Tanya 
Session 1: Phonemic Awareness / Phonics
I begin every session with a quick 2 mins of having each student read our weekly 5 sight words and orally use them in a sentence. Once this short brain exercise is complete, I move on to the vocabulary part.
Introduce your next menu words from the SoundPrints program. This week, we were at C1 which focuses on double consonant sounds.
We use Elkonin boxes to study the individual phonemes in the menu words that I say out loud. I use all of the menu words and add many more. For this step, the students only hear the words orally. They move a cube to a box every-time they hear a sound. The first lesson, I always have the students sound out their names; they love it!
Elkonin boxes are so easy to create and really help those student struggling with identifying individual phonemes in a given word. Whether the student is in kinder or grade 6, these can be used in any setting. I use these all the time in resource to help students learn to manipulate and focus on different phonemes.
For my students who are passed the phonemic awareness stage, we move on to more phonics related activities – associating sounds with letters. Once again, I use the SoundPrints large classroom poster chart for reference.
Click on the image for a fun game to help students associate letters to sounds.
Next, I write the menu words on the whiteboard and we read them. To further practice the phonics, I have them be mini-teachers and place them in groups of two in order for them to quiz each other on writing the menu words. SoundPrints has a tool you can purchase with a list of menu words for this purpose. The students LOVE this activity.
I always have small readers available that correspond to the sound/theme we are learning. These come from my school’s library or printed from RAZ kids. The children feel so accomplished when they identify words they just learned in a book!
Session 2: Vocabulary, Conversation, Response
Review Key and New Vocabulary: It is essential that new vocabulary words be taught and discussed BEFORE reading the text. I create theme vocabulary cards with pictures to help my students start to think about vocabulary in the text. I also show them several other pictures of tricky words on the iPad to allow the students to solidify visual pictures of what that word means. We also look at a world map and discuss where we could find the particular topic – in this case – where leaves change colour. This helps children situate themselves in their learning. I see SO much interest in this step and it instantly hooks the students.
They want to know more about the book without even having opened it! This really creates a love for learning, and after many year, I still get really excited when the children are connect to and inquire more about topics they many have never heard about. Most of the time, they end up connecting to personal experiences which is wonderful for making connections in reflective writing.
Next, I use my selected non-fiction themed book and read the first third of the book to the children. I divide the book into three to give the students 3 weeks to learn about any given topic. I LOVE using the Harper Collins books, but this is as effective with any non-fiction text your school has.
Session 3: Writing
We begin session 3 by once again reading the sight and theme words. In their notebooks, student have to write using the theme words and the sight words. This looks different for every grade.
Grade 1-2: I have them write 5 sentences using a sight word in each. Their sentences have to be about our theme and contain some theme words. They highlight the week’s words. Towards the middle of the year, they can begin to write short stories. Here is the template I use for the younger grades: Beginning, middle and end story writing template.
Grade 3-4: Have to write a short creative story with a beginning, middle and end using all of the sight words and some theme words. They have to highlight the week’s words. To avoid getting the “Miss, I do not have any ideas” famous line, I provide them with story writing ideas. This week we used the fall story writing ideas for characters, setting and problem, but there are many other themes available here.
This writing session is an excellent opportunity, especially when working in small groups, to correct grammar mistakes and enforce the use of writing tools. I LOVE this FREE spelling dictionary. This is an essential tool for our writing class.
I then have the students read their stories aloud to the small group. If we have time, volunteers provide constructive criticism; one thing they really liked about the story and one thing they can improve.
Session 4: Guided Reading
For every theme, I choose various different guided reading books with similar vocabulary of that we are studying. Reading passages are great too. We practice echo reading first, then we reread the book one page at a time. I notice that students are excited to read the new theme words they just learned, and always make the connection between the word wall words and the words found in the book (this never fails – I always have one student that lights up and points to the vocabulary word wall – In these moments, I REALLY love my job <3) We sometimes read the book at least twice to help develop fluency.
This is a great opportunity to discuss the story and answer some oral reading comprehension questions.
