Welcome


Welcome to our Reading Promises Blog for families at Sinking Springs Elementary! Thank you for stopping by to read, learn, and share with us.

The purpose of this blog is to connect the readers of this blog and their reading promise experiences. The Reading Promise Project is based upon the reading streak author Alice Ozma chronicles in her real life memoir, The Reading Promise, between her and her father. What started as a seemingly lofty goal of 100 consecutive nights of reading together when Alice was in fourth grade, turned into a streak lasting until Alice's first day of college, 3,218 days. Our project aims to inspire as many others as possible to create reading promises of their own.

If you are a Sinking Springs parent or student, I hope that you will use this blog as a way to communicate with other families about your reading streak experiences. Tell us stories from your daily reading experiences, what books you've loved and what books you've passed up. Share your successes with us to celebrate and your challenges with us to collaborate on solutions. What little magical moments have arisen because of the commitment you've made to reading with your family? What books have you found that are must-reads for other families?

If you are a new visitor to our blog, I invite you to join our conversation and share your thoughts and experiences! From what I've learned by following Alice Ozma on various social media networks, our readers are not the first, nor the last to be inspired to begin reading streaks. I've seen other stories about amazing family reading moments and the readers at our school would love to hear about thoughts, experiences, suggestions, successes, and challenges from anyone else out there who is taking the same journey or just interesting in sharing his/her thoughts. Contribute to our conversation! Become a part of our online community of readers. We'd love to have you.

Join us in the effort to make reading a special part of your everyday life. Make a promise to read with your family, your classroom, your friends, your loved ones.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Movie Book Club Update

I’m a bit behind on my Reading Promise Book Club updates so forgive me for that. 

In November, we met to discuss From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler written by E.L. Konigsburg and watch the movie based on the book, The Hideaways. This group does love their books for the details that they provide. “Way more details than a movie,” commented one young reader. “I like picturing it in my mind,” responded another.


Our group was horrified by the idea that running away would make anything better, much to the delight of their parents. They found the movie a bit lacking as it failed to hold their attention at times, but gushed enthusiastically about the book. When my older boys were younger, we were able to watch the movie version with Lauren Bacall with the same title as the book, however my library no longer carries it and I found it on Amazon.com for a mere $180. Ha! 

Our holiday read was A Dog Named Christmas written by Greg Kincaid. Our family did this one backwards: last year we watched the movie and this year we read the book. It is a great family tale and I highly recommend it! The other three families (yes, we had another one join our group!) thoroughly enjoyed the story and the kids loved watching the movie tonight, snuggled under fleece blankets and cuddled up with stuffed animal friends. One thought the cougar scene was too detailed in the book and liked it better in the movie. The rest thought the book was better, of course. 

We’re choosing a favorite for next month, Matilda by Roald Dahl. Many have seen the movie, but not read the book. 

Happy reading in 2013! 
Momma Holmes

1 comment:

  1. I love that your readers are so excited about their visualizations as they read. It really shows that they are using the details from the text to support their metacognition!!!

    I have to agree with them. I always have a better picture in my head compared to the movie, so the books win out for me.

    I'm excited to hear what your group thinks of Matilda!

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