RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: One
Concept / Skill taught:
Grammar in Morning Message
Activity:
“Fix that Sentence”
Write a message with no punctuation, wrong capitalization, no
spacing, omit word, wrong verb agreement etc.
Students will use their skills to edit (“fix”) message.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Possible Integration:
Sample Message:
good mORningclaSs.
Today friday november 2nd
We are going skated today
Did you Brought you skates?
5 __ 15 ___ 25 ___
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: One
Concept / Skill taught:
Rhyme in Morning Message
Activity:
Today is Monday, December 4, 2006.
We will go out in the snow. Do you think the wind will blow?
Remember not to throw the snow. Our cheeks will glow from the
below zero air. Show me how you will build a snowman. We can watch
him grow. Don’t move too slowly.
Students find rhyming words. Highlight / circle or underline.
Non-rhyming words: slowly, snowman.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Leave off the /ow/ sound picture and have students complete the
rhyme after they have read the message.
Possible Integration:
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: One
Concept / Skill taught:
Word Parts – syllables / sound pictures
Activity: Morning Message
Good morning grade one. Today is Wednesday. Today we are
going swimming. Let’s have a fantastic time. Our V.I.P. today is
Sherry. She can share her snack.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Possible Integration:
Directions:
Let’s circle the biggest words in
blue. Count the letters and
syllables of each word. Clap or
stomp the syllables. Look fir
“ing” and /sh/, or long vowels.
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: One
Concept / Skill taught:
Sound / Symbol (Grapheme) – sounds represented by 2 or
more letters using Morning Message
Activity: Morning Message
Today is Monday Dec. 4, 2006.
It is cold and chilly today.
The wind is blowing.
Did you shovel snow this Sunday?
The snow was deep.
Did you wear your boots?
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Comprehension Activity – draw a picture to illustrate message.
Students reply to message.
Possible Integration:
Science: winter/snow theme - melt snow (temperature)
Weigh a shovel of snow measure depth of snow (ruler)
Social: family chores / personal care – dressing for winter
Phys Ed: shovel / build with snow – fort, snowman
Health: cooperation / team work
Language Arts: brainstorm for snow words / compound words /
rhyming words / Read snow books / Visualization
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: One
Concept / Skill taught:
Capitalization using Morning Message
Activity:
Good morning grade one. today is monday, december 4th, 2006.
It is amanda’s birthday today. soon it will be christmas. lexy is going to
saskatoon for christmas. can you find the missing capital letters in our
morning message?
Love,
mrs monette
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
 Circle missing capitals
 Now use this in your journals
 Cloze morning message
tomorrow.
 Independent practice
handout.
Possible Integration:
Any theme / subject area
Adaptation:
Posters on display telling when
to use capitals. (weaker
students )
Edit other students work
(advanced students )
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: K
Concept / Skill taught:
Segmenting / Blending / Manipulation using Morning Message
Activity:
Good mornig.
Today is Monday, December 04, 2006. The leader is Tyson.
It is Taylor’s birthday today. He is _ _ _ years old.
There is an assembly today. Our sound today is /b/. ind the word
that has /b/ in it.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Possible Integration:
Directions:
Clap – Mon/day De/cem/ber
Which is the longest word?
Segment it by clapping
Segment – old / an / has / it /
(using taps on your arm)
Counting words in sentences.
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: K
Concept / Skill taught:
Vocabulary Development using the Morning Message
Activity: Christmas Picture Vocabulary Letter To Santa
I
you.
For Christmas could you bring me
Some
(blocks)
A
(ball)
A
(bike)
Date: Count down from 25.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Strong students could fill in
words for rebus part and
continue a vocabulary list.
Possible Integration:
Math: Countdown to Christmas
Pictures could be drawn or cut
from fliers.
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: K
Concept / Skill taught:
Sound / Word Play using Morning Message
Activity:
Good Morning everyone.
Can you end the sentences by finding something that starts
with the same sound?
Michael found a ________ . (marble)
Ben found a ________. (book)
Susie found a ________. (soccer ball)
Richard found a _______. (rock)
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Show children how to clap the number of ‘beats’ in a word.
E.g. book = 1 clap
Michael = 2 claps
Ben = 1 clap
Invite children to count the number of syllables (claps/beats) in
their own name, then find a partner whose name uses the same
number of claps.
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Vocabulary Development using Morning Message
Activity:
Good morning Grade 2. Today is December 7, 2006. There
are ___ more days until Christmas. There are many activities
we need to do before Christmas. We need to
_ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ the tree with ornaments. We will _l_ _ _
gifts and _ _l_ _ cards.
We are going to _ _ _l_ carols
and _ _l_ _ _l_ _ to a concert.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Find the Christmas nouns
(circle)
Fill in missing Christmas action
words (Children take turns)
Possible Integration:
Brainstorm what they do to
prepare for Christmas.
Write their own stories.
List / Group / Label
Nouns and action words (verbs)
Students find the nouns in the
message. Supply verbs for
vocabulary cards.
We need lists of Christmas
words up in the room.
Students could add words.
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Capital letters and ending punctuation using Morning Message
Activity: Students put periods and capital letters in the correct
places.
good morning class! today is thursday, december 7th, 2006
there are ____ days until christmas christmas day is on dec
25th 2006  our last day of school is on fri  dec  22nd
2006 what do you want for christmas?
i hope you have a
very merry day! there are ____ sentences in this message 
Can you find where we need periods in this message?
Adaptations:
Use sticky letters and periods for lower students
 More advanced students can have a copy of the message with all ending
punctuation taken out. Students would have to put in question marks and
exclamation marks.

What do we do next?


Read together as a class
Have students come up and make the necessary corrections using sticky
dots for period and marker for the capital letters.
Possible Integration:
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Shared Reading and Poetry using the Morning Message
Activity: Vowel Sound – ay, a_e, eigh, ae, ai
Today is Monday
I came today in a sleigh.
I paid for a load of hay.
I’ll save it for a rainy day.
What do we do next?
Look for and circle long “a” sounds
Make lists of different long “a” sounds
Next day leave out words and see if they can remember the words
Change long “a” words for another long vowel sound
Write their own poem by changing last words
 Pancake Jake – tape with long vowels





Adaptations


Substitute different rhyming words
Partner weaker students with stronger students.
Possible Integration:
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Decoding and Cloze Procedure using the Morning Message
Activity: Focus ‘oo’ and “ou”
Good morning boys and girls. Today is the first day of December. We are
having an assembly at 9:30 so you should make sure you are wearing your
inside shoes. Could you please have your library books handed in by
tomorrow? Mrs. A would like you to put your Math book in your desk.
Should we practice keyboarding again today? If we do, I know we would
have fun! Have a good day!
Mrs. J.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?



Complete sentences using cloze method.
Note they all have ou sound but some have different symbols
Use these words for spelling dictation
Possible Integration:
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Spelling in the Morning Message
Activity: Checking for homonym errors.
Good morning Grade Too. Twoday is Thursday December 7th, 2006.
They’re was a grate, big snowstorm hear at the school. We no that Santa
can get threw because he has a 4x4 to. Santa will have buckle his shoo and
we hope he doesn’t get the flew.
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking


Underline words if students struggle to pick the homonyms.
Leave a blank and provide index cards wit possible words.
What do we do next?


Introduce homophones and the importance of Best Guess Strategy
Independent practice handout.
Possible Integration:
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: Two
Concept / Skill taught:
Rhyming / Variation in the Code using Morning Message
Activity: Morning Message on Flip Chart. Cloze Procedure.
Today is Friday, December 8th, 2006.
Good Morning Grade Two
How are _____?
I think I have the _____.
What should I ____ to make myself feel better?
I could _____ my vitamins. Or eat some chicken _____.
Oh my! What would you ____?
Results:
Good
Students independently able to do
task
What do we do next?
 Fill in missing words on flip chart
 Copy into LA notebook
 Respond to question
 Generate a chart to show ways to
make /oo/.
 Classify words
 Leads into spelling list for the
week
 Segmenting, blending & phoneme
manipulation
Possible Integration:
Health
Needs Tweaking




Give beginning letter
Give word bank to students
Give students words on a card
Small group or one-to-one
concept of rhyming
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: 2-3
Concept / Skill taught:
Long Vowel sounds / Compound Words using the Morning Message
Activity: Snowman (same idea as Hangman )
Start with a message
like this on the board.
Good morning. Try to guess my word. It’s a thing:
__ __ __ __ __
(train)
or
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
(snowflake)
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking

How many words can you make if
you change the /tr/
Possible Integration:

Class newsletter
What do we do next?

Do this activity with sorting
other long vowels words under the
following categories ay, a, eigh,
a_e, ai, ey
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: 3
Concept / Skill taught:
Decoding in Morning Message
Activity: Word Scramble
Good nirgmon Grade Three!
Today is dsruyaht, December 7, 0602. We certainly received a lot of wnos
this week. We are having an smyabels in the amynusgmi today, to discuss
appropriate rnteiw play. Please remember to use your best ingltiens
From your ecahret,
Mrs. Rule-Maker
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
To challenge stronger students
leave a blank for the scrambled
words and have the list of words
scrambled beside the message.
 For weaker students have the
words spelled correctly in a list
and give to those students on a
sticky note

What do we do next?
Use this same format scrambling
the weekly spelling list words
 Use your students’ ability to
decide whether to scramble all
letters or keep the double letter
sound/symbols together

Possible Integration:

Any theme / subject area
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE: 3
Concept / Skill taught:
Verb Tense using Morning Message
Activity: Regular / Irregular Verbs
Good morning. Today is going to be a fun day! We will make a snowman. We
will use paper, felt and buttons. We will display the snowmen in the hallway.
Then, we can take them home to give to our families. We’ll have a great day!
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?






Possible Integration:
Introduce, read together on
Day 1
Day 2 use the same message
Discuss how the message
related to yesterday (past
tense). How can we change the
message to show past tense.
Students will use markers o
cross out words or use post-its
or manilla tag to change tense.
Reread. Does it make sense?
Lesson on letter changes (make
– made, endings – love – loved)
SRSD EARLY LITERACY PROJECT
RESOURCE BINDER
GRADE:
Concept / Skill taught:
Activity:
Results: Good
Needs Tweaking
How?
What do we do next?
Possible Integration:
Sample Message: