Reading opens the door to independent learning; it’s such an important skill to master! Since I have several kids in the “Learning to Read” stage of their education, I was thrilled to review the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook and R.E.A.D. Review Pack from The Crafty Classroom.
What’s Included?
I received a downloadable file for both products. The R.E.A.D. Review Pack contains 28 readers focusing on sight words and word families. You have to print the three pages for each book, then cut on the lines and staple to assemble. It was a straight forward process, and the kids enjoyed helping put them together:
The R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook contains 785 pages of early reading content. It’s an entire 36 week curriculum, designed to be taught four days a week (which is our schedule!)
This curriculum is a solid kindergarten language arts curriculum, covering reading skills, handwriting, and grammar. You do have to print it out, but the good news is, it looks pretty even when printed on a black and white printer.
You’ll need some basic office supplies as you work through this curriculum, such as:
- Cardstock
- A Notebook
- Scissors
- Glue
- Crayons
- Pencils
How’d We Use This?
I actually used these products with two different children. The R.E.A.D. Review Pack was perfect for Jeffrey. He needs some extra practice with reading, and these books were perfect.
He helped me assemble the books and create a tissue box holder for them:
Since we were just practicing and didn’t need to spend much time on instruction, I had Jeffrey read a book three times a week. He had to read it without error before he could move onto the next. There was a nice combination of sight words and word family words, and each book opened with a review page.
I like that these books were printed out, since I could have him write in them. He highlighted word families, underlined words I asked him to, and colored a couple of the pictures.
If I need another copy of the same book, I just reprint. So easy! 😀
The R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook
Since my little Sydney is in kindergarten, this curriculum was a perfect fit. I like how the two products worked together; there’s a schedule in the R.E.A.D. Review Pack indicating which week corresponds with each book.
This curriculum focuses on one or more word families each week. It starts with AM, ends with ACK, and along the way covers word familes and blends such as:
- INK
- ALL
- CH,SH,TH,WH
- OP
- EG
Each week, there’s also a focus on two or three sight words.
Side note: Offering a balanced approach to reading instruction is essential. Being able to sound out unknown words with the help of phonics is important, but it’s also important to have a vocabulary of words you can read instantly. For too many years there was a battle between whole language and phonics in the schools, and I appreciate this curriculum covering both. It’s what’s best for kids, at least in my opinion!
Additionally, there’s a focus for language arts each week, helping students gain a basic understanding of grammar.
A print ready curriculum, you can print out the entire thing all at once and then store in a binder. Or, if you’re like me, you can print off what you need at the start of each week to avoid dealing with over 700 pieces of paper all at once.
As your student works on new sight word flashcards, you’ll need a place to store them. A ziploc baggie works well!
The Daily Components
There’s a daily warmup you can do, but since we already have a calendar routine in place, I skipped that part. Each day, there’s also a reading activity, a writing activity, a handwriting activity, a fun activity or game, and a sight word activity. It sounds like a lot, but everything goes really quickly. Depending on your child, it’ll take 15-30 minutes each day. We tended to be closer to the 15, unless there was a really fun game that we played for a while.
The daily schedule changes slightly on weeks focusing on blends instead of sight words, which is something to be aware of.
Two days a week, the child works on building an interactive notebook. They paste activities into it, and do some other tasks. You can make these fancy, or just do what we did and use a simple spiral notebook. It was inexpensive, and we already had it on hand.
My Thoughts on These Products
I was pleased with the quality of both these products, and the ease of use. There wasn’t a ton of prep work to be done, and my kids were learning from them.
I’ll be continuing to use the notebook with Sydney, and the books with Sydney, Ellie, and Jeffrey.
To learn more about these and other products from The Crafty Classroom, click on the banner below. Their USA Activity Bundle looks like it’d be a fun addition to our US History studies this year!
