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. 

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.

10 Ideas for Valentine's Day

Since I do not spend an inordinate amount of time on Holidays (some Holidays we only really celebrate the day of), I thought that I would write an entry on things we do and have done in the past for Valentines Day for any one who is scrounging around for ideas.

I don't really like the traditional Valentine's Day parties that involve a lot of sweets and a lot of commercialism (although what more can you ask of a holiday that was practically invented by commercialism then, well, commercialism).  Instead we spend the day celebrating friendship and celebrating the things that they love.

1:  Most everyone probably already does this but I let them sort the Valentines they bring in into their friends Valentine's Day "mailboxes,"  (some years mailboxes have been boxes, some years decorated bags, and my very first year we made hearts laced together all around the edges, except for the top that they would slide the Valentines into).  As most 4 year old preschool classes, they can all read each others names, and so have a great time delivering mail by themselves.

2:  Letter Delivery
In the past I have equipped them with miniature mailboxes, "letter bags" and baskets, envelopes and cheap Valentines day stationary in the "dramatic play" center (although truthfully any number of "centers" involve dramatic play, and this activity never stays quarantined to that area).  They love making "love letters," Valentines, and pictures for their friends and playing mailman/ women to deliver the precious cargo.  I should mention that every year the class invariably starts using the shopping cart to more effectively taxi their mail.

3: Valentine's Ice
This past week we have been experimenting with ice in our sensory area and will continue to do this on Monday, adding a little bit of a Valentine's sentiment to it to satisfy their interest in the Holiday.  They have had fun the last few days extracting toys from ice that we have let freeze both in the freezer and outdoors.  So for Valentines day We will experiment with both extractable and non extractable objects.
The non-extractable pan is made by filling a large pan half way with water and letting it freeze while making colored ice shapes (in this case I am using circles and hearts), once both are frozen I put the shapes on top of the sheet of ice and put it back in the freezer, meanwhile I put I pitcher of water in the freezer.  When the water in the pitcher starts to form a thin layer of ice on the top, I break through the ice and pour the water in with the shapes on the sheet of ice.  When the water is about a third of the way to the top of the shapes I stop and put it back in the freezer.  Once that water freezes (it will be higher than you poured it because, remember, water is one of the few substances that expands when frozen), I add more water so that it nearly touches the top of the shapes.  Once that freezes the shapes are either submerged or just level with the surface of the water.  I prefer them to stick out of the top just a little bit so they can feel the shapes.

For the extractable bin I have some beads, blocks spelling LOVE and some Valentines cookie cutters.  For this, just add water and freeze.
When they play in the ice they use hammers and screwdrivers from their tool set, metal spoons, and some rationed rock salt to extract (or try to extract) objects.

4.  Play "A Tisket a Tasket,"
And yes, I actually use a green and yellow basket that I save from Easter! Although, in a pinch I have just tied a green and yellow ribbon around the handle.  There are instructions for this game here after the song- to spare myself writing it all out; we actually use a letter instead of a handkerchief like these instructions suggested in this document.

5.  Lipstick kisses
This is actually an idea from Lisa Murphy's book the OOey Gooey Handbook.  Buy some cheap lipstick, sometimes they have some at dollar stores or Big Lots or other such stores- preferably enough for each child to have one, but if not, set up q-tips prepared with lipstick on both ends before hand.  Let kids put lipstick on themselves (make sure to have a big mirror or some hand mirrors around), and them let them smooch the paper! Clean up is easy with baby wipes.

6. Loving Sentiment Cards
For this activity I have a large paper heart with each child's name on it.  On each heart I write one thing that I really like about that child (Bev loves to paint, Sam always works really hard to finish puzzles, Sally always greets teachers with a smile), and have all the other teachers in the room do the same.  Then the children are offered opportunities to tell a teacher something they really like about their friends (sometimes it's things like love her shoes, sometimes I like when he plays with me, he's funny, or I just love him), In years past I had them say something about each of their friends, other times I just let them say something about whoever they want to (or no one if they don't want to at all), at the end of the day I send it home for them to look at with their parents.  All of the kids in preschool are pretty close, almost like a little family, so every child always ends up with quite a few loving (and sometimes comical) sentiments left on their heart.

7.  Valentines Brunch

Instead of having parents bring sweets which gives kids sudden bursts of non constructive energy and then causes them to crash and be grumpy and moody the rest of the day, I have parents bring in ingredients for our brunch... cinnamon raisin bread, eggs, juice, syrup,  and fresh or frozen strawberries that I add a tiny bit of sugar to (the school provides milk and celery and carrot sticks because they are part of the would have been lunch that is no longer served because we are having an 11:30 brunch in it's stead).

8.  Put a little love in the air
For Valentine's Day I create a CD from music that I already have at home:  A collection of love songs from Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and others.  I love the love songs of that era, and they like to bubble along with the music all day.

9.  Put a little love song in their heart
We sing some fun love songs through out the month of February or whenever they are requested there after (and sometimes make a CD for the parents of the kids featuring these songs, but I can't tell you if we are doing it this year because parents read this blog).  Some of these songs include "Skinamirinky "  from the Elephant Show
"I love you" from Barney
"L is for the way you look at me"- jazz love song
"Two little bugs"- by Shari Louis
"A Frog went a courtin'"
They love all these songs- of course you could do any number of catchy love songs with them and they would love them equally, these are just some suggestions.

10.  Write about love
Many, many times a week, a month, a year, the children get to dictate stories or similar things to teachers in my room and we write them down.  For Valentine's day I love to ask them "what is love?" and write whatever they say.  You get some hilarious answers and some tear- jerkers too.   I will never get my first year teaching that a little boy told me "love is my baby brother"- his baby brother had been born only weeks earlier.   I usually keep a copy for their portfolio and send a copy home.


(For another, more structured, idea you could make heart shaped stained glass which you can find instructions to here).

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?

Education Reform: Why do we trust politicians with your child's education?

I used to say that I wasn't interested in politics.  The thing is, that politics affect all of us; and as a parent or a teacher the rumblings of Washington are very significant to us.  


Early educators everywhere are being called to push math and science and literacy.  So my question is, what exactly do they presume that we are doing? Playing, I guess.  However, if the education system is failing, if the education system is getting worse- isn't it time to turn around from the direction educational politics are taking us and perhaps ask someone who knows how to educate children?  Isn't it time to ask teachers?  


Why are we asking business men how to best educate our children?  Why are we asking politicians, lawyers, and anyone but teachers how to educate our children? Do you think that business men, lawyers, and political- science students studied child development in depth? 


Take writing.  Children cannot write until they have the proper hand development to do so (this usually happens at about 4), and until the have the fine muscle coordination to do so.  They have to through 5 stages of scribbling to be able to write.  If they are never allowed to scribble because it is "playing,"  how then, are can they ever learn to write? Furthermore they need to have an understanding of words and how they are used, that letters are part of words, and words are used to communicate.  They need to understand the connection between printed and spoken word.  

"Many people today struggle and give up communicating with others because their linguistic foundation is weak." -Bev Bos  

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but the bottom line is, in a DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE CLASSROOM children are learning what they need to, when they need to.  Expecting a child who as not gained the proper experiences to read and write (after only having been on the planet for three years) is like teaching a seventh grader, who has not yet mastered even algebra (let alone trig or geometry), calculus.  It might be possible, but it makes no sense and what important mathematical discoveries did he or she miss?  I'll go one more: it is like cutting of his or her hands and expecting them to play catch.  


Example One:  When children are playing, they are learning.  Playing in a sensory bin of mixed beans they may (and probably will) practice sorting, practice counting, examine and label colors and more. 

Example Two:  Using pipettes with runny paints on a paper towel canvas put on an easel allows develops fine motor skills that they need to write and cut.  It also allows them to mix colors and see what happens.  They can also observe absorption and the effects of gravity.  In the words of Bev Bos children need "experiences to attach words to," (Turning Over the Page, Bev Bos).  An activity like this and a billion others that are happening in preschool rooms all over the country, and the world, everyday.  

Here are blog entries from other people that really should be read:

Let the children play: they play but do they write?

Teacher Tom's Blog: Habits

Janet Lansbury: 4 Reasons to Ditch Academic Preschools

Not Just Cute: Play vs. Academics: A False Dichotomy

Books:  

Turning Over the Page:  A Rant For Children's Play, Bev Bos

The Power of Play, David Elkind

Play = Learning, Singer, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek