Go on a Bear Hunt!

It is always fun to read and get involved in a story with children - sometimes a favorite story is read over and over again! Remember stories where the children got so involved, they were chiming in on parts? While you are reading and re-reading, you can be sneaking in valuable literacy lessons, too, that just seem like good fun!

A favorite book to read and act out is "We're Going On A Bear Hunt!" by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. In this book, there are lots of repeating lines, fun words and descriptive language - draw your child's attention to the sounds that each section of the "hunt" brings and encourage them to recall and order the events - great exercise for attention to detail!

Take a good look at the illustrations, alternating between black and white drawings and vivid color! For an animated version of the book, check YouTube - there are also other interesting videos, including the author acting out the story.

To act out the story yourselves, brainstorm with the children about the sounds that come up in the story ... and how you might recreate those sounds! Try to find things around the house that would make all the various sounds... "Hmmm, this part says "swishy, swashy".....what do we have that could make that sound?" Gather together some home-made sound effects or instruments that you could use to act out the story.

Make up simple symbols for the different scenes in the story and make posters to set on the floor and take a  walk - a grassy field, some mud, etc. - while acting out the story. Play "what-comes-next" and make sure you backtrack at the end!

For an art extension (and social studies!), make a map! Use simple symbols again or cut-outs to represent the areas that the family goes through and have the children lay it out in a map form! Use lines and arrows to show how the group should progress according to the story - maps are fun to make! Have a child describe the map to you and sequence the events of the story!

Have a good time reading!

Snow Days!

Snow and January go together here in the Northeast U.S. - and the kids love to get out and play in it, making snowmen, snow angels, snow forts, etc. 

When you're done with the cold stuff, make a paper snowman! First, cut three different sized circles from cardboard (a discarded cereal box works great!) and then let your children use them as stencils to trace around and cut circles from white construction paper. This is great for some small-motor exercise, as well as sizing lessons (small, medium, large). 

Make a snow scene, with your snowman as the centerpiece and use cotton swabs dipped in white paint to create your own storm! (I had some snowmen cutouts available, so we made these in school!) Decorate your snowman with markers, scraps of fabric, buttons, whatever you want …

Don't forget to add a little literacy … come up with a name for your snowman, and have your child stretch the sounds to spell it out on paper. Have them write a few sentences telling about the snowman OR a step-by-step "How-To" story about how they made it! Transition words like First, Next, Then and Last or Finally, will get the facts in order :)

Have fun with it, and stay warm!

Cookie Lessons!

Get ready for some baking!

Make a batch of cookies with your child – and cook up all kinds of fun! You can build all sorts of learning into a cooking session… measuring your ingredients, counting your cups and teaspoons, and dividing the batch up into equal parts.

First, gather together all the ingredients: Take stock of what you have in the house and what you need – your child can help! Have them make a list for shopping, sounding out words, then you fill in the blanks to complete your list!

Maybe you need sugar, two eggs, and some chocolate chips … have your child help make a list! Encourage them in writing down all the sounds they hear :)

Now, go shopping!

When you have all the ingredients assembled, let your child do the counting when you need 3 cups of flour, or a cup of sugar and let them mix it all up! 

Next, place the dough on cookie sheets, encouraging your child to set up equal rows and count cookies by ones, twos, etc.  - Great counting practice!

While the cookies are baking and cooling, make time for you and your child to write and illustrate the story of making the cookies: Have your child attempt the words, offering help with some of the complicated ones  - and illustrate! Make sure to do an author's page, as well, complete with a picture of the cookie chef with the cookies!

There are still more math lessons left ... distribute the cookies into several piles forming equal parts. For example, 12 cookies divided into 4 piles … one at a time … equals 3 cookies in each pile.

Finally, since your child got to create these treats, make sure to get a little subtraction lesson in, too! Four cookies on a plate minus one leaves how many?

Yum!!

If You Read A Kid A Story ….

Kids love the style of Laura Numeroff - her characters are cute and interesting to look at and her stories get them involved in predicting what comes next - which they LOVE! There are so many things you can do to get them involved in the story ... and, when they do more than simply read or get read to, they learn more!

For example, look at the Laura Joffe Numeroff books, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", “If You Give A Moose A Muffin,” etc. You and your child should notice the circular nature of these stories - they end with the thing they start with! The concept of the circular story is one that kids can identify - "play" with this idea and they will remember it!

Here's what you can do:  Draw pictures of the different parts on index cards, or use a copier to make picture cards and then lay them in a circular, clock-wise pattern to get back to the beginning of the story. Model this for your child ... "First, I remember, he asked for a glass of milk....hmm, what came next..."  Mix up the cards and have your child decide "what comes next" while walking around a table or by placing in a circle on the floor - this is great for recall and retelling a story! Make sure you get all the way around and back to the beginning!

When you're reading a particular author, check out their websites if you can - often there are coloring sheets  and other projects to go with different stories! There is a link to this author at the bottom of my blog page. :)

If you read these circular stories in a bunch, as an author study, your children will recognize the characters and story style and you can have conversations about things that are the same and different, about sequence in a story (what comes next?) and about using pictures to predict things in a story ... all great literacy projects!

Sharing with your child and watching "the lights go on" as they start to put these things together is so great - and it's free entertainment - use your library to assemble a group of books and dive in!

Have fun!

Be A Reader!

Let your child see you as a reader - it will catch on!

Of course, you know the value of reading aloud to a child - they pick up on your tone, excitement and style when you read to them. Don't be afraid to get excited when you're reading - children learn from everything around them and need great examples!

In addition to reading aloud to your child, model for your child your own reading for pleasure. Whether it is a book, ebook, magazine, newspaper - whatever you want - let them see that reading is fun for all! They shouldn't grow up thinking that reading only has a place in school and no value for entertainment ... find what form of the written word entertains YOU and spend some companionable quiet time with your family hanging out and reading!

Reading time!

Reading stories together is a wonderful way to spend time with your child – stories open up doors into new worlds, increase vocabulary and reading together is a great sharing time. So, take it a step further! Young children can learn many things from exploring authors more in-depth - and, teachers and parents can pick up a thing or two as well! Besides reading just for enjoyment, which is wonderful, there are many components of early literacy to explore, such as rhyming words, repeating lines and parts of a story. There are also varied methods of illustration to discover.

Here's the plan: Pick out a favorite author to explore - one that your child is already familiar with would work well - and assemble a group of books from the public library, your own library, or borrow from friends.

Over the course of a few days, take a "picture walk" through each book, browse the books (thumb through without too many details), and read each book more than once. Give your child the job of "noticing." "Noticing" will get them involved in the book (book “detectives”) and encourage them to look for rhymes, characters, illustration techniques, and repeating sounds or words. “I heard something that rhymes with “blue” – did you hear it?” or “I keep hearing the same word in this story … what do think it is?”

Ask your child to find the name of the main character, which will be repeated in the book, and see what letters are in the character’s name. Notice what things are the same about the author’s books – and what are different! “Eric Carle seems to have a lot of animals in his books – let’s check them all and see!” or “’The Cat in The Hat’ has a lot of rhyming words – let’s see if the other Dr. Seuss books do, too!”

Look for similarities in the illustrations that carry over from book to book with different authors and illustrators. Dr. Seuss books have a very particular style of illustration and are fun to look at! Eric Carle books have a paper collage style that is easily identified, while Margaret Wise Brown’s books, “Goodnight Moon” and “The Runaway Bunny” have some shared illustration that good noticing will pick up!

Check out author websites and look for extension activities – there are often coloring sheets, puppet outlines, project ideas, etc. on these sites! I have links to a few at the bottom of my blog page. Extend the book with conversation as well – discuss your favorite part of the story or your favorite character, modeling for your child a deeper interest in what is going on between the covers of the book. Open up the world of reading – and writing – for them, by asking what they would change or do next in the book! Spend time … and have fun!

Let's Get Started!

For a while now, I've been writing about Early Childhood - hoping to share with parents, caregivers and other teachers some ideas, projects, and information to help them help their children. When I began this adventure,  I had been teaching in Preschool, PreK, and Kindergarten. A few years ago, I moved up to Second Grade and am now in First, where some things are the same, but others are much, much different :)

My goals here are still the same - to get information out to parents and caregivers that will be useful when they try to help their children become more comfortable with reading, writing, etc. ... And to make sure they keep the fun in learning! Realizing that the needs change as children become older, I started this new blog to gather my age-appropriate ideas together and write about some higher- level ideas, as well! Some of my posts will be brand-new and some will be excerpts from my other blogs that I think you may find useful.

Here goes ...

When parents first hear “LITERACY” in regards to their child’s education, it doesn’t ring a bell … they are waiting for “reading,” “grammar,” “spelling,” etc.  All of these elements, as well as “writing” and other skills, are integral parts of what is called “literacy” in today’s schools.

By combining all of these skills and making the learning more natural and flowing, the child learns all of these skills as part of a whole – just as we use them in the world!

Of course, we still need to pay attention to each of the parts, in order for great learning to take place. If we can’t spell words when we are writing, we can’t be understood. If we have trouble figuring out words, because we don’t know basic phonics skills, we can’t read fluently.  All of the parts must be working for the whole process to work!

So ... What does this mean for you? Support your child in learning letter-sound relationships, read to and with them often, discuss the things you read, and find fun, interesting ways for them to learn! I can help you with that :) Stay tuned ....