Building Background Knowledge and Vocabulary: Make It Fun!

Expressive reading and props can help all children learn new vocabulary, understand story structure, and have a valuable fluent reading model. See the video below for fun examples!

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.01 & 03.
Head Start - VIII.A. & B.

Remember To Use Gross Motor Expression

We think of holding a pencil, listening to a book, and pointing to letters and words as important school-readiness skills.  But, we also need to remember that our young children need different opportunities to practice important skills. Using whole body expression is an age-appropriate way to encourage preschoolers to have fun while building necessary school abilities. 

We can use chalk to write letters on cement. Encourage children to jump while naming each letter. This develops alphabetic principle while inviting children to use a whole body response. This is so important for young children. 

Write letters or numbers on a beach ball and throw it to children. They can run and pick up the ball (catching is not necessary as many young children cannot yet catch a ball). Wherever their hands are on the ball, they say the number or letter they are covering or touching. This is another method to combine gross motor activities with school readiness skills.

A third activity we like is to place words on a wall and give children a new flyswatter. If children are working on sight vocabulary, they can swat words as you say them. You might also have them find words with specific letters in them. For example, you could say, "Swat a word with a b in it." This encourages concept of word along with alphabetic principle. The "game" works with names, too. You might put the names of everyone in the class on the wall and individuals learn to recognize their name by hitting at it.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.C.04, 2.E. 03, 2.E.07, & 2.E.09.
Head Start - I.C., VII.C, & VII.D.

Using Age-Appropriate Comprehensible Input To Engage ELLs

We enjoyed talking with many teachers, directors, and families at the Head Start Conference in Chicago this past weekend. We discussed the importance of intentionally using pictures, videos, gestures, songs, voice tone, props, wordless picture books, etc., to help not just our English language learners, but all children in both Early Head Start and Head Start.

We hope those who attended our session will sign-up to receive our free weekly activities in the box to the right.

You will find the PowerPoint we shared by clicking here along with the Hart Phonemic Awareness assessment that was discussed in the question and answer period.

We also modeled how a teacher might use a book with comprehensible input. You can see a video of Kathy doing this below.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

The Communicative Approach: Helpful for ELLs and ALL Students

Two weeks ago we discussed a few instructional approaches that benefit our English Language Learners (ELLs) and all children. That is often the beauty of thinking about how best to teach our ELLs as these practices are often the best ones for ALL children. Today we discuss another instructional strategy, the Communicative Approach. 

When we give children the opportunity and need to communicate, we are using this approach. It is really quite simple: We need to intentionally plan situations where children need and want to communicate with others. When our young children "work" at play stations or centers, we are providing situations to practice and communicate.

Imagine a post office center where preschoolers have access to envelopes, stickers that look like stamps, ink pads and stamps, pens, pencils, mail collection bins, old mail, etc. They can communicate with one another about the processes of the post office. You can become a partner in this by supplying key words or English-speaking children can give key vocabulary. Other centers like housekeeping, stores, or even a mini-zoo made with stuffed animals are important opportunities for communication. Children can talk and play. Listen for authentic vocabulary during this important time. 

We often think about these times of our day as play times, but they offer the best opportunities for the development of oral language. We need to plan these activities, group our children, and interject ourselves and other adults into these "play" times in meaningful ways. As we mentioned, the best practices make appropriate and intentional opportunities for teaching ALL of our students. We imagine that if you look around your classroom, you will see many of these in action.


Please note: 
It is important to remember that when our ELLs are in the silent period, we should not force speaking. For example, requiring children to say, "Good morning," is even counterproductive to helping children in this stage. We should merely set up activities and let our children play. Who knows, maybe English speakers will learn a few words in another language, too? This is always a benefit! 


Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.01 & 03.
Head Start - VIII.A. & B.

Crossing the Midline

Touch your right hand to your left elbow. Brush your teeth with your opposite hand. What do these two activities have in common? The answer is a simple, yet important one. They encourage our young children to cross the midline.

What does crossing the midline mean? Think of the body as having a line down the middle, right where the bellybutton is located! Imagine then a right side of this line and a left side of the line. When a child can easily cross their midline, it means he or she can reach over from one side to perform a task on the other side of the body. Here is an example: a child is sitting “criss cross applesauce” on the floor, doing Legos and reaches with his or her right hand to place a Lego in a place that is nearer to the left side of the body. This child is able to cross the midline. A child who cannot do this, might put the Lego in the opposite hand or could move his or her body to perform the task.

It sounds so simple, right? But this seemingly easy task can be difficult. It is important because children who can easily and readily cross the midline are often better readers, have more writing fluency (can hold a pencil longer and with more efficiency), and often feel less frustrated. Research tells us that crossing the midline is a necessary skill.

Activities to help children cross the midline are often a part of our preschool day. We just need to be intentional and clear in our minds about these activities. We all sing with fun motions to enhance a song. When these motions involve using a hand or arm and crossing to the other side of the body, we are developing a child’s ability to cross the midline. When we give children beads to thread or streamers to swirl, we are offering valuable age-appropriate activities to develop crossing the midline.  Playing on the sand table offers important opportunities to scoop sand with one hand and then dump it into a pail on the other side of the body.

Be sure to share the reasoning behind your daily activities with families. They need to know that what you are doing is not just a ‘cute’ activity but is helping to develop an important skill for future school success.  

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.C.04

Head Start – I.C

Teaching Strategies For ELLs

This week we continue discussing teaching strategies to help our English Language Learners. Keep in mind that these strategies are a help to ALL children and are good ways to assist children who may not have background knowledge and school skills.  These two strategies are different and may be used depending on your class and the topics you are presenting. They are Total Physical Response and The Silent Way.

Total Physical Response  

Children can learn language when they listen to and follow along with an adult’s speech. The key is that the adult must use many gestures and facial expressions to talk with children. Children can merely watch and participate using their bodies, without any oral responses. This helps children feel less pressure to speak. They can respond in a physical way, which is so appropriate for preschoolers. An example of this might be to talk about elephants by using your arm as a trunk, your hands as ears, making an elephant sound, and showing pictures of foods elephants eat. Children can then pretend to be elephants, without any pressure to describe an elephant.

The Silent Way

When we give children a train of unifix cubes in a pattern, with a tub of cubes to continue this pattern, we can think of this as being an example of The Silent Way. Adults should give as little direction as possible and let children explore and discover new concepts on their own. Adults might use gestures and gestures, but little language is used. Children can experiment, without the need to process teacher direction. This helps children develop important concepts and encourages self-reliance.  

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.01 & 03.
Head Start - VIII.A. & B.

Comprehensible Input for Preschoolers: A Video

Last week we talked about the benefits of comprehensible input - the idea that you pair known gestures, expressions, and actions with vocabulary to help both English Language Learners and those who may not have the background knowledge to understand a concept or book. As promised, today we share a video of comprehensible input in action. Watch carefully as we also demonstrate our favorite way to avoid b/d reversals! 

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.01 & 03.
Head Start - VIII.A. & B.