Alphabet Knowledge Art

In our October 6 post (see below), we discussed the order in which letters should be taught. It’s always important to integrate as many skills into our lessons as possible. The idea below combines letter knowledge and identification, fine motor skills, and even gives you the opportunity to talk about the reuse of materials.

Give children a paper with the outline of the letter of the week or the first letter in their name. One day you can give a capital letter and another day children can practice the lowercase letter.

Let children rummage through your classroom scrap box. Have them use their thumb and forefinger to tear tiny squares of paper. This is good pincer grasp practice (fine motor).

Children should use a glue bottle to glue each square in the lines of the letter.  Squeezing a glue bottle helps strengthen hand muscles (fine motor). This is also a good opportunity to talk about using one drop of glue rather than putting globs of glue onto paper. We find this is direct instruction that often needs to be repeated.

As children work, encourage talk about the letter, its sound, and words that begin with the letter.

When children are finished and the art is dry, have children take these home. You can encourage parents to save these letters so children can practice identifying them with their families.

Remember – the use of the scrap box is a wonderful opportunity to talk with children about reusing materials rather than throwing everything away.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.C.03., 2.E.07., 2.J.05., 2.L.08.

Head Start – I.D.,  III.C., V.B., VII.C.

Living Things

This week in our weekly activity, we provided a short text about bears. We hope you are signed up to receive these free activities. If so, be sure to read these bear facts to your class.

You can use this as the basis for a discussion (or grand conversation) about living things. You could also show children a photo like the one below:

Ask if zebras and bears are living. You will likely get a chorus of “YES!” Then ask children to share ideas about why this is living. Children might suggest ideas like the following:

It eats.

It has a face.

It has a home.

It moves.

You can ask leading questions about other living things. For example, “Are you living?” After children agree. Ask them what size they were as a baby. This likely will prompt responses such as “Living things can grow.”

Then comes the difficult part – having children cross ideas off of the “Living Things” list. We feel this is important as it helps children understand that it is necessary to revisit and often change their original ideas.

You can show a picture of a tree.

You can ask if the tree is living. Explain that it grows, it takes in air to help make food, and it moves in the breeze along with growing. Additionally, trees produce seeds like pinecones so they make more. This should help children cross off statements like “It has a face.” They can add other statements including “It makes more.”

Then have children go on a picture “hunt” in your classroom library or on the playground to find other examples of living things.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC - 2.G.02 & 2.G.06

Head Start - XI.1 & 2

In What Order Should We Teach Letters?

A, B, C, D, E, F, G…..most of our young learners have heard and may know how to sing the alphabet song. Some can identify the letter that begins their name. But when we are doing a more formal teaching of letters and their sounds, in what order should they be taught?

It is our belief that we should not start with A and move sequentially through the alphabet to Z. Why? This means we start with the often confusing letter A. Think of the different sounds this letter has – short a as in apple, long a as in ape, the schwa sound as in about (makes the sound uh), or even the r-controlled sound as in car.

As you can see the many sounds of letters like a can be confusing to children who are just learning. Examples of other letters that make multiple sounds include all the other vowels (e, i ,o, u),  and consonants such as c and g.  Keep in mind that letters like a and g can appear differently depending on the font:

a, a, g, g

This can be confusing for young learners, too. Additionally, we avoid b and d because of the confusion that often occurs.

We suggest beginning with letters that have consistent sounds and usually appear the same way in print material.  Letters such as the following are good places to start:

m

s

t

h

f

l

n

Stay tuned for more ideas on teaching letters and sounds!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.E.07

Head Start – VII.C.

Sentence Starters and Vocabulary Development: Community Helpers

Talking about firefighters, bakers, police officers, teachers, librarians, or postal workers? Integrate community workers into your literacy curriculum!

You can help young learners improve their speaking and listening skills along with encouraging Concept of Print by giving them sentence starters like this:

Firefighters are __________________.

Firefighters can __________________.

Firefighters have _________________.

Children can write their own words, draw pictures, or even choose from words you provide as shown in the photo.

You can see that this type of sentence completion will not only help children think about words to describe community helpers/workers, but they will gain an understanding of different types of speech. Adjectives, nouns, and verbs are used, depending on the sentence starter. This gives children valuable practice in forming correct sentences.

Children can point to words and "read" their finished sentences. This encourages Concept of Print and may even help some to memorize sight vocabulary like are, can, and have. 

They will have an opportunity to compare and contrast community workers as several words can apply to more than one profession. Of course, finish the lesson by having children role play different community workers.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.03, 2.E.09, 2.L.09.
Head Start - V.A., VII.D., VIII.B.

For Firefighter Math, sign up for our free printable activities!

Get the Attention of a Class - Part 2

As getting the attention of children is an on-going challenge, this week we continue to offer you suggestions to make this a fun experience in your classroom:

• As children are working, run around and put a light bulb over the heads of anyone who is thinking or getting ready to listen.
• Teach children to copy your hand gestures. Make different funny hand movements every day so this doesn’t become stale.
• Tell children to put their fingers over their mouths if they are listening.
• Tell children to smile when they are ready to listen (it’s difficult to talk when you are smiling big!) 
• In the morning, show children the 'secret signal' for the day. Make it something strange like patting your knee or turning in a circle. Explain that when they see you do this - everyone needs to stop and look. They will love all the crazy things you do!
• Various attention grabbing statements like “1, 2, 3 eyes on me,” where children respond with “1, 2, eyes on you” can be changed to things like “bumpity bump,” where the class responds, “bump, bump.” By constantly varying this, children are more likely to look at you and listen. 
• Use giant hand clappers to surprise the class.

Head on over to your favorite party store to find these inexpensive “toys” that are sure to encourage listening ears and get all eyes on you! 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.A.07 & 2.A.08

Head Start – II. B & C

Get the Attention of a Class! - Part 1

Looking for good listeners? Here are a few of our favorite ways to get children’s attention.

·      Use giant glasses or a big magnifying glass as in the photo above to let children know you are really looking for those who are ready for the next activity.

·      Remember the power of saying, “I like how Jennifer is sitting quietly.” Avoid saying the names of children who are not doing the desired behavior. This only reinforces it.

·      Change the pattern of your hand clapping – often we use only one pattern. By changing it daily you are keeping this fresh and teaching children to follow a pattern.

·      A toy microphone will often get their attention, especially if you say funny things like, “Reporting from Mrs. Smithy’s room where so many children are cleaning up like Bennett and Carlyle, and Mac…”

·      Stand in front of the room and mouth words – they are sure to stop and wonder what is going on!

·      Always give a warning when it will be time to stop an activity – say “And in 6.” Then start counting down.

·      Sing or play a different song each day to catch the attention of children. Encourage children to sing along!

Stay tuned next week for more "attention please" ideas!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.A.07 & 2.A.08

Head Start – II. B & C

Shhh...How Do You Teach Young Children To Whisper?

We all know that a noisy room can be a happy place. But there are times when quiet is needed. Turning off the lights or saying, "Shhh..." gets tiresome and children often ignore these cues. Giving directions like, "Whisper please," or "Use a quiet voice" may not work because preschoolers often do not know when they are being loud. Some do not even know the meaning of whisper!

But there are a few easy ways to help children learn to whisper.

One of the most important things teachers and families can do is to speak softer than children. When a room is noisy, a teacher's loud voice means very little when added to the din. Try whispering. Children will stop and wonder what is being said. It is amazing how quickly an adult's quiet voice can calm a room.

Have children practice whispering. When asking them to repeat words, recite poems, or sing songs have them do these activities using various "voices." They can squeak, speak in a low voice, or whisper. This lets them experiment with various ways to use their voices.

You can also give them a tangible way to check the volume of their voices. Have children place 2 fingers on their necks as shown below.

Ask them to say their names in a regular voice. They can feel the vibration here. But when they whisper, there is no vibration. Call this a "voice motor." Children can be told to check their voice motors when they are too loud. Even just holding up your 2 fingers and catching a child's eyes, will let them know they need to whisper.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.B.03
Head Start - II.C.