Reading Buddies

First of all, happy Friday! It has been a week full of mild chaos change: losing a student (her family moved), math testing, and inside recess (due to all the miserable much-needed rain). But, we ended it on a good note - Friday book buddies!

Every other Friday, each of my students reads to a 6th grade book buddy. We alternate classrooms, and it's always a big treat for my kiddos to visit the 6th grade classroom (which is outside in a portable building). I look forward to seeing a few of my former students (sadly, many of them move away after first grade). Some of my students are nervous at first, but they seem to warm up to their reading partner pretty quickly.

At the beginning of the year, we spent a lot of time in the areas of read-to-self and read-to-someone, (from The Daily 5), that my students were able to transfer their good reading habits to their book buddy time. I was very impressed and proud of my students and their partners as they found a good spot and got busy reading immediately! Since my students' book boxes are full of self-selected books, they stay engaged in reading for the whole 30 minutes. Some of the partners are pictured below.

I spend this time quickly monitoring my students reading and making note of the level and genre of their book choices. It is nice to see the 6th graders, some of whom have had some behavior issues (typical 12-year-old angst), participating wholeheartedly during this time.

I've partnered with the same 6th grade teacher for the last several years. Do you do book buddies in your classroom/ school? We usually extend the classroom partners to include Valentine's Day exchanges and an end-of-year ice cream get-together. If you have done book buddies, what do you do beyond the reading buddy time?