T4EA Literacy News
February 2018
Promoting Literacy In Our Homes!
What Exactly Is Literacy??
As our children get older they begin to learn to read the pictures and words in text. They start to scribble before they learn to make letter shapes that eventually come together to form words, sentences, and stories. They learn to put words together when talking. These words become stories and songs. This is all a part of our literacy pathway.
Literacy is talking, understanding, reading, writing, questioning, and expression. This is something that needs to be encouraged in our children. Strong literacy skills give our children a strong foundation to stand on.
BEADS Activities To Try Out This Month!
How you do you know which words you should be teaching and when?? The answer is all in your assessments. Informal BEADS assessments should be happening often (at least once a month), so that you know which words the students know and which words they still need to learn. This assessment can be as simple as a quick checklist.
Confident Learners has provided a list of words the students need to know at each level of their program. This can be used as a starting point if needed. This can be found in the Confident Learners App, by clicking on 'Literacy Pathway' on the main page, and then scrolling down to 'High Frequency Word List'.
Popsicle Stick Word Puzzles
Write the BEADS words on popsicle sticks, mix them up and have the students match them together.
Extensions:
- Write down the words that are made.
- Use the words in sentences.
- Put the words in alphabetical order.
-This Reading Mama
BEADS Cup Crash
-Coffee Cups & Crayons
Magic BEADS painting
-The Pleasantest Thing
- Write a story about what the world will be like in 100 years.
- Make a list of 100 fun things to eat!
- Have kids complete this sentence: "I wish I had 100 _______ because ________." Draw a picture to go along with the sentence.
- Challenge students to learn 100 new words before the end of the year!
- Together as a class make a list of 100 reasons to live in your community or in Canada. Have the children make these reasons into a book.
- Have students make a list of things that didn't exist 100 years ago.
- Challenge your students to put 100 words in alphabetical order.
- Have the students draw a picture of themselves in 100 years (or use an aging app on your phone and print out the pictures) and have them write what they want their life to be like in 100 years.
- Older students can write a bucket list of things that they would like to achieve by the time that they are 100 years old.
- Ask students to finish this sentence: "If I had 100 dollars, I would ______."
- Ask students to finish the sentence: "If I told you once, I told you a hundred times, ________!"
- As a class, write a story that is 100 sentences long with each student contributing one sentence at a time.
- Have students make a list of 100 things that they would like to learn in their lifetime.
- Write the number 100 of a sheet of paper in marker and copy one for each student. Have the students draw a picture around the 100 already on the page (e.g. the 100 can be turned into goggles, or the body of a bug). Have them write a story to go with their drawing.
- Write out each of the 5 vowels twice, once for long vowels and again for short vowels. Challenge the students to come up with 10 words for each sound.
- Challenge your class to read 100 books during the day. This averages out to about 7 books per student for a class of 15.
- Challenge your class to spent 100 minutes reading today. You can make this easier by breaking the time into ten 10 minute sessions.
- Have your students write about what they would do with 100 dollars if they had to use it to help another person.
- Choose 100 beads words and separate them into groups such as words we know and don't know, length of word, or beginning letter.
- Have students write a list of 100 reasons they love themselves.
Treaty 4 Education Alliance
Email: sballard@educationalliance.ca
Website: educationalliance.ca
Location: Fort Qu'Appelle, SK, Canada
Phone: 306-331-7556
Facebook: facebook.com/t4educationalliance/