Reading Detectives

It never seems to fail that I forget my laptop when I come up with reading ideas for my kids. Translation: My school computer has a horrific font selection to choose from! 

I should be embarrassed to post this, but since I didn't use Times New Roman, I'll let it slide...

My kindergarten reading groups are coming right along...I have been extremely proud of the progress they've made since the beginning of the school year! Monster proud. Lately, they have been sounding out every single sound in a word even if they can automatically read the word. I've tried everything I can to get them to just read the word if they know it...including standing on the table as "Captain Read the Word".

So, we decided to become word detective readers! I placed 20 basic code words (with numbers) around my classroom (pink words were ones I knew they'd be able to read easily and purple words were ones that might present more of a challenge).

And each student was given a "Detective Reading Tracker" sheet (below) in which they drew pictures to indicate the word that was read. (Clearly, #4 is a crab!)

I told the kids if they sounded the words out, other detectives in the room would hear them! In order to complete their "reading mission" they had to read every word on their own! And they did.

I've attached a copy of the Word Doc I created to do this with them...feel free to use and change the words so they are appropriate for your kiddos! (If you jazz it up with better fonts, please share!)