Everyone has a word wall in their room with sight words and other seasonal vocabulary words. Why not write a simple sentence using a sentence strip and place it under the letter.
Here is how mine looks:
P (Letter)
Put, people, play (Words)
I can play______. (Simple Sentence)
During writing time in the Daily Five, students choose a letter, write the sentence for that letter, and illustrate their sentence. I started this week as we are almost done with sight words and letters. Make the sentences simple so everyone should be able to read and write them at this time of the year. Students are practicing their handwriting skills, as well as responding to a sentence and using words and illustrations appropriately.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Bulletin Board Materials
Many teachers at BRADT have made materials for pocket charts and bulletin boards to organize The Daily Five. I think it would be a great idea to have a folder on the public drive to house all of our great ideas. No one has time to reinvent the wheel! There is a lot of great stuff on Teacherspayteachers.com as well. Let's get that started!!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Daily Five Smartboard Activities.
During our Daily Five word work, we use sites from the web on out Smartboard.
Here are a few of my favorites:
www.abcya.com:
Click on Kindergarten
Click on Pre-school/Kindergarten
You can click on the online resources, then click on the Archive Games.
We've been using the Bat's Word Family Game for the "at" word family words.
I have also gone back and used September's Find the letter game.
All of these web sites have an into to the game which tells the students how to play. Students take turns with the stylist to play each game. The only issues I have had is the occasional child who can not take their turn, so they need to sit out until they are ready. I also position myself at a table doing Guided Reading with a group so I can intercept any issues.
Try it! I think you will be very surprised how fast your students will learn basic reading concepts.
Here are a few of my favorites:
www.abcya.com:
Click on Kindergarten
- Upper and Lower case letter match
- ABC Order: Oh No! the alphabet has fallen and is all mixed up. Students need to move the letters into place.
- Sight Word BINGO: Students listen to a word, tap on it and if they are correct, a cute monster will appear.
Click on Pre-school/Kindergarten
- Animal Alphabet: students are asked to click on the animal that has the correct Alphabet Sound.
You can click on the online resources, then click on the Archive Games.
We've been using the Bat's Word Family Game for the "at" word family words.
I have also gone back and used September's Find the letter game.
All of these web sites have an into to the game which tells the students how to play. Students take turns with the stylist to play each game. The only issues I have had is the occasional child who can not take their turn, so they need to sit out until they are ready. I also position myself at a table doing Guided Reading with a group so I can intercept any issues.
Try it! I think you will be very surprised how fast your students will learn basic reading concepts.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Word Work
We implemented some word work in Mrs. Pace's class today. Boy was it rigorous! The good thing is that after modeling whole class the children practiced with Mrs. Pace in a small group. The students built -at words with letter cards and then wrote the words and illustrated them. We are thinking that we may switch over to building sight words next week. They may have an easier time being independent on that task. Doesn't hurt to try!
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Differientiating the Daily Five
Hello Everyone,
Here are a few ideas to modify your
Daily Five activities for your A.I.S. Pre-A reading students.
Write Letters in their name on a
laminated sentence strip.
· Use for Rainbow Writing.
· Use to match magnetic letters to the letters in their name.
· Use to have students trace the letters with their finger.
Write the letters of their name on a
sentence strip with yellow marker.
· Have students trace over the letters with a pencil or
crayon.
· Cut the letters apart and have students use the laminated name
sentence strip to match the letters.
· Use cut up letters in for their name to show you the first
letter of their name and the last letter of the name.
· Mix up the cut up letters in their name and have the student
put their name back in order.
Give each student a Personal Letter
Bag.
· Use your magnetic letters, or other laminated letters to
have students ID the letter. If they get the letter right, it goes into their
bag. The next day, go over the letters in the bag. If they get the letter right
it stays in the bag, if they get it wrong, the letter comes out of the bag.
Continue process until students are confident with the ID of all of the letters
both upper case and lower case.
· Use letters in their bag to name a word with a letter they
know.
· Use the letters in their bag to name letters from left to
right.
The A.I.S. students in our class go
through these "ABC Drills" every day. As they get more confident in
their abilities, the time to do these drills goes faster, and you can add more
activities as they progress. These are great foundation drills to increase and
master basic concepts of reading.
Many of these ideas come from The
Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson.
Happy Daily Five!
Melanie Weinlein
Friday, October 11, 2013
Considerations for ELLs
Well..I think I finally figured this out! Fingers crossed!
I was hoping to contribute some suggestions for working with the ELLs in Kerrianne's classroom that may be helpful to you as you engage in Daily 5. I read Sharon's blog about reading the pictures. Wonderful place to start for ELLs! Many of our ELLs come to us with extremely limited background knowledge, experiences and overall literacy in their native language. Vocabulary building is vital! They will acquire much through your picture walks! It will be important to remember that almost everything will be new to them. Attaching a word to what they see in the pictures of books will build their vocabulary and open up a new world for them. When they become familiar with a book, perhaps they will choose to picture read it independently in the classroom and with repetition, will begin to add those words to their English vocabulary. For the lower level students, it is appropriate for for them to repeat after you to learn new words. They will begin to move from one word utterances to phrases to sentences as they progress through their stages of language proficiency. It is much like babies acquiring their language! Very exciting! At this point in your lessons it is acceptable for lower level ELLs to repeat and perhaps offer phrases while engaged in your reading groups. It is also important to remember that there is what is called a "language ego" involved in learning a new language. Think back to when you studied a foreign language...there is a whole host of emotions attached to how you think you may sound when you speak, an uncomfortableness. So, the "affective" side is a huge factor. Some students may/may not be more risk takers than others when it comes to exploring with language, particularly when it is not their native tongue. Also important to remember is that there is a stage known as "the silent period." This stage refers to the receptive ability of taking in the language but not quite ready to express yet. Students should not be rushed through their "silent period." I can tell you from experience that when they are ready, oh boy, it all just flows out!!! What is critical right now is that you are there for them, encouraging them, supporting them, reminding them they are special, and showing a sensitivity to their needs. You do that on a daily basis...they are very lucky students to have you!
In considering that the students in Kerrianne's class are quite diverse with respect to language/culture, I thought it would be helpful to address some of the differences between their native languages and English. There are certain sounds in English that are non-existent in other languages as well as differences in phonology and grammar. This may help you in anticipating some of the challenges students may have with certain sounds/words. Some of the native languages spoken by Kerrianne's ELLs are Russian, Punjabi (India), and Chinese.
Russian: It is difficult for Russian speakers to acquire native-speaker pronunciation/intonation of English due to differing phonological systems. This may lend itself to why it is quite difficult to understand this particular student's spoken English right now. Also interesting is that certain intonations in Russian may be interpreted as abrupt or impolite in English and this may come through in her spoken English. Though she may not intend for something to come out rudely in English, it might be considered that way! Russian has 5 vowels but they do not distinguish between long and short. So, this is an area where she may need more support. The sounds in English that are especially difficult for Russian speakers are "-er," "-ur," "-or" particularly after "w." Words such as "were," "work," "worth" may be tricky. It is also hard for Russian speakers to discriminate between sounds in "sat/set," or "sit/seat." Also "v" may be substitued for "w" or vice versa. The "ng" sound is also troublesome at the end of words and may be dropped. With respect to grammar, Russian ELLs may omit auxiliary verbs ( like "do") and articles--a, an, the--as the Russian language does not have them. Russian is a very phonetic language so spelling can be largely predicted by a word's pronunciation and vice versa--not so in English as we know!
Punjabi: It is a highly phonetic language. There are not as many vowel sounds as we have in English so this will present a problem in pronunciation. It may cause problems in distinguishing the sounds in words such as "said/sad," "par/paw," "vet/wet." Other problem sounds for our Punjabi speaking student will be "th" and "s" at the beginning, middle, and end of words. Consonant clusters may be tricky also. Punjabi does not have the auxiliary "do/does" so when speaking English, speakers of Punjabi may omit this word. It is typical for Punjabi speakers of English to omit or misuse prepositions (location words) as well. For example, they may substitute "on" for "at." Punjabi is a subject-object-verb sentence structure. This is different from the English subject-verb-object, so when speaking English an ELL may make mistakes with word order.
Chinese: Chinese is a monosyllabic language and each character has only one syllable. Most Chinese sounds will begin with a consonant and end with a vowel. As a result of this, Chinese speakers of English may try to add a vowel sound to the end of English words. We are teaching the students how to "clip" sounds so this will help with that! Some sounds that are non-existent in Chinese and/or will present challenges for Chinese speakers learning English are the following:
I was hoping to contribute some suggestions for working with the ELLs in Kerrianne's classroom that may be helpful to you as you engage in Daily 5. I read Sharon's blog about reading the pictures. Wonderful place to start for ELLs! Many of our ELLs come to us with extremely limited background knowledge, experiences and overall literacy in their native language. Vocabulary building is vital! They will acquire much through your picture walks! It will be important to remember that almost everything will be new to them. Attaching a word to what they see in the pictures of books will build their vocabulary and open up a new world for them. When they become familiar with a book, perhaps they will choose to picture read it independently in the classroom and with repetition, will begin to add those words to their English vocabulary. For the lower level students, it is appropriate for for them to repeat after you to learn new words. They will begin to move from one word utterances to phrases to sentences as they progress through their stages of language proficiency. It is much like babies acquiring their language! Very exciting! At this point in your lessons it is acceptable for lower level ELLs to repeat and perhaps offer phrases while engaged in your reading groups. It is also important to remember that there is what is called a "language ego" involved in learning a new language. Think back to when you studied a foreign language...there is a whole host of emotions attached to how you think you may sound when you speak, an uncomfortableness. So, the "affective" side is a huge factor. Some students may/may not be more risk takers than others when it comes to exploring with language, particularly when it is not their native tongue. Also important to remember is that there is a stage known as "the silent period." This stage refers to the receptive ability of taking in the language but not quite ready to express yet. Students should not be rushed through their "silent period." I can tell you from experience that when they are ready, oh boy, it all just flows out!!! What is critical right now is that you are there for them, encouraging them, supporting them, reminding them they are special, and showing a sensitivity to their needs. You do that on a daily basis...they are very lucky students to have you!
In considering that the students in Kerrianne's class are quite diverse with respect to language/culture, I thought it would be helpful to address some of the differences between their native languages and English. There are certain sounds in English that are non-existent in other languages as well as differences in phonology and grammar. This may help you in anticipating some of the challenges students may have with certain sounds/words. Some of the native languages spoken by Kerrianne's ELLs are Russian, Punjabi (India), and Chinese.
Russian: It is difficult for Russian speakers to acquire native-speaker pronunciation/intonation of English due to differing phonological systems. This may lend itself to why it is quite difficult to understand this particular student's spoken English right now. Also interesting is that certain intonations in Russian may be interpreted as abrupt or impolite in English and this may come through in her spoken English. Though she may not intend for something to come out rudely in English, it might be considered that way! Russian has 5 vowels but they do not distinguish between long and short. So, this is an area where she may need more support. The sounds in English that are especially difficult for Russian speakers are "-er," "-ur," "-or" particularly after "w." Words such as "were," "work," "worth" may be tricky. It is also hard for Russian speakers to discriminate between sounds in "sat/set," or "sit/seat." Also "v" may be substitued for "w" or vice versa. The "ng" sound is also troublesome at the end of words and may be dropped. With respect to grammar, Russian ELLs may omit auxiliary verbs ( like "do") and articles--a, an, the--as the Russian language does not have them. Russian is a very phonetic language so spelling can be largely predicted by a word's pronunciation and vice versa--not so in English as we know!
Punjabi: It is a highly phonetic language. There are not as many vowel sounds as we have in English so this will present a problem in pronunciation. It may cause problems in distinguishing the sounds in words such as "said/sad," "par/paw," "vet/wet." Other problem sounds for our Punjabi speaking student will be "th" and "s" at the beginning, middle, and end of words. Consonant clusters may be tricky also. Punjabi does not have the auxiliary "do/does" so when speaking English, speakers of Punjabi may omit this word. It is typical for Punjabi speakers of English to omit or misuse prepositions (location words) as well. For example, they may substitute "on" for "at." Punjabi is a subject-object-verb sentence structure. This is different from the English subject-verb-object, so when speaking English an ELL may make mistakes with word order.
Chinese: Chinese is a monosyllabic language and each character has only one syllable. Most Chinese sounds will begin with a consonant and end with a vowel. As a result of this, Chinese speakers of English may try to add a vowel sound to the end of English words. We are teaching the students how to "clip" sounds so this will help with that! Some sounds that are non-existent in Chinese and/or will present challenges for Chinese speakers learning English are the following:
- "v" may be pronounced as "w"
- "th" may be pronounced as "s" or "z"
- consonant clusters like "tr," "dr," "st," "pl"
- using the verb "to be" is difficult for them in English because it never changes in Chinese
- misuse of pronouns (saying "he" for "she," etc.)
- incorrect use of verb tenses
- omission of articles (a, an, the)
- prepositions/location words
- "r" clusters and "l" clusters
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Implementing the Daily 5 in K for the First Time
I was amazed as I read the Daily 5 book this past weekend at the amount of days it takes to begin to implement the Daily 5. It is Thursday and my class is only up to 6 minutes of Read to Self (we began Monday)! Each day we go over the "rules" and we talk about what we noticed after the 5-6 minutes. Does anyone have any tips on how I can get them to increase the amount of time? Should I move onto the next one Monday? I feel like if I wait for them to get to even 10 minutes, it will be a couple of weeks!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Multi-age grouping during Daily 5
Kerrianne Pace and I are talking about collaborating to plan Daily 5 activities for our two classes. One idea is to involve my first graders working as mentors to her kindergarteners and possibly some of her higher level readers coming to my classroom to participate in our first grade Daily 5 activities. I have found this year that the key to Daily 5 is to teach each component slowly and thoroughly. We took 1 week to build stamina in each area. My students are starting to branch out now to go through 4 daily 5 activities daily. I have not taught Read to Someone yet. They are doing very well with following the guidelines that we have established as a class. I am pleased with how it is going so far. I have pocket charts with their pictures and I am assigning the order in which they progress through their daily 5 activities at this time (to separate kids that I know may be distracted by eachother and also to group together similar reading levels at times). As the year progresses, I really would like to allow the children more freedom in choosing their own order of how they would like to proceed through our Daily 5 time. There are a lot of great resources and ideas for word work on Teachers pay Teachers that are Freebies.
Incorporating Journeys into Daily 5
I think many of the Journey lessons will lend themselves nicely to the Daily 5 as mini-lessons. I have already used the mini-lesson for writing (labeling) as one example. Next week I am going to use the interactive read aloud as another mini-lesson prior to letting them move into their Daily 5 time. My other mini-lesson will be teaching a reading strategy prior to a Daily 5 time. Im hoping my time management work out and there is still enough time to teach the math and Project Read lessons!
Multi-age Daily 5 opportunities
Just a little test to see how this is working for multiple people to blog together at Bradt.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Mobile Device App
I found it! You can download the app "blogger" for your smart phone to access this blog. I know that after school hours I am out and about and this will be convenient for me. I am looking forward to getting in touch with my colleagues this way. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow as well!!
Three Ways to Read
Let's share our experiences with the "Three Ways to Read" mini-lessons!
In Mrs. Pace's Kindergarten room, we have been working on how to read the pictures. For some reason the kids are mesmerized when a stranger comes in who is interested in their learning. That is where I come into the picture! In this lesson...which lasted for two days...we really focused on modeling what a reader says when looking at the pictures in a book. This is a great time to use the terms PICTURE WALK and PICTURE CLUES!
Mrs. Pace and I both showed the children what we would say when looking at a picture. For instance...if the picture was of a squirrel...we wouldn't just say "squirrel". We might say, "I see a squirrel and he is building a nest. He is getting ready for winter." It is empowering for the children to get all of those great vocabulary words to come out of their brains. We may even ask, "Who has the word squirrel in their head? Does anyone have the word nest in their head? How can we put those two words together in a story that makes sense?"
Mrs. Pace has done a great job providing baskets of books for the children to choose from including: fall, apples, and fire safety. Reading aloud from these books will further encourage the children to 'read the pictures' just like their teacher did!
Happy Reading...the Pictures!
- Read the pictures
- Read the words
- Retell the story
In Mrs. Pace's Kindergarten room, we have been working on how to read the pictures. For some reason the kids are mesmerized when a stranger comes in who is interested in their learning. That is where I come into the picture! In this lesson...which lasted for two days...we really focused on modeling what a reader says when looking at the pictures in a book. This is a great time to use the terms PICTURE WALK and PICTURE CLUES!
Mrs. Pace and I both showed the children what we would say when looking at a picture. For instance...if the picture was of a squirrel...we wouldn't just say "squirrel". We might say, "I see a squirrel and he is building a nest. He is getting ready for winter." It is empowering for the children to get all of those great vocabulary words to come out of their brains. We may even ask, "Who has the word squirrel in their head? Does anyone have the word nest in their head? How can we put those two words together in a story that makes sense?"
Mrs. Pace has done a great job providing baskets of books for the children to choose from including: fall, apples, and fire safety. Reading aloud from these books will further encourage the children to 'read the pictures' just like their teacher did!
Happy Reading...the Pictures!
Let's Get it Started!
Hi Bradt Friends!
I thought we could take a minute out of our busy days to blog about The Daily Five. Many of us have read the book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Mrs. Hitrick has ordered extra copies for those of us who would like to take a closer look at what the hype is all about!
If we can all figure out how to blog and where to do it...I think this communication can be an effective way for us to develop a professional dialogue. I will check and see if there is an app for easy access for those of you who have a smart phone!
Thank you for visiting this blog and stay tuned for upcoming topics. Feel free to share experiences, pictures, and goals with others. If you are having an issue please ask others for advice. Even teachers in other grades may have helpful hints on how to implement The Daily Five.
Happy Reading!
Sharon Berschwinger
I thought we could take a minute out of our busy days to blog about The Daily Five. Many of us have read the book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Mrs. Hitrick has ordered extra copies for those of us who would like to take a closer look at what the hype is all about!
If we can all figure out how to blog and where to do it...I think this communication can be an effective way for us to develop a professional dialogue. I will check and see if there is an app for easy access for those of you who have a smart phone!
Thank you for visiting this blog and stay tuned for upcoming topics. Feel free to share experiences, pictures, and goals with others. If you are having an issue please ask others for advice. Even teachers in other grades may have helpful hints on how to implement The Daily Five.
Happy Reading!
Sharon Berschwinger
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