In a Grade 1 classroom at Airdrie’s Cooper’s Crossing School, some of Rocky View Schools’ youngest learners are improving their literacy skills thanks the efforts of teacher, Ashley Burndred.

Burndred brings her passion for literacy to her classroom – it’s infectious and proving to be very engaging for her students. Each morning, she provides her students with bags containing sounds and sight words tailored to their individual needs. The students then read through the day’s morning message together, using the sounds and sight words from their bags to fill in the missing words or letters. Using a flip chart to write out the morning message also helps to create print awareness for the new readers as it connects spoken language to printed words.

Burndred models interactive writing in front of the students – they circle letters and sounds or suggest words to fill in the blanks. The activity is also a way for Burndred to observe her students and provide feedback – and to track their progress over time. Every blank in the morning message has been designed with the needs of individual students in mind.

Completing and reading the morning messages helps to promote sound segmentation, crucial for phonetic awareness. The daily practice helps Burndred’s young students improve their fluency in a fun and interactive way. The activity is tailored to the literacy level and readiness of each student, fostering inclusivity and ensuring no student is left behind on their literacy journey. Burndred can speed up or slow down the activity to best suit the skills of the group and of the individual students.

Burndred provides parents/guardians with information each Friday about the morning messages the students studied that week and what they learned. This is a way to involve parents/guardians in their child’s learning and Burndred said they have been very supportive of and interested in the practice.

Reading morning messages together is highly collaborative and encourages Burndred’s students to share the strategies they are working on individually with the group. Using morning messages to teach makes literacy meaningful and personalized to every student in the classroom.

The impact this practice has on her students’ literacy skills is what is most gratifying for Burndred and she said she’s hopeful other Grade 1 teachers will try using the same activity in their own classrooms. Her students enjoy the engaging activity and that it makes learning much more fun!