Using Panda News To Develop Expressive Language and Numeracy!

In honor of the baby panda born at the National Zoo, we offer you this outline of a panda. Use it to encourage expressive language in children and to develop numeracy. Talk about the number of panda eyes, ears, arms, legs, and so on. Discuss the idea that pandas only eat plants. Ask children to contrast this with the healthy foods they eat.

If you have the favorite food of pandas, bamboo, nearby you could take a walk and look for it. Compare bamboo to other plants. This brings in size comparison. Discuss how bamboo is like other plants and how it is different from other plants you see.

Show children how big a baby panda is in comparison to its mother.  Babies are about 5 inches long when born. Find a toy or book that is about this size. Compare it to an object that is 4 to 5 feet tall, the size of a mother panda. What a size difference between a baby panda and its mother! 

Concept of Print

Concept of Print is an important school readiness skill. Make classroom or home reading fun and integrate these key readiness questions into your reading sessions:

Can the child identify the front of the book?

Does the child know where to begin reading? (top/down)

Does the child know which direction to read? (left to right)

Does the child know at the end of the line to return to the next line? (return sweep)

Does the child have a one-to-one match with voice to print? (Can the child point to words as they are read?) 

Does the child understand the concept of first and last part of the book?

Does the child know that the left page is read before the right page?

Can the child identify a period?

Does the child know the meaning of a period?

Can the child identify a question mark?

Does the child know the meaning of a question mark?

Read, Read, Read!

Read, read, read! The most important way to build future literacy success is to expose preschoolers to books…and lots of them.

As you read to children, encourage Concept of Print by pointing out the cover of a book and the way the pages turn.  Point to the first sentence and say, “Let’s begin reading here.” That helps a child know to look from left to right. You may even want to run your finger along the line as you read. This helps train young eyes.

You can even build comprehension skills! Talk about the pictures. Ask children to imagine what the book will be about, what will happen, and what the characters might do. This is an important step in making predictions, a key comprehension skill for the elementary years.

Why not print the illustration below? Have young children add details to show their own love of reading!

Step Into Reading!

We often think of knowing the names of individual letters as a necessary first step in reading. Did you know that most reading/literacy specialists think phonemic awareness can be just as important, if not more important? That means you should play many sound games with preschoolers. Encourage phonemic awareness with rhyming words. One way to do this is to share silly poems and songs with children.

Read poems like this:

Is a llama an animal you have met?

It has long legs and a neck you can pet.

If people need help, a llama will do

Because this animal will work for you.

Going a long way? It will carry your pack.

A llama walks far with this on its back.

Need a warm coat from llama hair?

Just like a sheep, it is happy to share.

A llama likes grass and carrots to eat.

It chows down plants, but never meat!

A llama is fast when it goes on a run,

And it thinks a swim is a lot of fun.

So look for a llama when you go to the zoo.

It may bat its long eyelashes right at you!

Leave out the italicized words in bold. See if children can get in the rhythm by supplying the, missing word. When you are all done, read the words back:

met/pet

do/you

pack/back

hair/share

eat/meat

run/fun

zoo/you

During the next few days, make up real or silly rhyming words.

Stay tuned for more information about why this is important and more steps in developing phonemic awareness.

Poem by Kathy Hart Smith, Ph.D. Maggie’s Earth Adventures, www.missmaggie.org, Parent company of Maggie’s Big Home

Encourage Writing!

Did you know children progress through stages of writing? As teachers and family members, we can encourage a child's love of writing by celebrating these stages. Ask children to write grocery lists, make thank you cards, or keep a daily journal. Don't worry about "words" that don't look like words. The lists may contain scribbles, pictures, or even a jumble of letter and numbers. That's great and necessary for writing development!

Your child's writing attempts will likely fit into one of the following stages:

PRAISE! APPLAUD! And most of all, don't worry about a four year-old spelling anything correctly!

Ready For Adventure?

Maggie is ready for her next adventure – she will be zooming into preschools everywhere with her bag of teaching tips, meaningful lessons, and suggested materials guaranteed to excite your eager learners.

Fresh from a successful school readiness workshop at the National Head Start Conference in Washington, D.C., Maggie’s creators share their classroom-tested ideas. Check back in July when we’ll be adding oodles of fun to Maggie’s Big Home.

To get you started, we hope you’re thinking about how to develop phonemic awareness with your young learners.  Try using Anna Dewdney’s delightful Llama Llama books from Penguin Publishing. Read aloud the gentle rocking verse, pause, and invite young listeners to supply the rhyming word. Remember -  knowing how to rhyme is an important step in developing good readers.

And for summer fun, download our coloring sheet. Encourage children to add details showing what this llama is doing. Invite children to think about real llamas as they complete their pictures.  

 

Be sure to visit our parent site at www.missmaggie.org for lots of educational games and cartoons.