Tuesday Activities

SOUND OF THE DAY ATTENDANCE

In the morning during attendance to gage our student attention and transition get them ready
for learning the teacher will ask the special student of the day to choose a letter sound. As the
teacher moves on taking attendance and call and read out student’s names, they will be
prompted to alter their names by removing their initial letter and replacing it with the sound of
the day. Such activity is a great way to practice phonemic awareness in fun, engaging and
exciting ways.

Recipe Idea: Sound of the Day attendance

https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/50232

GROCERY STORE SOCIO DRAMATIC CENTER

Center Overview
“Grocery Store” Socio-Dramatic Center
During the first few weeks of school, we focused on book awareness during our read-aloud to
expose students to print concepts. This week's focus will be on establishing print awareness
using environmental print and engage learners in writing a shopping list activity, and our
Grocery Store Dramatic centre is a fun and age-appropriate space to expose young learners
towards such fundamental abilities.

The use of a Socio-Dramatic Play Center presents ample opportunities for our young learners to
also develop print awareness. Play literacy centres, as stated by the Balanced Literacy Diet, assist
providing "hands-on literacy practise" by blending varied literacy instruction in mixed group
models. "Their everyday, playful experiences by themselves do not make most children readers.
Rather they expose children to a variety of print experiences and the processes of reading for real
purposes” (Reading Rockets, 2007). It is equally critical for young learners to have a purpose for their
genuine writing, since it inspires student motivation. By having a theme like writing a shopping list, it helps students
integrate their everyday experiences such as shopping with caregivers, with their learning, by making such
encounters more authentic and purposeful. When teachers take into account students' interests, they employ more
time and are more enthusiastic about what they are writing. (Classroom that Works, 2016).
Labeling items in our grocery store, for example, provides real opportunities to enhance oral
language and print concepts.  Environment print is a natural way for children to learn that print
carries meaning and is the first step toward learning to read. It also fosters collaborative learning
by engaging learners in dialogues about literacy concepts such as Sounds and Phonics, as well as
embedding math learning.

Activity Description
1. Learners will work in small groups to create a shopping list of their own by writing, drawing,
stamping or being scribed. Before engaging children in this writing process, the educator will
provide them a model of a make-a-list card and the corresponding set of word image cards,
followed by some guiding questions to stimulate their thinking and curiosity.

2. As a group they will brainstorm what kind of products they may purchase at the type of store
they would "visit." For example, “We are going to make a trip to the grocery store. What items
should we include on our shopping list?" Students would be permitted to make recommendations
and then go through the cards on the ring set placed at their table for them to see if they could
identify the product they proposed. Teacher will be using a writing & wipe board and marker to
write the words on the activity card.

3. Following that, the teacher will hand out a shopping list worksheet and invite students to think
and practice drafting their own shopping list using a set of colored markers or food picture
stamps. The teacher will prime students by asking what items they think should be included in
their shopping list before visiting the grocery store? Learners will be invited to work with a
partner to discuss potential ideas and to encourage collaboration. Turner & Paris (1995)
discovered that collaborative learning helps students improve their self-control, social
competence, and acquire new language and this a focal learning for this stage of their
development.

4. Students will begin writing their shopping list once they have finished discussing with one
another.
5. Once the shoppers write a shopping list, it’s time to shop! The teacher will ask students "to
shop" for a specific recognisable letter that has been imprinted in each of their shopping list
worksheets in addition to their listed goods. We will play a game of finding things in the store
that start with that letter. “Look Cathy, you have letter C on your shopping list, carrot begins
with a “C “just like your name/ “I see carrots and cauliflower both start with “C” sound, can you
find additional goods that start or have “C” in them, place them in their carts count them and
write the number inside the box next to your letter?
6. Finally, the teacher will conference with each student to describe what they have written and
discovered, as well as to request consent to exhibit their work on the Writers Workshop Wall.
Student shopping lists
To make it more fun and engaging this activity can be paired with math skills such as when
trying to pair letters with item labels, they can also be on the look for a particular shape (circle,
triangle, rectangle or square) along with concepts of math. In Classroom that Work we learned
that pairing literacy activities with math or science maximises student engagement.
Assessment Strategies: During student work, the instructor will take anecdotal notes to evaluate
students' conventional methods of writing, holding a pen, forming letters, their print legibility.
The teacher will record if students understand the assignment requirement during conferences,
and whether what they read from their shopping list matches the words or pictures they have
drawn. She will also assess their letter sounds and phonic awareness by having children show her
the items they purchased that correspond to the letter printed on their worksheets.
Accommodations: Delivering such an activity in a small group allows the teacher to scaffold the
assignment as needed for the students. Given the wide range of students writing expressions and
their language abilities including ELL learner the task involves oral communication, drawing,
word stamping or the use of Velcro letters for students to copy printed text.
Food Groups: Concept of Print, Letter Sounds and Phonics, Oral Language and Vocabulary
Kindergarten Curriculum Expectation: 1, 3, 9, 10,11

Recipe idea: Drama Center (https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/50583/)

READ ALOUD: FLETCHER AND THE FALLING LEAVES, by Ezra Stein

Phonemic awareness exercises, along with oral language and vocabulary activities, are an
essential part of teacher instruction as children transition from preschool to junior kindergarten.
As student are immersed in frequent read aloud activities this allow them plenty opportunities to
play with words take them apart, blend or focus on their initial, middle or end sounds. As
discussed in Classrooms That Work (2016), daily teacher read-alouds format gives students a
successful start in building the foundation for literacy as well as the motivation to read. Teacher
frequent modelling on strategies needed to gain such awareness becomes really essential before
students can demonstrate those skills independently.

READ ALOUD Segmenting and Blending Syllables

Tuesday: Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Ezra Stein

Activity Description

1. Today we are going to read about a friend called Fletcher and his adventures as he
is learning about the changing seasons and more about leaves.
2. Explain that you are going to play with some of the words you hear in this book
3. Teacher will refresh student prior knowledge about syllables which they learned a
week ago:
a. Remind them that syllables are like the beats in a word
b. Knowing how many syllables there are in a word can help us to spell
c. We can find syllables by clapping the beats in each word
4. Teacher models a strategy for playing with sounds in spoken language, choosing a
word from the book title for example:
a. You can find syllables using the Say it, break it, blend it strategy
b. Say the word
c. Break it into syllables, chopping your arm to show each syllable
d. Blend the word together and sweep your hand across your arm
5. Students will then take turns practicing the strategy with a sample word or word of
their choice from the book
6. The teacher will read the book, stopping every few pages to allow students to break
down words using the approach modelled to them, such as:
a. Say the word as a class
b. Break up the word into syllables
c. Blend the word back together
d. Determine how many syllables are in the word

Following the read aloud students will be practising segmenting and blending syllables in
the Grocery Store Literacy center where they will be practising in small group in a
teacher directed fashion. The activity would involve for students working fruit and
veggies picture puzzles to mimic segmenting or blending of these words in a fun way.
Assessment Strategies: Throughout the activity implementation, the teacher will
observe students' abilities to manipulate spoken language appropriately. During the literacy
centers activity teacher would take anecdotal notes about students correct implementation of the
strategy and their awareness about syllables.
Accommodations: Delivering such an activity both as whole and in small group setting would
allow a good transition from teacher modeling and scaffolding to independently practising those
skills in literacy centers. For ELL learner the teacher would provide the Spanish equivalent of
book highlighted words that teacher have previously identified for teaching.
Food Groups: Primary- Phonemic Awareness, Secondary: Concept of Print, Letter Sounds and
Phonics, Oral Language and Vocabulary
Kindergarten Curriculum Expectation: 1, 3, 9, 10,11

Recipe idea: Phonological Awareness Read Aloud ( BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced

Literacy Diet (utoronto.ca)

READ ALOUD: ORAL VOCABULARY- FIVE SENSE READING

Tuesday: “We are going on a Leaf Hunt” by Steve Metzger.

Using and engaging our senses in our reading experience is important, especially for young
learners, since it focuses them on the present moment, increases curiosity, multisensory
engagement, vocabulary building, and makes use of visualization (Reading Power, 2015).
In early primary years, reading aloud is a popular activity that is seen as an essential instrument
for vocabulary acquisition. Read alouds are dynamic instructional exchanges in which teachers
pick books, identify words for instruction, and determine the best strategies to help students
acquire new words (Reading Rockets). A strong vocabulary approach includes explicitly
teaching the meanings of words, as well as thought-provoking, playful, and participatory follow-
up. Rich and robust vocabulary teaching goes beyond definitional information; it actively
engages students in using and thinking about word meanings, as well as in developing
connections between words. To have an effect on reading comprehension, vocabulary instruction
should include multiple exposures to a word, teach both definitions and contexts, and engage
students in deep processing (Beck et al., 2008)
Our read aloud activity would attempt to embed all the above researched benefits to stimulate the
acquisition of new vocabulary through all senses, so that the more the youngsters hear, see, and
interact with words, the better they would learn and relate to them. Frequent exposures,
according to Beck et al. (2008), assist students not only recall the meaning of words but also
access word meanings more rapidly. This has a substantial impact on reading. When readers can
quickly acquire word meanings, they have more cognitive resources to devote to understanding
of associated material. (Beck et al., 2008 ac cited in Reading Rockets, 2010).

Activity Description

My book selection attempts to combine in-context vocabulary instruction with our week's theme,
which revolves around seasonal and leaf changes. The story provides content details that
students can hypothetically visualize, smell, hear, taste and touch.

1. Teacher start by activating student prior knowledge by engaging in a

review discussion about our five senses.
2. Teacher shares with students that in this particular reading activity they
are going to be using their 5 senses to help them understand the story
and the new words better.
3. Teacher starts with the book cover and asks learners what do they think
the story is about by LOOKING at pictures?
4. Teacher models and encourages students share how for example (the
leaves look, smell, and taste by using descriptive language
5. During the read aloud teacher stops frequently and invites students to
close their eyes and make use of one or some of their sense to process
story details or new vocabulary
6. Then the teacher encourages students to recall and share their ideas using
new vocabulary from the story.
7. Students are reminded that by using their five senses it can help them to
understand new words and stories much easier.

Assessment: Anecdotal Notes

Accommodation’s: To enhance student thinking teacher will provide visual representation of

the five senses paired with their corresponding body part. During the read aloud the teacher can
ask learners to pass those visuals to their next partner so everyone can have a chance to relate
to them during the reading activity and as a way to keep them engaged and regulated during the
activity.

ELL learner: Educator can say the equivalent word in student’s first language and encourage to
use drawings to represent new vocabulary or represent details of the story. These strategies
include taking advantage of students' first language. Because English and Spanish share a large
number of cognate pairs, the first instructional strategy is especially useful for Spanish-speaking
ELLs. 
 Take advantage of students' first language
 Teach the meaning of basic words
 Review and reinforcement
Kindergarten Curriculum Expectation: 1, 9, 10,11
Food Group: Oral Language & Vocabulary

Recipe Idea: Five Sense Reading (BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced Literacy Diet
(utoronto.ca) )