Our students have been working on building their word knowledge through a variety of hands on activities each morning to start their day. Having the variety of choices keeps the students engaged and promotes an individualized planning approach to meet students at the level of word work they are ready for.
We have been working on building our reading stamina each day during "Read to Self" time. The students understand that the 10 ways they are going to get better at reading is to: read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read. As a class we created a poster of expectations that remind the students of what "read to self" time should look like and sound like in order for it to be a successful learning opportunity for all of our students. This part of our day also provides the teachers with time to meet one-on-one with students or work in small groups. The "Daily 5" is a literacy structure that teaches independence in a differentiated learning environment that focuses on developing individual student goals for building comprehension of text, accuracy with applying reading strategies, and fluency when reading a variety of good fit texts. It is a structure that also develops student's word building knowledge and writing skills. It consists of 5 tasks that are introduced individually. When each task is introduced, students will participate in a discussion about what it will "look like" and "sound like" to engage in the task independently. The students will then work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing that task. When all five skills are introduced and the students are independently engaged in reading and writing activities, we as teachers are able to work in small groups and confer one on one with each of our students. This structure is effective, the results are amazing and the students are excited about their Daily 5 time. The daily 5 tasks are: 1) Read to Self, 2) Work on Writing, 3) Word Work, 4) Read to Someone and 5) Listen to Reading. This week we began to practice "Read to Self." There are a lot of components to engaging in successful "read to self" time that were discussed as we prepared our students for their journey into their "read to self" task. We developed an i-chart as a reminder of these expectations that we can refer to often. Not all students are ready to pick up a book and begin to read the words so other options for "read to self" time were explored and modelled by the teachers. Students were introduced to the 3 Ways to Read a Book. We would love for you to tell us where your favourite place to read is when you are doing "read to self." Please tell us in the comment section of this blog post.
Clipart from Google What a fabulous day we had together in grade 1! It was a very overwhelming and exciting start to the day as students reconnected with friends from kindergarten, organized themselves and their many supplies and explored their new learning environment.
As our morning continued on, it didn't take long for students to identify the value in ensuring our classroom is a positive, respectful, productive and safe environment for leaders and learners as we sat together as a class and established some rules and routines for the classroom, hallway and playground. The highlight of our day was most likely the mystery of the missing gingerbread men. As clues were left behind to guide us on our search, we were able to take a tour of the school to explore the many areas that we will be using this year. Our search ended in the library, where our precious gingerbread men were waiting, ready for icing and candy. Students ended the day with smiles on their faces, high fives and hugs for their teachers; it was a great day! We know it is going to be a remarkable year in grade one and our students are going to achieve many great things. Mrs.Quance & Ms.VanMaarion |
Upcoming EventsMay 14 - Beach Day AuthorsMrs.Quance & Ms.VanMaarion Archives
May 2015
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