So my daughter is 7 (will be turning 8 later) and in 3rd grade.
Just wondering what your 7-8 year olds are reading?
Background to my question:
My Daughter likes to read but is not a bookworm.
But, her school has the "AR" (Accelerated Reader) program and it is in full swing now.
This is what it is if you are curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Reader
Anyway, so for my Daughter's grade level they need to accrue a certain amount of points per week.
Which thus means, reading a certain quantity of books every week and taking like tests for it.
This is in addition, to daily homework.
Yes, it is doable... but gets more arduous each grade level because the point accrual increases etc. Like now.
Anyway... going back to my question:
What books are your 7-8 year olds/3rd graders reading?
My Daughter... as I said, reads and likes to read. But there is no way, she is going to be reading 1 chapter book a night... per this AR reading requirement.
Some kids in her grade, are reading anything from "Rainbow Magic" to "Diary of a Wimpy KId" to, "Magic Tree House" to, "Harry Potter" to "Spiderwick Chronicles" etc. AND they can read 1 chapter book a night... they constantly read.
My daughter does not. She reads but as I said, she is not a constant 24 hour bookworm.
My Daughter, tests in a higher reading level... but she gets bored reading books that are thick etc.
She is still a 7 year old and likes to see some pictures in a book
Anyway, just curious what your kids are doing and any suggestions for books?
We have lot of books at home... which she still needs to read, as well.
But just curious.
Thanks!
yes, she had read Captain Underpants.
Yes, her school has the tests, for the entire AR books program. Its quite extensive.
My daughter loves the Nancy Drew Clue crew books , as well as A-Z mysteries.
They are really thin so not intimidating
edited to add: thought of a couple more:
1. Esther Averill's "Cat Club" books about the adventures of a little black cat named Jenny Linsky and her cat friends - many of the stories are quite short, while "Jenny Goes to Sea" and "The Hotel Cat" are a bit longer
2. Ursula le Guin's "Catwings" books about the adventures of, you guessed it, cat siblings who were born with wings.
Kate di Camillo's Mercy Watson books have some hilarious illustrations to go along with the already outrageous premise of the pet pig who is treated like a spoiled kid :-). And in a completely different vein, her "Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" has exquisitely detailed illustrations to go with a captivating story told in 27 short chapters.
The "Little House" books are also a good read for this age - Scholastic has also published some short chapter books that contain excerpts from the original stories grouped by theme (e.g. School Days, Animals, Sisters, etc.)
Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries, Capitol Mysteries, and Calendar Mysteries are popular with both boys and girls at this age, as are Magic Tree House.
Other books my girls read when they were 7 include the American Girl historical fiction books, assorted Beverly Cleary books, Nancy Drew Notebooks (adventures of an elementary-school-age Nancy who solves mysteries like the disappearing birthday party invitations), Katie Kazoo Switcheroo....I'm sure I'll think of others later
My just turned 8yr old is in 3rd grade this year and is reading the 39 Clues book series right now.
My daughter last year (4th grade now) was reading Junie B. Jones, Diary of a wimpy kid, and anything about dogs or horses. She really likes the Judy Blume books. They have pictures in them as well. She was never big on the magic tree house series, even though we spent a ton of money buying them. At her school she is required to read 60 minutes between Monday-Wednesday.
Has she read Captain Under Pants? I know it's a s gross as it sounds, but my son gobbled these books up. He is also a 7 yearold 3rd grader and does not read by choice, only if I ask him to. He sat down and read 3 of these in a week. I'm talking on his own free will for hours at a clip. I also buy alot of the smaller science books through scholastic and he enjoys those and can read the whole thing in like 20-30 min.
Hi
My 8 year old third grader is an avid reader. His very favorite books are the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, but those are thick books and more geared towards boys.
However, he also likes the A to Z Mysteries series. Those books are smaller, less than a hundred pages, fairly large print with a few illustrations. He also reads the Cam Jensen mysteries series. Those are also shorter chapter books.
I take my boys to the library at least once a week and they can choose whatever they want. Sometimes they choose the chapter books, but often they choose other books like "how to" books or books about animals and also book versions of their favorite TV shows (in our case Pokemon).
I just finished reading The BFG to my kids (8 & 6), my third grader loved it and could have easily read it on his own.
We're reading Hoot now, again, he loves it and it's age appropriate. I also second 39 Clues, he likes that series too.
my daughter is 4th grade reading level, as long as it has to do with princess' and fairy tales, she'll read like crazy....but like you, she does like to see picutres, but not a requirement to keep her interest
My son was reading Harry Potter in the 3rd grade. The year before I'd read him the first book chapter at a time as a bed time story. We moved and he started in a new school, so in the schools library he wanted to take out Harry Potter and read it himself. The librarian had him read the first page to her out loud so he could prove he was up to the task. She was sure surprised! The school he came from didn't have the AR tests, so he started them in the third grade and he won a trophy for earning the most points in a single year ever.
His last year in elementary school was a problem AR reading wise because most of the books he read they have tests for in middle school.
He starts middle school next week and expect he will clean up in AR points once again, but he's going to have to re-read a lot of books.
You learn to find time to read - on the bus, before lights out at bed time, after you are finished eating lunch, before supper, when your Mom turns the TV off, sometimes during recess. And you learn to read chapter books a little bit at a time (any time you have 15 min).
Does she have to/ want to participate in the accelerated reading program?
When I was little (way back in the day) I was a HUGE reader. I used to read all the time. However, I hated hated hated reading assigned books. If I remember correctly, there was the accelerated reader program or something similar back then and I refused to participate in it. I didn't want to read books from the list and I didn't want it to be a competition. I wanted to read the books I wanted to on my own time.
So if she doesn't have to participate or doesn't want to do it, then I think she would be better off reading whatever on her own time. To get her more interested in books maybe you could take her up to Barnes and Noble (I could live there) or some other book store and let her choose a book to read. I'm not big on buying toys for occasions other than Christmas and birthdays, but I do buy a lot of books.
Good luck!
Junie B. Jones are wonderful and entertaining. They're kind of like the modern day Ramona Quimby books.
you just need to find the books that spark her interest. for my son it was books that made him laugh. go for books with humor in them. here are a few series that he really liked (also make sure your understanding exactly what the requirements are a full chapter book a night is not realistic for every 3rd grader most schools it is 20 minutes of reading out loud per night)
Hank the Cowdog
Judy Moody
Boxcar children
Lemony Snicket
romana the pest and that whole beverly cleary series it includes
romana the pest
beezus and ramona
henry huggins
ellen tebbits etc....
the amber brown series
babysitters club little sister series
good luck
Find out from your school or PTO if they own the tests for just a few books or for the entire AR program. Last year, our PTO invested some funds and bought the entire package of quizzes.
So yesterday (and continuing today), I've been going through our home library and labeling any books that provide AR points. I've been very surprised at how many books we already own are in there. Anything from most of the Dr. Seuss collection to little Berenstain Bears books we got from Chik-fil-A are in the AR collection! Almost all quizzes earn only 0.5 pts each (until you get to much longer books), so it doesn't matter much what book gets read. Even some LIttle Golden Books were in there!!
In 3rd grade, she might soon tire of some of those beginning reader books, but any book in the AR system earns her the points as long as she hasn't already taken that particular test.
I made the mistake of telling my 7-yr-old 2nd grade son that some of the much longer books earn 6 pts each, so now he wants to try reading them. Those are books like _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_, and _Runaway Ralph_.
Our school library has fun books like "Fly High, Fly Guy" and _The Principle from the Black Lagoon._ Our public library now labels their AR books, too.
Anyway, I would start by having her reread some of her books from home and taking the quizzes. Even books below her level will earn her points. Then find out what interests her. Perhaps she likes biographies more than princess stories. Or maybe the Little House books.
This morning we took the AR test on _Olivia Forms a Band_, which is a book we had at home. Level 2.4, 0.5 pts.
Send me a msg if you want to chat about AR.
Here is the "Home Connect" page so you can keep track of what books she's read:
https://hosted162.renlearn.com/218386/HomeConnect/Login.aspx
This is how you check to see if a book is in the system:
http://www.arbookfind.com/
Have fun!! :)
Updated===
For those of you with older kids who are into Christianity, I thought I'd share this: I discovered this week that the books of the Bible (NIV) are AR books!
