Letter scavenger hunt

One of my favorite activities for learning to recognizing letter shapes is a scavenger hunt.  There are many many ways to do this activity.  The basic principle is picking a letter for them to look for in text.
Sometimes I will write a familiar poem or nursery rhyme on a sheet of poster board and allow them to take turns finding and "marking" the letter we are looking for.
Other times I have photocopies each page of a favorite story or two and let them each have a page or two.  After they have marked up the pages, I hang them in order up on the wall and we read the story together, looking at the "letter" as we read.
Still other times, like we did this past week, they went through the books on the shelves showing me words that had "A's" in them, and I wrote each word on a sheet of paper.  I read the word to them, and some of the children talk to me about the sound "A" makes in the particular word.  This is really the only way, I believe that you can even talk about phonics of vowels; which is to say you can only talk about them in context because vowels each can make over 5 sounds each in English, and seldom follow the "conventional" phonetic rules.  Other children aren't yet thinking about letter sounds, and that is okay; they will when they are ready- most of them sometime in the next six months before kindergarten.   (On another note about A- in this instance it is nice to reference text to find "A" because a lower case "a" in print does not look like a written lower case "a."
No matter which of these methods I have used, they really have fun doing this activity and will point out which ever letter we most recently looked for in the hall way, in the lunch room, in the bathroom, and just about anywhere else they see print containing that letter.  They are also learning letters in context of words and words in the context of books and other materials.

If you liked this post also check out letter sounds game. 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Oh, how I wanted to be at school today!  The kids love Dr. Seuss!  Unfortunately, I have been home sick today.  On a positive note, children don't mind celebrating birthdays a day late so tomorrow we will celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.
Dr. Seuss has a way of playing with the English language that few others can, in addition to being able to tap into the emotions and sense of humor of children everywhere.  Not only do children love Dr. Seuss but teachers do too! According to literacy research "the roots of phonemic awareness, a powerful predictor of later reading success, are found in traditional rhyming, skipping, and word games." (Susan Neuman, Learning to Read an Write); and Dr. Seuss is the master of this kind of language!

So, as I have nothing else to write about, (since I was home today), I leave you with a story written by one of my kids, borrowing language from Dr. Seuss.

There was a Bingo and there was a tomato.
Tomato, Tomato, I can't find you.
Tomato, Tomato, Tomato.
Tomato I can't find you in a sock or in a block.
I can't find you here or there.  I can't find you anywhere!
Socky, Socky, where are you?  
Make up words, I can't do.  
Socky, Socky, where are you?
Socky, Socky, I can't find you.
You are always lost. Nowhere to be found.
Socky, Socky, Socky, you're my friend!
I can't find you anywhere.
Socky, socky, I want you, you're not no where to be found.

Encouraging Reading Acquisition

As teachers or parents of preschoolers there are so many things we can do to encourage literacy acquisition for our children; Unfortunately, sometimes it is easy to stand in their way and not even know it.  In this entry I would like to address two common practices in preschool classrooms and why they should be modified.  (Yes, I am aware that this will not be an exceedingly popular post and that upon reading the first three sentences many people will navigate away from this page; I implore you to stick with me, and perhaps even leave some feedback- whether agreeable or disagreeable). Often in preschool classrooms there is a tendency to read a book once or maybe twice- usually that book coincides with whatever unit they are teaching.  The other tendency is to keep the "beat up" or "cheap" books in the children's book area and not in the the library area.

According to the book Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children by Susan B. Neuman in collaboration with Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp,  "the single most important activity [in building the skills essential to literacy] appears to be reading to children."  While few would dispute this fact the authors also assert the opinion that "multiple re-readings" in addition to pointing out features of print encourage children to "practice what they've learned about print on their peers and on their own," by "reading,"  which is really "retelling."  Neuman says this on the topic:

"...Children will often pretend to read, using visual cues to remember the words of their favorite stories. Although studies have shown that these pretend readings are just that, such visual readings... demonstrate substantial knowledge about the global features of reading and its purposes." 

As many educators of young children know these same visual "clues" are used for children to aid themselves in reading later on in first, second, and even third grade- something known as "context clues."

These things aside, reading to children the same stories over and over again increases their love for reading or at the very least for literature.  Looking back on ones own childhood anyone who still loves reading (and perhaps people who do not) can remember a few stories that they loved to be read over and over and over again.  My own memories are of Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Are You My Mother?, and Where the Wild Things Are.  According to Lisa Murphy in Play: the Foundation of the House of Higher Learning and too many literacy experts to name, including the authors of Learning to Read and Write, reading stories over and over again helps them to both understand the features of stories as well as print it self. They begin to understand the literary elements of stories like how stories begin and end, and central conflict and resolutions (although of course they do not label them as such), and they begin to understand front to back (beginning to end), top to bottom, left to right, when they are read to.

"Hearing a story read again and again, children are better able to put together the relation of the characters and the sequence of key events, which they often do not on a first reading."  (Neuman)  

"When adults read to children regularly, children's familiarity with stories ... begins to evolve well before they are able to read or write.  From such experience children learn to distinguish the language used in books from conversational language and to anticipate certain elements in a story.  Later, these expectations assist children in comprehending what they read and in creating their own compositions."  (Neuman)

Hopefully, what all of this shows is that offering multiple readings of the same book is incredibly important to the acquisition of the written language for children.  I would also add to this that the quality of the book is also incredibly important.  Children do not want to hear stories that are not truly engaging more than once if at all.  According to Mem Fox a book that does not connect with the children is "a waste of our time, our money and our precious trees."

It is for this reason that it is also important for children to have the "good books" available for them to use and not just kept safely away from them.  I have, in the past, been as guilty as any of keeping certain beloved favorites out of the reach of little hands- fearing the damage, however, I have recently seen first hand the fruits of quelling my hesitancy to allow them these books and just put them out in the classroom library.  They read the stories they love to themselves, to their friends, to teachers, and to dolls.  The tenants of these stories make their ways into their own stories and playtime as well.  They examine the words on the page and examine the pictures, trying to better retell it, and decode the patterns of words and letters before them.
From putting out these books I have also seen a new reverence for books- they are more careful with them and often treat them  as prized possessions.  From this we have created a "book hospital" (or "hops-pital" as many of them say), where they demand even the tiniest fray or rip be repaired.  From the words of Lisa Murphy "no one learns how to use books the 'right way' if the 'good books' are kept in the cupboard."

letter sounds game

Today we played with letter sounds at school.  When teaching letters and the beginnings of reading, it can be hard to keep it developmentally appropriate and hard to make it fun and stress free.  After the children are able to recognize letters, and when they begin to stretch out words to recognize the letter sounds in them, they are ready (in my mind) for this game.  For this game I set out a few letters with easily identifiable sounds- today we worked on "L, H, G, C, B, and T," I set out a whole bunch of pictures representing words that start with those letters.  I also set out sheets of paper with those letters on it.

Usually this game is best played by two or three children at a time who have similar phonological abilities.  I start by saying "lets play a game. I wonder if we can work together to figure out what letter these things start with?"  The children go one at a time:  each child picks a picture, says what it is, and puts it on the letter they think that word begins with.  If they pick the "leaf" picture and put it on a paper like "g" I say what the word would be if it started with g - "geaf,"  h- "heaf,"  etc, until they find the right one.  Most children at this point know what letter these things start with at least 75% of the time, but will intentionally put it on the correct letter last so that they can hear all the sounds- they think the wrong words are funny.  Within a few turns they will start saying what the word would be along with me "galloon," "halloon," "lalloon," and so on.  This gives them an environment to play and experiment with letters without worrying about being "wrong,"  but at the same time reviews/teaches letter sounds.

To make sure this isn't just an exercise of memorizing which pictures go where, if we do it again, I change the pictures and/ or the letters.  I am very careful not to do this until they are at a certain level, but if doing it with children who have lesser aptitude, it may be beneficial to do only two or three letters at a time.

B is for Baking Blueberry Banana Bread

Most of my class is at an exciting phase of phonological awareness.  They are starting to put things together; starting to understand how letters make sounds and those sounds make words.  They are on the verge of being able to stretch out words to make guesses as to how to spell them.  They love to look for letters everywhere- on posters, on signs, in books- everywhere.  They are starting to recognize words or guess at words; just yesterday a child saw the word "Same,"  and said to me that has "S- A, like Santa!"  It is an exciting, exciting part of their learning.  They are absolutely fascinated with letters and words printed and written.
Today,  we made Blueberry Banana Bread to cover many bases.  I started by making a sign with the recipe on it and hanging it up on a board where we were baking.  Before we started baking we examined the recipe- I read them the ingredients and the instructions and then they pointed out things they noticed.  They noticed all the "B's" at the beginning and launched into a partial recitation of the "Berenstain's B Book,"  they told me about all the numbers they could "read" that talked about measurement, and some other things like the "T" for "tablespoon" is like "T" for "Tommy" in our class, etc.
Then the best part- making the blueberry banana bread!  Baking really does hit so many bases in preschool- there's measurement, motor involvement like pouring and stirring, literacy, and sensory! For mashing bananas, (and in other recipes for mixing),  I give them gloves and let them get right into it with their hands.

Here's the recipe we used (if you are interested).

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (or 1 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries, thawed) 

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Beat in bananas. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. Fold in blueberries.
2. Pour into a large, greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

We ate our bread for snack, (it came out really well!), and I sent them each home with two pieces of the bread in a ziplock bag with the recipe.  This class often asks for recipes- even for things that are prepared by the cook in the kitchen for their meals to take home to their parents! 

Budding Authors?

When I attended a Bev Bos conference this fall, one of the things I really loved that she did in her school, (although I loved so much),  was the idea of letting children write stories of their own everyday.  I had done this with the kids before but usually it wasn't a free form story, I usually provided them a topic, or I had them draw a picture and then tell me a story about their picture.  Bev Bos, and the parents who work at her school, walk around daily asking children "how does your story start?" and writing down their responses.  Now, unfortunately, I do not work in a cooperative community school, so therefor it is a lot harder to do it everyday and still have the kind of messy, busy, self directed programming they need, so I generally do it one or two times a week, or if they ask to tell me a story I don't say "no" unless it is an impossibility.  You can read more about this activity in Bev Bos's book: Tumbling Over the Edge.
In any instance I thought that I would share some of their stories today.

These stories are told by a little boy named "Tommy,"  I think the interesting thing to note is the development that takes place from the early stories, to the later stories.  Most of his stories went like this one....

November 24, 2010
A princess one. God. Jesus. A mom.  My dad. That's it. 

Until...
December 14, 2010
A princess. A reindeer. A ogre.  A oval.  A princess punched him.  A punch match.  And the monster won back.  Then the lady won back.  Then he run back home.  Mom.  And he runned back and the monster ran back.  Then the ogre run back.  The police ran back.  They want to chase him. The ghost run back.  They run and run.  The mommy run back.  The mommy ogre run back! And then the monster run back to his house and the lady did.  And then the end.  


He told me five stories like the first one before he told me the one on the 14 and it was not a gradual progression from listing characters to speaking in sentences. His most recent entry is as follows (he is not a child that chooses to tell a story all the time):

January 31, 2010
My Easter Bunny ran.  Then I ran to my mom because the Easter Bunny was bad.  Then my mommy was mad because my Aunt was running too.  My Aunt was running because the Easter Bunny was running.  That's the end.  


You can also see that his tenses and agreement for "run" are improving.  Most of his stories resemble car chases (except people/ things are running instead of driving),  I don't know why, but it is fun to note the peculiarities of each child's "writing style."

The next child, "AJ," often writes in ways that resemble poetic verse- sometimes borrowing rhythms or words from rhymes and books we read in class.  This first one seems to borrow from the game "Doggy, Doggy, where's your bone?"

December 12, 2010
Froggy, Froggy where's your gold?  I can't find it in the woods.
Sharky, Sharky, where's your castle?
And really, really, really.
Flower, flower, where's the bee?
Froggy, Froggy, where's your home? 
It's in the woods and on an F.
Doggy, Doggy, where's the T? 
And I can't find it in the woods or anywhere else.
Pointy, Pointy, skunky- skunk. Why? Why?
I  can't find my mommy.
Coffee, coffee I can't find my mom in the home or in coughy cough.


The next one resembles, if not copies, Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.

January 12, 2011
Dum Dum Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum.
Mini Dum Dum Dum a me.
Mr. Miss Dummy, Dum, Dum Dum Dum Dum.
Sharky Sharky in a turtle shell.
Miss Kristina, Mr. T-T,
 I can't find you in Tommy's Tummy with his on top of his head.
Mrs. Shroffy, I don't like you. Ditty Dum Dum.
Mr. Nam-na-na- me- zah- zah- da be.
King can't find no where in twenty- fifty, twenty fifty, twenty fifty.
Mr. Floam I don't want to see you.
Mr. Bunny I like you. 
Mr. Shoe untied on Thomas or Brenda or A.J-uh or a belly.
Tie my shoe.


As you might guess this child really likes to listen to Doctor Seuss rhymes and playing nursery rhyme games.   I love that he mimics the musical quality of words and spells out complete non-sense in a kind of literary, musical improve.

Another child, "Elsie," writes stories about the "little frog" nearly every time she tells a story.
November 22, 2010
The little frog went ribbit ribbit and he didn't find his mother.  So he went down to the sea and bonked into something.  Then he found his mother.  
January 13, 2011
The little frog had a little mommy.  He went to a meeting and he didn't know anyone so he found a new mommy.  Now he had little lamb because he didn't know.  He didn't have a dad.  Just he, mommy, and little lamb.  He had a pacifier.  Pacifier, pants on fire! Then he found a BIG mommy again!


In the conference, Bev Bos talked about reading them aloud at the end of the day, which I often do.  She also said that the children would only listen to their story and not pay any attention to the others.  However, I have noticed that this isn't really true for my room.  This might be because I have almost all four or five year olds and only one three year old, I am not really sure.  I have found that they often imitate each other and sometimes seem to have contests: sometimes a contest to see who can tell the longest story, other times to see who can tell the funniest- this class LOVES things that are "funny" or "silly."

Here is an example of a copy cat.  This is a story by Brenda; you can see how it really echoes AJs stories in someway.  (They all really love AJs stories because they are funny).

February 4, 2010
There was a Bingo and there was a tomato.
Tomato, Tomato, I can't find you.
Tomato, Tomato, Tomato.
Tomato I can't find you in a sock or in a block.
I can't find you here or there.  I can't find you anywhere!
Socky, Socky, where are you?  
Make up words, I can't do.  
Socky, Socky, where are you?
Socky, Socky, I can't find you.
You are always lost. Nowhere to be found.
Socky, Socky, Socky, you're my friend!
I can't find you anywhere.
Socky, socky, I want you, you're not no where to be found.  


Sometimes they write stories that are "real" or that resemble (and I use that term loosely) things that happen in real life.

Here's a true story from Trisha: 

January 6, 2011

My mom went to Nebraska but she's not going today.  My Aunt Nanny is sick and can breathe a little.  My mom said I can't go with her, so that's true.  I don't know when my mom is coming back.  That's the story.  I think my mom is going tomorrow or after that day.  I'll miss my mom when she gets back.  I think she's going to be back Tuesday or Friday.  That's it.  

When I read this story to the class, several kids asked Trisha questions about her mom leaving and coming back.  Sometimes it seems that these stories are an outlet for things that their young minds and hearts are working out.  This little girl never told me a story before that day, and when she came in she told me that she had a story to tell me. We got a follow up story a week later.

January 13, 2011

I miss my mom.  She's at Nebraska.  She's going to be back tomorrow.  My Aunt Nanny died.  She died right after my mom came.  I talked to her Tuesday.  She's in heaven now, my Aunt Nanny.   My mom talked to me Tuesday.  Friday she's going to the doctor before she picks me up from my dad's.  Me and my mom are going to my sisters game tomorrow.  My mom said she's coming back tomorrow.  I miss my mom too.  She said she misses her daughter named Trisha.  I bet my mom misses Karen, too.  My sister says she misses our mom, too.  My mom and my sister are going to see mom every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I think.  

Here's a happier story from Opal (she has older sisters, which will make sense as you read this).
February 4, 2011
AJ is my boyfriend.  We are going to date for twenty weekends and then we are getting married.  Me and AJ are marrying.  Me and AJ are dating.  You don't have a boyfriend, Elsie? Me and AJ are going to have a baby when I grow up.  Me and AJ... that's the end.  I was about to say me and AJ kissed. Can I just get kissed?  You're writing me kissing?  Me and AJ are going to eat dinner.  


I wonder if a lot of other teachers reading do this in their class and what variations they do on story telling?

Thinking in and out of the box (day I)

Before starting this blog I want to make sure to give credit to Teacher Tom.  It is from his blog that I had the idea for this activity, although, as you can see, he did it on boxing day (December 26) making it twice as cool as doing it in January. 


Previous to Thursday, I collected several boxes, cardboard toilet paper and paper towel tubes, and some other odds and ends. There seemed to be no limit for the possibilities of the boxes.  

Two pairs of children made side by side houses in the dishwasher boxes, adding a smaller box to the front of each "house" for more space.  In the left house was inhabited by a girl and a boy, but the girl stayed in and the boy brought her anything she asked for in the "house" and kept other children from going in.  The pair of girls who inhabited the left side were very active; they went straight to work improving their home. 

Other children had very different designs for their boxes. 

One boy pushed this box up calling it a "skyscraper" but then changing mind, calling it the "leaning tower of pizza" instead when it was accidentally propped up on another box. 

He next realized that he could move the box and use it for a basketball hoop.

Other boys wasted no time in joining the game.  

Meanwhile, other children busied themselves coloring on various types of cardboard and styrofoam.  They loved the "squeeky" sound of markers on styrofoam, and the "bumping" sound of markers on corregated cardboard. 

Little Opal colored all of the really big letters on this box. While she colored she kept saying "not O, not O, not O."  I later heard her tell her friends she was going to color O's pink and all the other letters blue- there weren't any O's though.  

Many of the colored pieces of styrofoam were especially pretty.  

While the rest of the class was coloring, Tommy up-ended one of the "house" boxes, and decided he wanted to go down the top of the chimney (box) like Santa.

"Guys! Can someone help me get in this chimney?  I can't get in it."  No one came to help, so he made a new plan.

"Miss Elizabeth, I made steps and a railing to get into the box!" Unfortunately, they fell before he ever made it to the box and a few girls....

Figured out that you could just lift up the bottom of the box and climb under.  They claimed the "chimney" as a new place to color. (Whoever said boys were better at spacial problem solving than girls?)

 The boxes underwent several different arrangements and uses.  

One group found a way to to hold on to markers and toys that kept rolling away and getting lost under boxes and other materials.  

Another child took advantage of an empty box to "read a book" that she made out of a piece of folded cardboard. 

The children could have played at this activity for hours more than they did (which is why we did it again on Friday).  To help clean up they came up with the idea of sorting the smaller pieces into boxes- styrofoam, tubes, and small boxes- an excellent system.

I will upload pictures and write about the boxes on Friday soon!

Questions the teacher can't answer

Do you ever start out planning an activity in order for your children or students to learn or experience something and what they walk away with is something that you never expected?  It happened to me just yesterday.  Let me tell you what my class took away from the activity and then I will tell you how we got there.  My class has come to the conclusion that all our toys are made in china. 
The activity was simple.  I wanted to create a literacy game, so I asked the children to look around the room for toys that had words on them- a scavenger hunt.  They would find the words on the toys and I would race around the room on their heels writing down every word they could find. (Books were not to be included in this scavenger hunt lest they demand that I transcribe every story in our room). Now, what I was expecting was to find were words like "zoo" that is on a duplex man's shirt, or the words "wrong way" on one of our miniature road signs, the word "crayola," and "brown" on one of our markers, "Nemo" on a puzzle, "Little Tikes" on our tool set, etc.  We did find all of these word and more (we literally found hundreds of words).  We also found things like "patent pending," "ages 3+," "not for individual sale" and codes like "0XXI25LP," and signs of the person who donated them like "B.M.C.," and "this belongs to Ryan." The thing that I did not expect, (though perhaps I should have), was that the most common group of words on our toys was "made in China."  Nearly EVERYTHING that had a "made in" label said China.  Once, I was excited because I saw "Ohio" on a plastic clamp, but underneath OHIO, it said "Made in China."  We found two things that said "made in the USA"- one was part of a castle set, and the other was a puzzle.  
After we had found many of these "made in China" words, one of the children asked me, in a somewhat exasperated tone, "Why are all our toys made in China?"  Half the class looked at me waiting for an answer when she said this, and I had to say "I don't know."  
The truth is, I might have a vague idea about why, but I didn't think I should tell them that to my understanding, one of the biggest reasons was that toy companies that started here went to China where they could pay people very little, expect them to work long hours, and long work weeks, with little if any vacation time so that these companies could make more money from the toys that they sold.  I grant you that this is a complicated issue, that few people, (including myself), entirely understand.  Still, I have to wonder, what this says to young minds that grow up being read and reading "made in China" on some of the things they love the most? 
This made me question further; We are being told that our schools have to become factories because Chinese test scores are better than ours, but why does this matter and what are we trading for this choice?  Will having higher test scores make us more competitive in the job market?  I suppose it depends on what jobs you are referring to- but I wouldn't want the job of a Chinese toy manufacturer- many of them face inhumane work conditions.  In the mean time, we are sacrificing the quality of education to get these mystical "jobs" that I suppose will come from having higher test scores than a child in China who is forced to specialize in his/ her education at a young age and made to study like an adult working on a master's thesis. 
In the end, I don't know; I don't know the answers to my own questions, and I don't know the answer to the national question of "why is everything here made in China?" and "how do we fix it?"  However, I do know that I am not willing, personally, to sacrifice the development of the WHOLE child in the interest of manufacturing test takers like the Chinese manufacture "all of our toys."