Literature Group focuses on reading comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary development. Students also learn to critically understand books in terms of character, plot, and story structure. During class discussions, students are exposed to various perspectives and interpretations, and they have an opportunity to share their common experiences and make personal connections with the literature. Students will read literature related to our Theme work and other books of interest to the group.

Quiet Reading occurs three days a week for thirty minutes. Children choose their own books and read at their own pace. Students are encouraged to pursue their own interests as well as to sample different genres. This time also allows teachers to meet individually with students for practice reading aloud. On Fridays, we read with our Special Friends from the Kindergarten.

Writer's Workshop focuses on building the skills of writing through the students' creative work. Written pieces are the result of ideas initiated by both students and teachers. Students occasionally meet in genre groups to learn about the styles of writing that they are most interested in. Most Writer's Workshops include a mini-lesson that helps build basic language skills. Some of these skills include:

• appropriate use of upper and lower case letters
• punctuation
• sentence structure and recognition of run-on sentences
• writing dialog and using quotation marks
• identification of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives
• synonyms and antonyms
• structure of paragraphs, stories, and research papers
• spelling and vocabulary

Mini-lessons also address word choice, descriptive language, story leads, and character development.

In Writer's Workshop the process of writing is emphasized. Pieces generally start as loosely constructed ideas. Children are encouraged to use graphic organizers before they begin their first draft. Drafts are then revised for clarity and edited for spelling and mechanics. The last step is to produce a finished final copy. Most writing goes through part of this process, but not all writing becomes a finished piece. Children regularly confer with teachers, share their work with peers, and may choose to share their work with the whole class.

Spelling and Vocabulary Development are practiced during Literature Groups, Quiet Reading, Writer's Workshop, folder work, and homework. Spelling work is based on the Making Big Words spelling curriculum. Every week, new groups of words are presented based on spelling patterns and rules. Throughout the week, there is spelling practice in the form of puzzles and games, writing, dictionary practice, folder work, and homework.

• homophones
• vowel blends (ee, ea,io,oy
• consonant blends (br ,cl,dr ,fl)
• consonant digraphs (sh,ch,th, wh,ph)
• prefixes and suffixes
• plural endings
• -ed and -ing endings
• spelling patterns and common exceptions
• contractions
• possessives

Students encounter new vocabulary across the curriculum. Many of the games and writing assignments are designed to help students understand word usage and meaning. Vocabulary exercises and spelling rules are taught in mini -lessons during language arts time and reinforced in the folder work and homework.