We have been on an exciting literacy journey this year in grade one! Ss love tapping out words/sentences on our sound wall and using Elkonin boxes with play dough to break apart words. I'm so glad to be on this learning journey. The benefit to students has been visible.

Irregular HFW can be tricky! To tackle this, my class will begin daily mapping of these words by counting phonemes & marking the irregular sound with a heart. Ss then build the word using Wikki Stix, magnetic letters, RW, etc. Understanding rather than memorizing is the goal.

I am really looking forward to this free Wiley Blevins webinar on Encoding & Spelling Phonics Instruction on Feb. 23rd. Great opportunity for anyone who is interested! Wiley Blevins, EdD go.sadlier.com/school/encodin…

Students enjoyed mapping and building our "focus" irregular HFWs. Wikki Stix were favoured over rainbow writing and tiles, by far. They wanted to keep going even though it was lunch! Tomorrow we will review and add to these words. Slow and steady.

Meaningful access to education includes the right to learn to read. Reading is the foundation for success in school, work and life. The OHRC will release its #RightToRead report on February 28. bit.ly/3yOqZ7y

It has been so nice to see confidence soar when students read to each other from decodable stories and sentence trees. They love using the sentence trees with their friends because each line contains only one new word. This not only helps fluency but helps the pride factor too!

Our new routine ensures we practice encoding immediately after we practice decoding with each new skill. It's interesting to see the different ways that Ss try to achieve the desired sound. Today we focused on long a, as represented by ai.

Today a student was building the heart word "do" and he decided to use his math counters to show the number of phonemes. It gives me joy to see Ss demonstrate their knowledge for fun...simply because they can!

Ss got to crack into some new resources today and they were a hit! I love these magnetic letters. Not only is there a silent e option (attached to the appropriate vowel) but there are vowel teams, r controlled vowels, digraphs, etc., already teamed up and ready to grab!

I'm trying to complile a list of favourite education based podcasts for me to enjoy when I clean. If anyone has recommendations, let me know!

I love that these tools (courtesy of our Speech Language Dept) can be used by Ss working together, even when they are working on very different skills. Everyone feels (and is) successful. I love their enthusiasm for practicing and encouraging friends.

S's are having a lot of fun with word ladder and word manipulation activities. They enjoy the challenge! I love watching them solidify and apply their new learning.

Our LIFT team will be hosting an open house for TVDSB staff at Roch Carrier F.I. in Woodstock, on June 16th. Be sure to check out our selection of decodable books from a variety of publishers, along with professional books and other literacy resources. We hope to see you there!