Welcome To Reading Class!

What's been Going On In Reading Class?

Every Morning Starts with the following:

1.  Morning Message:

We begin each class with a Morning Message which describes what the reading class will practice today.  The students then get called to the board to find and circle the "trick words" in the message (to practice these trick words with your children at home please click on Sight Words For First Grade from the menu on the right hand side of this blog).  Below, Isabelle looks for and circles the word "and." 

While one child finds the trick word on the Smartboard, the rest of the class searches for the trick words on their morning message print out in front of them.

2. FUNDATIONS DRILLS:

We then review the sounds of all consonants, vowels and digraphs.  Below Dylan uses Baby Echo the Owl to have the rest of the class repeat the sounds he makes for each letter being displayed on the Smartboard.

3. Short Vowel Practice:

We know that short vowels are confusing, so we practice them every day too.  Below Nathan helps us to hold the sound of each vowel as he points to the letter and its sound symbol.

4. Digraph Detectives:

On some days we are "Digraph Detectives," finding all the words which have the sh, th, ch, wh or ck digraphs within them. Below Dana comes to the Smartboard to find the word which ends with the "th" sound.

But we are all detectives as we find and mark the words on our own list of practice words.  We are prepared to help Dana if she needs it, but she's a good detective and may not need our help this time around.

5. Trick Word Practice:

We know that Trick Words are words that we can't sound out -- we have to memorize them!  So we practice them every day on our iPads too.  

6.  Back To Our Seats!

Once our daily drills are complete, we go back to our seats to practice writing letters, words, trick words and sentences dictated to us by teachers in small groups.  We write on white boards on some days and in our Composition Books on other days.  

What Else Do We Do?

Well, it varies from day to day, but usually after a quick snack, we go into small groups to practice reading "just right" books with our teachers.  We also play some fun phonics games to help us with whatever we are learning in class or what we need to practice before reading a certain book.  Below we are working with teachers in small groups:

GOING ONTO LEXIA:

We then grab our headphones and practice more phonics skills on Lexia.  Lexia is a program tailored specifically for each student and his/her needs.  To practice Lexia at home, please contact me at farmer@bpsk12.org to access your child's username and password!

Writing In Our Journals:
We write in our journals every week.  We can write about whatever we want, but we have to remember to start each sentence with a capital, put spaces between our words and end each sentence with a period or other appropriate form of punctuation.  We always tap out our words and do our "best guess" spelling before asking the teacher for help.  We then get to illustrate our journal entry and put it into KidsJournal on our iPad!  It's a really fun app!

Reader's Theater:

Sometimes we have fun with Reader's Theater! Here we are with some of  acting out the book Rosie's Walk while the entire class reads the words.

Nathan is the fox chasing Rosie the Hen.

They are going "...around the pond."

"...over the haystack"

"...past the mill"

"...through the fence"

"...under the beehives"

Here is a video of the class acting out Rosie's Walk:

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG:

The right hand side of this blog is labeled "pages" and is loaded with resources for both parents and students.  The pages are: Free Reading Websites, Sight Words for First Grade and Helpful Apps to Use at Home (this page lists my favorite, most educational -- and fun-- apps).

Finally, this blog allows for comments, so if you have a question that you need answered you can either just comment directly on this page or email me at farmer@bpsk12.org and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

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