used up I'm going to change things a little. They'll have to name their favorite character from the book and their favorite scene in addition to what they already have to do.

(2) I've upped our reading goal. From Day 1 it's been 1 book a week for a total of 13 books, though we've always read AT LEAST double (and usually triple or more) that. I've added 3 books to our goal (raising it about a quarter). Maybe I'll raise it again next quarter, maybe not. Once they are reading chapter books on their own I'll be reading longer, harder books to them so I won't be reading as many titles a quarter. So it's not like 13 is a forever number or anything.

1st Grade Reading List Part 4 & Book Reports

Yay!  New chapter book reading list goals!

Somehow, we skipped these two books from our goals last quarter:

• Magic School Bus: Twister Trouble
• Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-Up

Not sure how that happened, but we'll get to work fixing that right away.  However, since we easily read four times the number of books we had listed I think I can be forgiven for forgetting about those two. 

New list to knock out:

• Wonder Woman: Sword of the Dragon
• Wonder Woman: Dr. Psycho's Circus of Crime
• Batman: Catwoman's Halloween Heist
• Batman: Big-Mite's Big Blunder
• Batman: The Puppet Master's Revenge
• Magic Tree House: Vacation Under the Volcano
• Magic School Bus: The Giant Germ
• Ghost Detectors: Tell No One!
• Ghost Detectors: I Dare You!
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Chick-napped!
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: The Zoo Crew
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Mall Madness
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Thanksgiving Thief

Also, I'm bringing back the book reports.  I wanted to last quarter, but stuff was just WAY TOO CRAZY.  Scooby-Doo starting speech, two visits from relatives, Ostara/Easter, three birthday's in the family, news from my husbands job that we are moving... it was just too much.  Book reports are back in now, and they are simpler than they were before.  I think that was part of our problem.

Last time we did a weekly book report, this time we'll do one every time we finish a chapter book, so there could (and will) be more than one a week.  Last time I wanted them to write the author's name, favorite character, whether it was fiction or non-fiction, etc.  It was just too much for them.  This time they only have to write a sentence or two about the book and draw a picture.  That's it.  Nice and easy.

FYI, their reading is going good.  I'm hoping they will be completely reading level one books on their own (Optimus Prime especially) by the end of this quarter, and hopefully they will be ready to tackle chapter books on their own in second grade.  I'm stressing a bit about them being "late readers" but truthfully that's (a) common for late talkers (which they were), (b) common for kids who needed speech therapy (which they did), and (c) some kids don't master level 1 books until the end of second grade.  So, with two things stacked against my kids already it's quite possible they won't get this down until third grade.  I'm determined for that to NOT happen, but every kid is different.  We'll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes. 

1st Grade Reading List Part 3

Here it is - our book goal for the next three months:

• Pokemon Junior: Save Our Squirtle
• Pokemon Junior: Bulbasaur's Bad Day
• Pokemon Junior: Two of a Kind
• Pokemon Junior: Raichu Shows Off
• Pokemon Junior: Nidoran's New Friend
• Magic Tree House: Dolphins at Daybreak
• Magic Tree House: Ghost Town at Sundown
• Magic School Bus: Space Explorers
• Magic School Bus: Twister Trouble
• A to Z Mysteries: Sleepy Hollow Sleepover
• The Berenstain Bears and the New Girl in Town
• The Berenstain Bears and the Nerdy Nephew
• Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-up

Of course, we are going to read at least double that.  

I love meeting (and exceeding) our book goal each month!

Now, a note on our reading habits these past three months.  We did just fine, as far as chapter books go, but Optimus Prime & Bumblebee didn't get as much individual reading done like I was hoping.  I was hoping for some one-on-one time where they would get to practice their reading with me, but with football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Yule, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and birthday parties our schedule was pretty packed.  Actually, it was VERY packed.  So we didn't get to do that much.  This quarter Scooby-Doo starts speech therapy and baseball starts in just over a month.  So this quarter is going to be really packed too, so packed that I slimmed down our schedule a bit.  

However, I'm determined.  I'm not sure how we are going to fit everything in, but we will - even if it kills me (so long as it literally DOESN'T kill me).  So, hopefully their reading skills (which are okay, but that's about it) will get some serious polishing this quarter!

1st Grade Reading List Part 2 & Book Reports

So my reading plan for last quarter was a bit of a success.  Optimus Prime & Bumblebee learned quite a few words and picked up on a ton of sight words that we didn't cover.  They do a decent job of reading Level 1 books on their own.  They still need help, they aren't quite there yet, but I feel like we are making real progress so I'm happy.  Hopefully they will have Level 1 books down on their own by the end of this next quarter, but I'm not going to push.  I want them to enjoy reading, not find it stressful.

Since we're making progress, and to avoid boredom, I decided to make some changes in our Reading/Reading Comprehension schedule and to our book goals.

First, for the next quarter we will just be doing Reading Comprehension.  I have a bunch of one page worksheets with simple sentences in a paragraph that you read and answer questions about.  We'll be doing those, where they can practice their reading with help from me and each other.  We'll also work on our large Reading Comprehension workbook.

For our individual book goal we won't have one.  I'll work on the Level 1 books with them in our one-on-one time, but it won't be strictly limited to that. I'm trying to make this upcoming quarter easier than our last one.  There are a bunch of holidays - Halloween (the day before the quarter starts), Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's - a bunch of sugar, relatives, traveling, big meals, baking, excitement, decorating, and shopping.  We'll work on reading in our one-on-one time (as well as whenever they want to of course!), and we'll keep working on Level 1 books together, but I'm not going to force a goal on them, not with everything else going on.

We're also going to drop the Book Reports for this quarter.  I'd like to bring them back next quarter, but we'll see.  They did like doing them, but it was too much writing for them - especially when I had to spell most of the stuff out.

One thing that is not changing, however, is our family book goal.  And here it is:

• Clue Jr: The Case of the Secret Message
• Clue Jr: The Case of the Stolen Jewel
• Clue Jr: The Case of the Chocolate Fingerprints
• The Magic School Bus: The Truth About Bats
• The Magic School Bus: The Search for the Missing Bones
• The Magic School Bus: The Wild Whale Watch
• Pokemon Junior: A Pokemon Snow-Down
• Pokemon Junior: Snorlax Takes a Stand
• Pokemon Junior: Bellossom's Big Battle
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Television Monster
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Living Doll
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Batty Vampire
• Scooby-Doo's Super Case Book 2

We're going to start some new series, which I'm excited about!

1st Grade Reading List Part 1 & Book Reports

I tried to stay away and I couldn't.  So, I'll talk about reading & book lists.

So what books am I going to use to (hopefully) teach Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to read?

I picked "Step Into Reading Step 1" books because of all the series out there their's looked the easiest.  We already had a few books, we ordered a few more, and I wrote up a schedule:

• Thomas & Friends: Thomas Goes Fishing
• Team Umizoomi: Dog Days
• Sesame Street: B is for Books
• The Berenstain Bears: Big Bear Small Bear
• Thomas & Friends: The Close Shave
• Tangled: A Kingdom of Color
• DC Super Friends: Flying High
• Thomas & Friends: Thomas and the Jet Engine
• Dragon Egg

The last two on the list are back up books in case we need them.

We also have some more books if we get through those (from all different series):

• Sesame Street: Up, Up, Up!
• Peculiar Pets
• Big Beasts
• Nature's Amazing Partners
• The Lion King: Roar!
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Treasure Hunt
• Cinderella: Run, Gus, Run!
• Winnie the Pooh: Pooh's Scavenger Hunt
• Finding Nemo: Best Dad in the Sea
• Beauty and the Beast: Chip's Favorite Season
• Pocahontas: Where's Flit?
• 102 Dalmatians: Where's Oddball?
• Dinosaur: Two of a Kind

My current plan is to spend six days working on a book, however I'm willing to change my plan.  My biggest concern is that they will just memorize the book so I only want to do a couple of pages a day.  I tried to line up the books with their spelling units.  For example, when we are doing "Tangled: A Kingdom of Color" we are also covering colors in our spelling unit.  This way the book will support the spelling unit and the spelling unit will support the book, however it didn't always wok out this way.

We also have our Reading Comprehension textbook (see our curriculum) to go along with this.  My current plan is to read three books, then do a Reading Comprehension unit.  The book has activities to go along with the story so I figure it'll give us a nice break for a few days until we dive back into trying to read.  

Next, we have our chapter book reading list which is not part of our schoolwork but just a goal we try to meet each month (although this list is for three months):

• Spiderwick: The Ironwood Tree
• Spiderwick: The Wrath of Mulgarath
• Spiderwick: The Lost Chapters
• Hamtaro: Calling all Ham-Hams!
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Lost Lumberjack
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Glowing Alien
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Wandering Witch
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Haunted Hound
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Theater Phantom
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Doughy Creature
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Bigfoot Beast
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Wrestler's Ghost
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Leaping Lion
• Scooby-Doo and You: The Case of the Terrifying Pterodactyl

As we read these they will pop up on our Reading List page and our Book Series page.

One thing we are doing this quarter that we have never done before is Book Reports.  I'm hoping that making them do one book report a week will help them with learning how to read, will help their handwriting, and will help their reading comprehension - which is already pretty good but I want them to start asking questions on their own without prompts from me.  Their Book Report will be pretty basic, I'm only looking for a couple of things: title, author, fiction or nonfiction, number of pages, favorite character, favorite part of book, what they would rate it, and drawing a scene from the book.  They don't have to do a book report from these books, but I figure it will give them a good start to work with this.

Update 8/3/2013:  I updated this post because we started some of our Reading List books early.  Initially "Scooby-Doo's High Flying Adventure" was listed instead of "Spiderwick: The Lost Chapters," however we had already finished the Scooby book by the time this quarter rolled around.