Guided Reading
--Students are divided up into ability based groups of 4-6 students. The group will work with a teacher to develop their literacy skills for 30 minutes daily. While in their guided reading group, they focus on phonological awareness skills, letter and word identification, book handling skills, and strategies for independent reading. On most days, students will bring home their guided reading envelopes to practice their reading at home.

Writer's Workshop
--Daily, for approximately 30-45 minutes, students are engaged in the writing process. Students start with the teacher in a mini-lesson, focusing on a specific writing skill--adding details to a story, stretching out the sounds in words, adding punctuation, etc. Students will then go to their seats and independently illustrate and write their own stories. Teachers assist students, as need be. On most days, students share their writing with the class and then place their work in their Writer's Workshop folder.

Reading Workshop
--Students work in small groups, with minimal teacher assistance, on different literacy areas. This gives the teacher the opportunity to meet with individual students or in small groups to help with specific needs. While in Reading Workshop, they will engage in a mini lesson. After the mini-lesson, students will read independently or with a partner, focusing on the skills taught in the mini lesson.

Fundations
--This is the handwriting and letter/sound program that is being used. Each week, students are introduced to a new letter by learning its name, sound, and a word that starts with it. For example, B-bat-buh or M-man-mmm. Each week, students will bring home a practice writing sheet related to the letter of the week. When students are learning to write their letters, we are encouraging them to use the terms "sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line" when referring to where they write their letters. See your child's teacher for some blank practice writing paper.

Daily Message
--Every day, the teacher begins the day with a daily message. This is a short message about something that is going to happen during the day or about the theme of the week. In this message, students learn about letters, words, sight words, concepts about print, phonological awareness, punctuation, and other literacy skills.

Emergent Reading and Read Alouds
--Every day, students will be listening to at least one story. Most books fall into one of three categories. First, it may be a book about the theme of the week--for example, fall. Second, the book may be a read-aloud book where the students will focus on looking for story elements like characters, setting, problems, and solutions. During this type of read-aloud, we often look for evidence from the text. Third, there are some books that we will read over and over again. These are books with good stories that students enjoy listening to and read on their own.