We have been focusing a lot on beginning sounds in words, as well as indivdual letter sounds so far this school year. Today, we began to also look at the ending sounds in words. We focused on four different words...ladder, jeep, wagon and moon. We looked at the beginning sound, said the sound and made the signal and then did the same thing for the ending sound in the word. We then pointed to the beginning sound to match the picture to the sound and also did the same for the ending sound. This is a pre-reading strategy that will help students when they are practicing the strategy match the picture to the word.
During our 90 minute reading block we have added in a mini-lesson focusing on specific vocabulary words found in one of our books that we also read to focus on other reading strategies. For example, this week we are reading the story Building With Dad. When we first read the story today, we focused on the reading strategy "Main Idea in a Story". Later on in the reading block we went back to the book and focused in on six specific words found in the story and discussed the meaning behind those words. We will refer back to these words throughout the week. Each week, we will get a new set of vocabulary words.
