Introducing. . .The Reader Eater

Wood Cookie no more. . . Meet, The Reader Eater!

This fall, a  colleague gave my classroom this awesome, "wood cookie"  when he spoke to the entire kindergarten during a unit of study about materials.  It has been sitting in my classroom since then.  

Kids have sanded it with sandpaper,  attempted to count the rings, (with varying final totals,) picked at the bark a bit and used it a base for various crayon rubbings.  

I knew there was more lying in wait, I had yet to figure it out.

A deliciously literate snack

Before he met his destiny, just a regular "wood cookie"

Recently, as I caught it in my glance for the 217 time, I saw it with eyes, a nose, and an eagerly waiting mouth, open for a snack. 

But, what would my students feed it?  

Garbage, recycled paper, stray mittens?  Nope, sight words of course.  

They could feed The Reader Eater, sight words on a spoon, but only the words they could successfully.

They'd have to practice reading until they could  fluently read all of the words.  Once they had mastered the 50 they need to know by the end of the year they could hunt for words in magazines. They could bring in different environmental print from home or around the school.

 In Minnesota sports words like hockey and baseball are big, Go Twins! 

How about color words, numbers, Spanish words, feelings?  

Please, someone stop me. 

Poor Reader Eater, is going to get sick!

Sure enough, it is a hit! Kids are bringing in all kinds of words for the Reader Eater, to snack on. They are having so much feeding him with their successes that I am certain they don't even realize how much they are learning. Oh, yeah!