It’s almost time for our amazing reading labs! In the meantime, to warm up for all the fluency fun on Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided to give you a super engaging to do with your kids this Halloween.

To become better readers, confidence is truly key. The more students practice reading in front of others, the more comfortable they will be. So, how do we disguise the hard work of presenting a text to an audience as being fun and not scary?

Readers Theater is the way to do it – and talk about engaging!

You can find some incredible, hilarious, free plays to give your kids here. Or, if your child is more of a creative writer, they can even write their own spooky play to perform in front of the family. Not only does this give them the agency to decide what they want to read, but it also creates a fun, sweet memory for your family to cherish – and have on video for future embarrassment…and the best part is – they’ll already be dressed for the part! 😃

When they are practicing their lines, it’s important to ask them to really consider the character they are playing (which will help them to unpack and unearth the “tone” of the speaker – a critical aspect of fluency). Additionally, have them pay attention to the punctuation – if there’s an exclamation mark – to be excited and add emphasis. If there’s a dash or a comma – to add a pause. If there’s a question mark – to be inquisitive.

Not only does the activity allow them to be more purposeful as readers, but it also allows for an authentic audience to make all of that hard work worthwhile!

We’ll be doing some Readers Theater ourselves during this coming reading lab, so make sure that if you haven’t signed your child up, to do so using this link: https://tinyurl.com/3n7j4few. Below is a graphic, which details the preparation needed.

We can’t wait to see the students there! 🥰