The SPCA Calendar
Promoting Oral Language (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Stage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
6-10
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rd 4thFood Groups:
Primary: Oral Language, Knowledge Building Secondary: Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
Providing rich oral language opportunities for students to communicate in the classroom is important. Understanding and speaking oral language are fundamental to the development of reading and writing. Any opportunity that allows students to communicate in the classroom should be welcomed. The SPCA Calendar behind me is a perfect example of this. This calendar I posted simply to record student birthdays and events turned into a very rich learning opportunity. This calendar generates a lot of conversation within the classroom. Students are very excited to turn the page at the end of every month. This month featured a budgie. Questions came up such as: Where did the budgie originate? How do you take care of a budgie? What does a budgie sound like? These were all questions that weve investigated together online.
Activity Objective
The goal of The SPCA Calendar: Promoting Oral Language (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with oral language opportunities to communicate and develop reading and writing skills. The teacher discusses the SPCA Calendar which is to record student birthdays and events. However, it is a great learning opportunity where students ask lots of questions about the animal in the calendar. As a follow up to the students questions, the class investigates the questions together online.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- There are various calendars involving wild animal conservation and pet rescue that would be suitable for these activities. - You can ask students to share their own ideas about something they are interested in with the class. - If you wanted a more frequent oral language inspiration, consider purchasing a daily or weekly calendar for discussion. Perhaps some of your students have one at home they would like to bring in. - For younger children, you can use a photo calendar as inspiration rather than selecting a calendar that is rich with text. - Rather than using a pre-existing calendar for these activities, your class could make a calendar, with different teams creating each page.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Make It Personal: Connecting Students to Texts (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
All About Me: Building Class Community and a Sense of Identity (Virtual Tour)
1st - 4th
Early Societies Inquiry: Creating a Timeline About Ancient Egypt (Virtual Tour)
4th - 6th
Building Class Community: Ancient Egyptian Charm Bracelets (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 5th
Social Studies' Culminating Activity: Performance (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
