Very early in the school year and helped by the teacher, the children "find" a Treasure Chest full of Secret Word Lists left there by the Word Queen. Also inside the Treasure Chest is Word Queen: the Beginning which tells how she got started.
When the Word Queen finds out about this, she systematically leaves notes warning the children NOT to be learning her Tricks and that they should NOT endeavor to learn to read at all.
Of course, the children defiantly and adamantly decide the Word Queen is not going to tell them what to do and they proceed to defy her every step of the way, learning in spite of her.
After this initial "meeting", the kids look forward to her notes approximately once a week. These Word Queen Notes are accompanied by the teacher retelling a story that informs the students about a Trick that the Word Queen played on them. The students then write her a note in return and they tape it to the classroom door so she will see it.
This same methodology and Word Queen/student interaction is applied weekly for the next 9-12 weeks or so ... each with a similar, but varied, methodology with very specific, yet entirely flexible student-teacher-classroom activities.