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Building strong readers at Park Avenue Elementary School

Park Avenue first graders smile while playing a reading game.

First graders in Inga Mezzetti’s class at Park Avenue Elementary School have been hard at work (and putting the "fun" in) building their fundamental literacy skills!

The learning kicked off with an interactive "Let's Make a Sentence!" activity. Students built sentence structure awareness, reading comprehension, and even fine motor skills by coloring an illustration and cutting out scrambled word tiles before arranging them into a correct sentence.

The sentence: It is a sunny day.

By providing the words to build the sentence and having the students cut and arrange them, the process maintains focus on syntax and the roles of individual words in forming a sentence. Following that, students then practiced writing the complete sentence neatly on lined paper.

Following their independent sentence building, students transitioned into collaborative partner work using "Roll and Read" games, aimed at differentiation and fluency reinforcement. The games are aligned with the University of Florida Literacy Institue Foundations phonics curriculum, a proven reading science-based approach for early elementary students. To play, students roll a die, find the matching numbered section on the grid, read a word aloud, and then cover or color in that box if it is read correctly. Working in pairs, the students took turns rolling and reading target words. For example, some of the words reinforced the students' mastery of the short /a/ vowel sound in a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pattern.

“This blend of individual hands-on practice and interactive peer learning helps our young learners develop decoding fluency, confidence and a love for reading,” Ms. Mezzetti said.

A teacher and three young students are gathered around a white table with school supplies, set against a background of classroom storage bins and shelves.
A teacher and three young children sit around a white circular table working on activities in a classroom with purple chairs and light-colored flooring.
Two young children sit on a wooden floor playing a dice game with a worksheet, surrounded by colorful plastic chairs and classroom storage shelves.
Two children sit on a classroom floor playing a game with a large yellow die, surrounded by school furniture and supplies.
Two young boys work together on a project at a table in a colorful classroom filled with bookshelves and an inspirational banner.
Two young children play with a yellow block on a table in a classroom filled with books and educational posters.
Two children play with a large green die and a game board in a brightly lit classroom.
Two children sit at a table with a yellow water bottle and a green die in the foreground, set within a brightly lit classroom.
Two young children interact at a classroom desk with a yellow water bottle and green die in the foreground and a blurred classroom setting in the background.
Two smiling children interact at a classroom desk with a yellow water bottle and green dice in the foreground, set against a blurred background of a bright school room.