Beginning Letter Box

I used a fishing tackle container and lowercase alphabet stickers. Any craft organizer will do. I placed one sticker in each slot and found an item that started with that letter. Note: I did not use all of the letters of the alphabet. You could use even less letters for younger children.

Kindergarten Screening Tools - Concepts About Print

Area Tested: Concepts About Print

Concepts of Print - your child is asked a series of questions about a book

Where is the front of a book? Where is the back of a book? Where would you begin reading? (locating the beginning of a sentence) Point to the first word in the sentence. Where would you stop reading? (locating the end of a sentence) Once you finish this page, where would you go next?

Activities to strengthen concepts of print:

1. Read, read, read! Ask questions about what you are reading.

2. Exposure to all kinds of print - books, magazines, comics, newspapers, print is everywhere!

3. Ask your child to re-tell a story they've heard several times

4. Predict what will happen in a story by looking at the pictures first

5. Point to each word as you read it aloud

To read further on assessing the concepts of print, see

Assessing the Student's Concepts about Print

Kindergarten Screening Tools - Letter Name and Sound

Area Tested: Letter Name and Sound

Letter recognition and letter sound association - your child is asked to recognize specific letters of the alphabet and the associated sounds from a sheet of paper.

Activities to strengthen letter recognition and letter sound association:

1. That's a (insert letter). Can you find another (letter) on this page?

2. What else starts with (letter)?

3. Can you show me the (letter)?

4. How many (letter)s can we find on this page?

5. Books of course!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

Alphabet Soup by Scott Gustafson

Reading Role Model

I found a new quote that I wholeheartedly agree with!

"Parents who read have kids who learn to read."

Think about how many times a day you read something to yourself. Is it something you can read out loud to your child? Books, magazines, newspapers, letters, signs, lists. Words are everywhere we look. Point out print and its purpose. Talk about what you are reading. Be a reading role model!

Generating Rhyming Words - Down by the Bay

"The ability to recognize and generate rhyming words will eventually help children to use known words to decode new words." Literacy and the Youngest Learner by V. Susan Bennett-Armistead

A catchy little song that provides opportunity for generating rhymes is
"Down by the Bay":

Down by the bay

Where the watermelons grow

Back to my home

I dare not go

For if I do

My mother will say

Have you ever seen _____ wearing _____

Down by the bay


Have children help you fill in the blanks! Silly huh? Give these a go:

Have you ever seen a _____ eating a _____
Have you ever seen a _____ walk with a _____

The popular song is also available in book form. Thanks Raffi!
Down by the Bay (Raffi Songs to Read)

School Supply Shopping

There's generally a list involved, and to me that means an opportunity for language and literacy. I let C hold our list and once we found the Kleenex I showed him the print on the box. He then found it on the list and crossed it off. He "matched" the words. Finding purpose in print! He was thrilled to do his part, and I could see this made him even more excited for back to school.

Postal Clerk

I'm going to forgive myself the last week or so that I haven't posted. I've had an awesome time with my boys and my husband and enjoying summer has been our top priority!

Set up your very own pretend post office with a table and chairs and various writing utensils, paper, printing tools, and materials to encourage writing. Include materials for mailing- envelopes, stamps (stickers), address labels, greeting cards, postcards, stationery, lined and unlined paper, etc. Write, sort, and deliver!

*Extension: This is a great use for "junk mail," especially business reply mail envelopes. Pat yourself on the back for recycling!

Children's Development in Early Reading and Writing

What preschoolers can do:

*enjoy listening to and discussing storybooks
*understand that print has meaning
*attempt to read and write
*identify signs and labels from the environment
*produces rhymes
*identify some letters and make some letter-sound matches
*use known letters or approximations or letters to represent written language, especially one's own name and meaningful phrases like "I love you"

What parents and family members can do:

*talk to children, have conversations
*give names of things
*show interest in what the child says
*read and reread stories with predictable text (any story becomes predictable when read over and over!)
*ask children to recount experiences
*have children describe ideas and events important to them, recalling with detail and order
*visit the library
*provide writing and drawing materials and time to use them!

Environmental Print Game

For my older children, I started a game in which I pay them a quarter for every spelling mistake they find. The boys find misspellings in the books they read, on city signs, and everywhere in between! C wants to play too so I came up with a game especially for him as a beginning reader.

Beginning literacy builds on "environmental print" which is words in the environment that children may know & recognize from repeated exposures. The first that comes to mind is "McDonald's." If you ask them to read the word placed elsewhere like on the packaging, they can probably tell you that it is McDonald's! They may recognize their own name in print. They might be able to "read" the name of their favorite box of cereal. C reads environmental print for his quarters! Once he reads a word, I confirm and point out the beginning letter and sound out the word again. He's essentially recalling stored information and is so proud that he's "reading" like big brothers.

Great places to hunt for environmental print: foods in a grocery store, store names, candy aisle, in a favorite book, advertisements in magazines

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Just want to recommend a book that might inspire a few activities this summer. It's called "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" by Charles G. Shaw and published by HarperFestival.

*Extension: Cloud watching.

*Extension: Paint white paint on blue paper and then fold it in half. What does it look like now?

Build a Fort

**Pull out a few sheets and blankets and build a good old fashioned fort together in the living room. Beyond structure and architecture, climb inside and read a good book together by flashlight.**

100 Books Every Child Should Hear Before Kindergarten

Our local libraries compiled a list of 100 quality children's books to read with children to help them develop their Early Literacy Skills. I couldn't find the exact same list online, but it close to this. It's a great resource- even printable! For those of you who will have kindergarteners this fall, take advantage of a whole summer of reading opportunities.

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/booklist/booklist.asp?printme=1&iam=100prek

Grocery List

Grocery shopping with 3 boys has always been a chore. But I keep C, my preschooler, occupied with his very own grocery list. When he was about 3, I drew pictures next to the words. Now I just write the words and we sound them out together. When he figures a word out and finds the item, he gets to cross it off the list.

Little does he realize that my lesson in all of this is seeing a purpose for print, another way we use language to organize and communicate. He feels a sense of pride for "reading" it too!

Blueberries For Sal

Today we read Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey.

In this classic picture book, little Sal becomes so involved in her blueberry picking, she doesn't notice that she's following the wrong mother - an equally startled mother bear! "Amusing and suspenseful and entirely childlike in appeal." - Booklist

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!

Meet math standards: Number and Operations
*Computation
*Adding and subtracting
*Using objects to computer; using mental computation

((We used pony beads and a small metal pail from Target's Dollar Spot.))

Ask the child to listen as you drop a number of blueberries into the bucket one at a time. How many are in the bucket? Pour and count.

Add a small number to that. Pour and count.

Divide the blueberries into two or three groups and have the child pick which group has the most and which group has the least. Try it several times.

Have the child drop one blueberry at a time into the bucket and count out loud. How high can you count?

Write a numeral (for younger children) or a number sentence (such as 3+4 for older children). See if the child can put the right amount into the bucket.

Writing Strips

For pre-writers

Cut a sheet of paper into smaller 3" x 8 1/2" strips. Give your child the strips along with a crayon or marker and let the scribbling begin. By encouraging your child to mark on the smaller sized papers, she'll be praticing smaller hand movements. Since we read and write from left to right, make a dot in the upper left corner and tell her it is the starting point.

Cues to use when talking about her writing:
"These looks like big loops, and these look like smaller loops."
"You have some long lines here and some short ones here."
"I notice you connected these loops."
"These marks are side by side."
"This is really close to the letter ( )."

Dictation

Merriam-Webster defines dictation as 2 a (1): the act or manner of uttering words to be transcribed (2): material that is dictated or transcribed.

My suggestion for you today is to write down what children say, word for word. That part is important because you give the child ownership of the story. When you do shorthand or leave words out, you're writing your own version of the story.

The messages you send to a child when doing this are "Words are important. YOUR words are important. Words on paper have meaning. Writing something down is a way to remember it later or pass on information." It develops language and literacy skills. It strengthens the imagination!

You can use dictation:

Next time your child brings you a piece of artwork try "Tell me about that!" and write it word for word on the back. Read it back to the child.

Ask your child to describe a photograph. Write down their account of what was happening in the photo. What's important to them might be quite different than what you remember. This can be quite amusing.

Have the child tell you a story. You write it, then the child can illustrate it.

Kids say the darndest things. Capture those moments by writing down what they say so someday you can look back together and laugh!

Shaving Cream Sensory

Good clean fun! All you need is a can of shaving cream (sensitive skin formula recommended) and a child ready to create. First cover the table with a vinyl tablecloth or squirt a dollop of shaving cream directly on the table, whichever you prefer. Tip: If you're not worried about your table, it will actually do a nice job cleaning it.

You can lead them to draw letters in the shaving cream if you'd like to go somewhere educational with this one, but I'm going to bet that if your kids haven't done this one yet that the first time they do, it will be hard to pull them away! C spelled WoWWW.

Clean up is easy- a wet towel. Some teachers use this in the schools because it cleans desks right up and smells good too.

*Variation: Let children run their toy cars through the shaving cream and check out the tracks they leave.

*Variation: If you think this looks to tasty to resist, try Cool Whip.

*Variation: The "no-mess" version is hair gel into a Ziploc baggie. Perhaps add glitter. Press to seal and also use clear packing tape to ensure that nothing is coming back out. Lay the bag on a flat surface and press on it to draw.

Go Beyond a Book Today

It's raining. It's pouring.
Staying inside can be boring.
Picked out a book.
About a cook.
Now the kitchen we are touring!

Today I challenge you to go beyond a book. Read one of your favorites and then choose an activity to do that goes with it. We read Jake Baked the Cake by B.G. Hennessy today, and now we're going to make paper chefs hats and I think I'll even let my little chef join me in making dinner tonight. It's easy to extend the learning beyond a book. Read a book about construction workers and build a tower of blocks or paper cups. Read about bugs and go find some to observe. Read about fish then make your way to the pet store. See how easy this is?

Come back and share what you did here so we can bounce ideas off of each other!

Beginning Letter Scavenger Hunt

Beginning readers and writers take lots of pride in their names! It's often one of the first words a child will learn to write. Face it, when you are new to a school setting, seeing and hearing your VERY OWN name is generally a pretty cool thing. MY cubby. MY desk. MY school supplies. MY NAME!

Begin by having your child write their name on a paper bag. You may or may not need to assist. Provide plenty of supplies to decorate the bag. Explain that you are going on a scavenger hunt to find objects that also start with the same letter of their name. You might let them circle the letter to reinforce its significance. Say the sound several times as you search through the house.

Set a goal by years in age, for example, if the child is 3, finding 3 items is a good goal to search for. Help as much as needed or until interest turns elsewhere.

*Variation: Circle another letter in your child's name and find things that start with that letter.

*Variation: Find the letter in printed words or pictures from a magazine. Cut out and glue to the bag.

*Variation: Read a book and look for their letter throughout.

A Firefighter Fingerplay

Our recent preschool field trip to the firestation sparked an interest in C in all things firefighter. Here's a fingerplay for you to learn together. Try to remember, even after thirty-somethingth time performing, repetition is a positive thing! Fingerplays use fine motor development and hearing and discerning the sounds of language, as well as rhyming which kindergarten teachers like our kiddos to come prepared with.

A Firefighter

This brave fireman is going to bed

hold up right thumb

Down on the pillow he lays his head

right thumb on left palm

Wraps himself in his blanket tight

curl fingers around thumb

And plans to sleep this way all night

close eyes

But the fire alarm rings! He opens his eyes!

open eyes

Quickly he's dressed and down the pole he slides

right hand slides down left arm

in a grip from elbow to wrist

Then he climbs on the truck to go, go, go!

hands manipulate imaginary steering wheel