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HAPPY NEW YEAR, sweet friends!!!!  I took a little blogging hiatus during the break so that I could just ENJOY my sweet little family…and ohmiword…it was AMAZING!!!  Hope your new year is off to a great start!!! 

I think one of my favorite times of the day has become “Daily Dish”.  You might know this better as ‘daily news’ or ‘morning meeting’.  As the year progresses, I like this time even more.  I just wanted to share with y’all a little something we’ve been doing during this little block of time to reinforce phonemic awareness and writing.  

About 2-3 days a week, I choose the topic for our Daily Dish so that I can make sure I’m reinforcing our weekly objectives and any other areas that I think my kids need more exposure/practice.  The other 2-3 days of the week, I take my little “pick-a-stick” jar and randomly choose one of my littles to share some news with the class.  This *might* be their favorite time of the day, too!  Not only do my kids get a chance to share their news, but the rest of the class gets to respond…in letter form.  Here’s how it all goes down…

First we start with the news.  My random friend practices writing his/her name first and then comes up with something he/she wants to share.  We talk about how we can condense his/her thoughts and focus on a “small moment”.  Then we talk about how we can fit those thoughts into a sentence.  Once we brainstorm a good sentence, we count the words out loud and then I draw the line to represent each word so that we can make sure we’re tracking our thoughts as we write.

As you can see, it’s nothing fancy.  All my friends help us spell & stretch out the words in the sentence.  They are getting SO stinkin’ good at this!!!  Some of my high flyers are even remembering the “sneaky e” rule!  After my little friend writes his sentence, we go through and count all the letters and all the words and talk about why there are less words than there are letters.

Then I send each of my babies back to their desks and I have each of them write a letter to their friend about his/her news.  We’re still in the beginning stages of letter writing, but ohmiword…they’re seriously doing so well!  In each of their letters, the kids have to ask a question.  This has been great for reinforcing the difference between asking and telling sentences and it’s also familiarizing them with using the correct punctuation in their writing.   Plus, they’re becoming such great little letter writers :) 

 

Left:  Dear Caden, What did you have for dinner?  Love, Joseph 

Right {this one cracks me up!!}:  Dear Caden, Is it going to be the best day or night ever?  Love, Micah

Dear Caden, Why did you go to dinner?  Love, Tristan

After they’ve written their letters…which takes about 5-7 minutes…we gather back together on the carpet to share.  While the rest of the class writes their questions, I have the “daily disher” write more about his/her news.  This has been great for getting my kids to understand what it means to “add on” to a story.  What I love about gathering back together to share is that EVERYONE has a chance to share his/her writing and it goes by super quick because the letters are only a sentence long.  It also gives me the opportunity to quickly assess their writing and then make notes about what I need to touch on during our writing conferences.  The “daily disher” feels pretty stinkin’ cool, too.  And he/she loves to write/read more about the news they shared. 

We like to find the vowels and consonants in the news, too!  And LOVE how my friends are remembering to “chunk” sounds when they write!!!! 

Dear Clarissa, Did you get a chew toy?  Love, Olivia

Dear Clarissa, Did you like your new puppy?  Love, Caleb

As the year progresses, we’ll continue to look for more in our sentences, too!  Currently, my kids LOVE looking for the nouns!!!  Cah-ute!!!

I love that we can use this time to focus on SO many different concepts and improve so many different skills!  How does “Daily Dish” look for you?!