Our Reading Wheel

At school reading is a huge part of our day and different teachers have different ways of organising their reading programs. I use a 'reading wheel' to display my reading groups and reading activities.

My reading wheel is made out of laminated card and a split pin. The split pin allows the wheel to rotate around. On one side of the wheel I have four colours for four reading groups, the other has three colours for three reading groups, the side I use depends on the amount of children and the spread of reading ages in my class. Although you can't see it on the photo I just write on straight on to the wheel the names of the children in that particular group in permanent marker. That way their names can be easily removed with whiteboard cleaner.

As the wheel spins each group can easily see which activity they should be completing. I have taken photos of all of my reading activities and use these to make a laminated label. These labels are stuck to the reading wheel with blu-tack. As I make or buy a new reading activity I take a photo and make up a label to laminate. Before each reading session I change the labels so the children experience a variety of reading activities each week. My reading activities include lots of reading practice, alphabet and phonic activities, sight word activities, sentence building games, and social games using our play equipment like mobilo, duplo, or playing in the home corner.

As I finish reading with a group I ring a small hand bell and the children like to take turns rotating the wheel around. They know which activity they need to move to next by simply looking at the wheel. This encourages more independence and after a while of following the same routine, some children are able to predict which activity they will be at next.