8:45 - 8:55 Entrance and Question of the Day

The first thing my students do as they enter the classroom is to sign in by answering the question of the day on the smart board. This helps me save time on taking attendance, it also allows students to start using their skills right from the start of the day. My students look forward to this activity as it provides them an opportunity to use the smart board. I ensure that my questions are relevant to my students and fun so that they are motivated to decode them. They are required to write their name and copy down the response on the smart board. This allows them to practice letter formation using a fun media. My students have been practicing decoding words by sounding out the letters. I provide scaffolds when necessary. We have established the concepts of sharing strategies and helping the members of our community grow rather than completing tasks for them. Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, vocabulary, oral language, and concepts of print. Question for Thursday: Would you like chocolate milk or white milk for snack? Name chocolate milk white milk

8:55 - 9:05 Sharing Circle

My students are expected to come on the carpet and sit in a circle as soon as they are done answering the question of the day. The students who come in early have two options as they wait for everyone else to arrive: 1) get a book from their individualised reading bin 2) chat quietly with their classmates. I start the sharing circle with saying a greeting and a little bit about me (e.g., I will let them know if I am having a great day or not, or if something exciting/important has happened). I will also share my answer to the question of the day and my reasoning behind it. I will then pass the Speaking Stick to the student next to me to do the same. Each student will have the opportunity to speak (approximately 1 minute/student). This is also an opportunity for students to share anything that can help us with building a stronger community (e.g., concerns, suggestions, or words of encouragement). Students have the right to pass. The Speaking Stick is a large pencil. It is used to remind us of our roles during the sharing circle. The person holding the Speaking Stick is the speaker and has the undivided attention of his/her audience. People without the stick are expected to remain quiet and listen to the speaker. Sharing circle helps my students feel that they are part of a close community where every member is appreciated and valued. It is also a safe way for students to improve their selfesteem and practice oral language and communication skills. Literacy components: Oral language and knowledge building.

9:05 - 9:30 Storyline: Pair, Listen, & Present

Students are given the opportunity to listen to stories read by their favourite actors/actresses in pairs and practice their listening comprehension. Each pair shares one computer, they visit Storyline Online (http://www.storylineonline.net/) and select a story to listen to. Once the story is done, students talk to their partner about the story and work together to retell their story either through tableaus or drawings. My students have had previous experience with tableaus and acting out stories. Assessment: observation notes, checklist, student work (their drawings and tableaus). Literacy components: concepts of print, oral language, vocabulary, and knowledge building. 9:30 - 9:50 Finger Phonics

During the finger phonics period, students are able to learn how to form the letter(s) corresponding to the sound they learned the day before. This will ensure that students get a lot of practice printing letters using the correct method which will help make printing easier for them. On Tuesday they will be working on letter e. Structure of this period: modeling and practice on white boards (5 minutes), centres (7 minutes), and silly sentences (8 minutes) The teacher uses the first part of the period to model the correct way of printing these letters on the smart board. Starting dots, arrows, and verbal cues are used to scaffold learning (about 5 to 7 minutes). At their tables, students use their small white boards and markers to practice what the teacher is modeling on the smart board. The focus will be on printing lower case letters as a large portion of texts is in lower case letters. Once all students have had a chance to print the letters on their white board, they get the opportunity to practice forming letters at 3 different centres: 1) play dough, 2) car and paint, 3) chalk and coloured construction paper. They get a couple of minutes at each centre to create the letters using the different media (i.e., play dough, paint, and chalk), after which they have to move on to the next centre. This motivating and engaging sensory experience will help my students with remembering how to form each letter. Lastly, students go back to their tables with their white boards. The teacher has a list of words on the smart board containing only the sounds they have learned so far (e.g., is, cat, pack, in, pet, set, etc.). As a class they read the words by sounding out the letters. Students are then given time to make silly and meaningless sentences by copying the words on their white board. The teacher will explain that even though sentences are silly they should still follow the correct format (e.g., the first letter of the first word should be upper case, punctuations should be used, and at least one verb must be included). Students are encouraged to use camas, questions marks, and exclamation marks to make their sentences more exciting. Each student will get a chance to read her/his sentence to the class with different expressions. This will motivate students to practice printing the letters while engaging in a fun activity and being creative. Literacy components: concepts of print, writing conventions, phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, spelling and word study, and oral language.

9:50 - 10:10 Reading Practice

This period is an opportunity for students to practice reading and rereading decodable books and improve their fluency skills. Students are partnered based on reading abilities at the beginning of the year. Each reading team has given themselves a community related name during the first week of school. Partners sit on the carpet (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) and take turns reading to each other. Each partner chooses a different book to read. Partners are given a wide range of books to choose from according to their reading level. Reading partners:

Caring Crew - Mina and Isaiah Hilarious Neighbours - Fatimah and Sam Castles and Caves - Logan and Sarah Brave Helpers - Lilian and George

This week students are reading Bob books. Books available for each team (chosen based on the ongoing assessment of their needs):

Caring Crew - Bob Books Set 1 - Beginning Readers (1/3 of the set), Bob Books: Sight Words Kindergarten Set (1/2 of the set) Hilarious Neighbours - Bob Books Set 1 - Beginning Readers (1/3 of the set), Bob Books: Sight Words Kindergarten Set (1/2 of the set) Castles and Caves - Bob Books Set 1 - Beginning Readers (1/3 of the set), Bob Books: Sight Words First Grade Set Brave Helpers - Bob Books Set 2 - Advancing Beginners, Bob Books: Set 3 - Word Families

Assessment: this is a great opportunity for the teacher to go around and informally assess reading progress of students. Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, vocabulary, concepts of print, reading fluency, reading comprehension 10:10 - 10:30 Recess 10:30 - 10:55 Onset/Rime Games

The purpose of this period is to help students improve their spelling and writing through analogy. Reading Rockets offers a comprehensive list of onset and rime games: The Thursdays game involves building words with ay, ey, and air. This is a follow up to Wednesdays spelling lesson. Materials: interlocking tiles for onset and rime word building (see appendix) Students work in pair to make as many puzzles as possible Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, vocabulary, and spelling and word study.

10:55 - 11:15 Centres

This is the opportunity for students to practice a wide range of literacy skills through playing games. The centres change weekly Students can choose the centre they want to go to each day. Passport system is used to ensure that all students have gone to each centre at least once by the end of the week. Centres for the week: Little Writer, Startfall, scrabbles, Mailbox Little Writer - This is a tracing app that can be used on our four iPads. Students trace letters and numbers by following the arrows (maximum of 1 student per iPad). The focus of this centre is lower case letters as the large portion of any text is in lower case letters. Starfall - Different Starfall games are setup on four computers (maximum of 1 student per computer). This week games 1 to 4 are setup from http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to -read/load.htm?f Scrabbles - This board game is played with the teacher (maximum of 3 students at a time). Mailbox - Students write a letter to the mayor of the community (the teacher) and mail it by dropping it in the community cardboard mailbox. Students have had a mini lesson on letter writing with examples. Samples of letters as well as graphic organizers are provided at this centre. Assessment: this is a great opportunity for the teacher to go around and informally assess reading progress of students. Also, when it is time to perform the formal tests, this would be a good period to pull out students and assess them individually. Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, vocabulary, oral language, spelling and word study, concepts of print, writing convention, reading comprehension, and writing processes and strategies. 11:15 - 11:45 Writing Workshop

For the writing workshop period, I use Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum. Throughout the year we will go through 7 units of study. We spend around 3 weeks on each unit. The structure of this period: mini-lesson (5 minutes), workshop (20 minutes), and sharing time (5 minutes). One or two students share their writing each day. Given that we have 5 writing periods in a week, by the end of the week all students have had the opportunity to share at least once. Students are encouraged to write by sounding and stretching out the word. The emphasis is on bringing words down on the paper rather than spelling and neatness. During September we completed the first unit, Launching the Writing Workshop. This is our second week of studying unit 2, Small Moments: Personal Narrative Writing. Unit 2 fits well with our focus on community building and learning about communities. When introducing this unit, we talked about the concept of creating a stronger community by building closer relationships. We also discussed the idea of sharing important moments and actions in our life as a way to build closer relationships. We have agreed that we will work hard to share some of the important moments in our lives through writing and that we will have a big celebration by the end of our unit. By the end of next week students will choose one of their written pieces to publish in our community newsletter. They will work with a community member (one of their peers) to improve their written piece before publishing it. Families are invited to come in on our celebration day. This will be the day where students celebrate their hard work by presenting our community newsletter and reading aloud their stories.

Lesson for Thursday: Storytelling with partners - helping students become writing partners by telling their stories to a partner using their fingers and listening to them to tell their story. Materials for mini-lesson: an example of a story that I can share with my students across my fingers. Assessment: in addition to collection observation notes and sample student work, I will use Lucy Calkins rubrics and checklists as assessment tools. Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, oral language, concepts of print, writing convention, reading comprehension, and writing processes and strategies. 11:45 - 12:00 Blending and Segmenting Fun

We spend our last 15 minutes together playing blending and segmenting games. Game for Thursday: Word Stretchersizers. Materials: pictures of different words, 9 slinkies, 9 cookie sheets, and lower case letter magnets. As a class we use the slinkies to give our words a workout. The teacher takes out a picture and students use their slinky to stretch out the words and then quickly put them back together. For example, if the teacher takes out a picture of the cake, the students would say /c/a/k/ cake Students are given time to use their letter magnets and cookie sheet to find the corresponding letter sounds to the words. Literacy components: phonemic awareness, letter sounds and phonics, oral language, and comprehension. 12:00 Lunch

My students go back to their regular classrooms after lunch.