How to Use a Morning Message
Building Concepts of Print and Much More!
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 0: Foundation for LiteracyStage 1: Beginning Literacy
Ages:
4-6
Grade Range:
PreK K 1stFood Groups:
Primary: Concepts of Print, Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
Good morning boys and girls. Students: Good morning Mrs. [Teachers Name]. Teacher: Today I would like some help reading our morning message, and Ive brought my very special reading wand for you to help me. First, Im going to sprinkle some magic reading dust over all of my friends, to get your best reading eyes out. Are you ready? Students: Yes. Teacher: Lets follow the words with my magic wand. Teacher and Students: Dear boys and girls. Teacher: I like the way that youre looking at the beginning sounds to figure out what word is coming next. Teacher and Students: Today it is sunny. Teacher: Sunny. I like the way you stretched out that word, sunny. Teacher and Students: Outside. Today it is sunny outside. We have library and gym. Teacher: I see a word right here in red. And I see three letters in that word. A-N-D. Put your hand up if you can help me figure out what word that might be today.
Related References
Reading Rockets Print Awareness: Guidelines for Instruction http://www.readingrockets.org/article/print-awareness-guidelines-instruction
Activity Objective
The goal of How to Use a Morning Message: Building Concepts of Print and Much More! is to demonstrate the features of written language using a morning message printed on chart paper. The teacher reads the message aloud, drawing the students attention to various concepts of print. The teacher uses a pointer to point to each word as she reads, demonstrating that the text represents words and goes from left to right and top to bottom of the page. On different days the teacher highlights various text features that they are currently learning in class, including word endings, spellings of common high frequency words, and that the message makes sense. A different student-of-the-day may act as the teachers helper, sharing the pointer, reading the message and assisting by making corrections and additions. The whole process is an interactive one with the class to motivate them to participate in reading, predicting and fixing errors in the text.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
-The morning message or community news activity can be very effective on an interactive whiteboard. Students can take turns going up to the board to circle words, fix errors, and point to words as they are read. A time-saving advantage of doing this activity using an interactive whiteboard is that the messages can be refined and reused year after year.
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