This week we had a wonderful opportunity to create and run a literacy station. I was in a grade 1/2 class (primarily focused on the grade 1 curriculum). During this classroom time I worked with four different groups of 3-4 students for 10 minutes each. We focused on the ‘magic e’ concept.

Activity

For this activity each student had an individual whiteboard and marker, and shared letter tiles. I started by giving students letters (example – c, a, k) and asking students to read it. Then students added the ‘magic e’ and read it again. Once students had it written in letter blocks and read it, they wrote it on their whiteboard and read it again. We continued this with different ‘magic e’ words. Then, I gave the students an opportunity to pick a ‘magic e’ word off of the list and have their group members do the same process. In the last few minutes I had students create their own ‘magic e’ word.

Photo by Josie Mackie.

Curricular Connections – Grade 1

Below are the curricular connections for English Language Arts 1, from the B.C. Curriculum.

Big Idea:

  • Playing with language helps us discover how language works.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Communicate using letters and words and applying some conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  • Use foundational concepts of print, oral, and visual texts.

Content:

Language features, structures, and conventions:

  • Phonemic and phonological awareness.
  • Print awareness.
Photo by Josie Mackie.

Reflection

I loved doing this activity! It was very fun to see students engaging with words and spelling in a low-stakes way. I enjoyed having the opportunity to work with small groups because it allowed for time with each individual. One of the groups was more high-needs than the others, so keeping them all engaging with the material was more difficult. One student did not participate in the group activities, however they still engaged with the letter tiles by making site words and their name. I did not consider adaptations prior to the activity, but the nature of it allowed for all students to engage with text and words! The students seemed to really enjoy the station, and loved being able to pick the next words. I got a lot of positive feedback from the students saying “this is so fun, I want to keep doing it”. This was a great activity, and hope to use it again in the future!

Thank you to the classroom teacher for having us!

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