When readers walk along the path of reading, fluency is usually one of the last stops. Before fluency, there’s a lot to cover – letter names and sounds, phonological awareness, and phonemic awareness like decoding and segmenting. There’s so much work before a child is ready to become fluent in his or her reading. But when they do, it truly helps students become the best reader they can be.
Why is Fluency Important?
Fluency bridges the gap between learning to read and actually reading for information. In the formative, beginning stages of reading, students are working hard to learn their letter sounds, decode words and segment them – they are truly learning how to read. This takes a ton of work and practice. But when they’re past this stage, fluency comes next. This is where they actually sound like readers, and the benefits of fluency are pretty endless.
As stated before, fluency is really a bridge between beginning reading and reading to learn. Once a reader has become fluent, they have made their way across that bridge. And what’s on the other side? Ease of decoding, confidence, and comprehension! Fluency provides all of these things to students. It improves their ability to decode words. It builds confidence in readers which then leads to the desire to want to read more and brings enjoyment to reading. It lends itself to comprehension, which is the essence of reading and the ultimate end goal.
When a reader is fluent, they aren’t spending all of their time and energy learning to decode words, paying attention to punctuation, and making their way through a text. Instead, fluency allows them to smoothly read a text and that frees up their brain to actually think about the text and what it says instead of sounding out words on the page. In short, fluency makes all other aspects of reading easier and come more naturally to them. And that’s why it’s so important to focus on fluency when our students are ready for it.
Winter Themed Fluency Activities
I know we don’t like to face it, but the truth holds – we are in the thick of the winter months. These cold, dreary months can feel long and slow, and we beg for some excitement within the walls of our classrooms. Enter: Winter Themed Fluency Activities! Fluency activities (these in particular) are so much fun because you can really see the progression take place.
These fluency activities will breathe life into these winter months, and students will come into spring having grown so much in their reading! Plus, since fluency builds confidence in readers, this excitement allows the students to make great and exciting gains. And what better time to do it than during the indoor recess season?
Let’s unpack all these Winter Fluency Activities have to offer!
Why you want this resource:
This resource will help readers develop their fluency skills in an engaging way. These activities will not only help pass the time in the winter, but will also help students with accuracy, expression, pace, smoothness, and comprehension. Imagine spending all winter with these passages and watching your students grow in all of these fluency areas! Students will also respond to comprehension questions so that you can be sure they’re reading for information. Furthermore, these passages will help build reading confidence in students which in turn creates excitement and wonder around reading.
What’s included:
When you get this resource, you’ll find:
- two reading fluency passages
- one fluency poem
- one Reader’s Theatre play
These are all winter themed, of course! Each text includes three additional fluency focused activities such as:
- comprehension questions
- repeated fluency readings (words, phrases, and sentences)
- scooping phrases
- nonsense phrases
- Change Your Voice
- I Have, Who Has?
Who this resource is for and how it can be used:
This resource is for all sorts of educators! Classroom teachers (particularly 1st and 2nd grade), special education teachers with fluency goals, reading specialists, classroom aides and assistants, parents, ESL teachers, and tutors will all find this resource helpful.
It can be used for small group work if you have a set of students with a specific need. These passages also make great partner work because of the funny voices and nonsense phrases. You might also choose to get a group together for the I Have, Who Has? Game!
This resource is also a great activity to send home to students who need extra practice with fluency. And, with the Reader’s Theater and entertaining activities, it’s sure to be a fun experience between a child and parent.
If you want to get your readers up and moving about the room, slip these fluency passages and activities into dry erase pocket protectors and have your students move in groups, switching from one fluency center to the next. This can be done numerous times for practice.
If you’re looking for more:
Check out my blog post on The Fluency Files to learn more about how you can accelerate your student growth in fluency. Or rather, if you want to get your hands on it right away and start seeing amazing results, grab the The Fluency Files right here! If you’d like a plethora of fluency passages and activities you’d like to grab from all year long, check out my countless fluency activities in my store so you can have a wide variety to choose from.
Since there’s so many different aspects to focus on when you’re mastering fluency in your classroom, it can leave you with a feeling of not knowing where to start. But as always, I’ve got you covered with my wide variety of activities that you can have at your fingertips each day. With so many avenues to choose from, you’re able to decide what’s right for you and your students!
