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By Debbie

Hi J,
My partner and I had long discussions about the literacy activities we were doing this year. We wanted them to be open ended, so wherever a child was as a reader, writer and mathematician, they would extend their
learning.
We use an I Care board which is similar to the board found in Guided Reading (Fountas and Pinnell) and ideas from Joyful Learning (Bobbi Fischer). There are icons for the work the children are expected do each day. I Care means that these tasks are important for you to complete before the end of language arts / math and science block. Typically, I Cares for Language Arts

are group work, writing, little book tubs, book browse (author / genre studies books). At this time in the year, I allow most of the children to work in the order they'd like, as long as they complete all their 'I Cares'.
Once these are done, there are many choices designed to extend their literacy. An example for writing is to have a plastic tub with upper and lower case letter stamps, stamp pads and various sizes of paper. The children are free to stamp their classmates names, labels from around the room, titles, word wall words, etc. One of the reading tubs has the letter books inside. They read the books on their own or to a friend. There are alphabet books in another tub. Some are easy enough for reading, others are for book browsing. If you'd like other ideas, please post again. ;-D