Read “Llama Llama Red Pajama” and set a record

Posted on October 6, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

Preschools and elementary schools around the country can join in to help set a book reading record by participating in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign on October 6, 2011. The purpose of this event is to spread awareness of the importance of early childhood literacy.

The goal is to set a new World Record for the most people reading the same book on the same day. And, much to my delight, the book to read is “Llama Llama Red Pajama” by Anna Dewdney – one of my favorite books by a favorite author! (My daughter even has a mini-stuffed “little llama” to go with the book which we purchased from Scholastic!)

In addition, this year Jumpstart is also trying to set an all-new record for the largest digital reading experience by reading “Llama Llama Red Pajama” at wegivebooks.org (which is a great way for parents and teachers to still participate even if they do not own a copy of the book). For those classrooms that have SmartBoards, this is a great way to view the book.

It is very easy for parents, preschools and elementary schools to participate and help set the record. Many schools are reading the book over the loud speaker while teachers show the pages to their classes. If you want to plan an event – event materials and learning activities that teachers can use can be found at wegivebooks.org.

I also found some great todder/preschool activities that go with the story at these blogs:

Activities for Preschool Pajama Parties (Brighthub)

Red Pajama Matching Activity (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama Quilt Math (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama PJ Sorting (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama Craft (Elle Belle’s Bows)

And here’s a TODAY SHOW clip about Jumpstart’s Read for the Record!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Join parents and teachers and read “Llama Llama Red Pajama” outloud to your children on October 6th!

Have a favorite “Llama Llama” activity? Share it with us below!

Bringing the apple orchard to preschool

Posted on October 4, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

When planning a theme on apples, it is a good opportunity to teach about life cycles and plant growth. Depending on your location, a field trip to a local apple orchard is a wonderful hands-on experience for young children to see where fruit (apples) come from. However, when a field trip is not feasible, you can try to bring the apple orchard to your school! We were fortunate to have a local orchard come in to do an in-school demonstration, complete with a large supply of apples for taste testing!

One of our teachers, Brittany Florio also works at the orchard, and led the demonstration – and made large pictures of the life cycle of an apple (from seed to blossom to apple) to show the children.

In the photos below, Kim Shores from Johnny Appleseed Farm shows some of the tools used to take care of her farm and her apple barrel for collecting apples. Miss Brittany shows the photos of the apple life cycle, including an actual branch from the orchard. She also demonstrates how apples float in water!

Kim also talked about the different types of apples that she brought (describing their color and what they taste like) – and then best of all … children got to taste 3 types of apples and then made an in-school graph of which kind was their favorite.

For some more Fall-related activities (with apples), check out:

Learning about apples and pumpkins in preschool
A “peeling” fun with apples (Little Illuminations)
Apple tree craft (Teach Preschool)

The Versatile Blogger Award

Posted on October 3, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

Yay – I’m excited to be nominated for a blog award from a favorite blogger of mine, Ayn from Little Illuminations! The Versatile Blogger Award is a way for bloggers to recognize each other’s work – and I am glad to be in such good company!

I do share this blog with my partner and friend, Tressa – and hopefully our experience as a preschool teacher and director contribute to making the content that we share here versatile! But I also want to give a “shout-out” to some other special contributors to our blog … our expert panel who help us answer questions and share their experience. So a big thanks to Bill, Colleen and Shannon for your contributions and support!

Now it’s time to share the love! There are some guidelines to accepting the award, so here goes!

How the award process works:
1. Thank the person who nominated you … Many thanks to Ayn at Little Illuminations!
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to 10 other bloggers
4. Contact the other bloggers to let them know they have been nominated

Ok, so here are 7 things about me:
1. I grew up on Long Island (New York). I no longer have the accent … but I think it does come back a little when I go to visit!
2. Despite my petite stature, I played volleyball in High School!
3. I worked in Information Technology for 16 years before becoming an early childhood educator.
4. I love scrapbooking and used to teach scrapbook classes.
5. I am my family’s official Disney vacation planner, though my 16 year old son is definitely the Disney history expert!
6. I love children’s books and planning activities that revolve around a book!
7. We are about to have a new addition to our family … a rescue dog named … wait for it … Twinkie!

Now the fun part, I am nominating the following bloggers for the Versatile Blogger award:

• Maggie at Red Ted Art
• Anna at The Imagination Tree
• Jamie at hands on : as we grow
• Rachel at Quirky Momma
• Michelle at Best Toys for Toddlers
• Leeanne at Kreative Resources
• Melissa at The Chocolate Muffin Tree
• Debbie at Rainbows within Reach
• Kierna at Learning for Life
• Bill at Cooperative Kids

I would feel remiss if I did not mention two other favorite early childhood blogs that I follow …Teach Preschool and Pre-K Pages! Both have already been nominated by other bloggers, but Deborah and Vanessa have always been quick to answer questions and have provided support as I entered into this blogging journey – so my hat is off to you great ladies as well!

Once you start blogging, you then find so many other like-minded bloggers, and it’s been fun following them, being inspired by their ideas and getting to know them on Facebook and in other endeavors. I must say, early childhood people are so incredibly supportive and helpful to each other!

Please feel free to share your early childhood blog or a blog that you know of here … so we can continue to expand our network!

The joy of expanding

Posted on September 27, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

During this past summer our board made the decision to expand and add a new infant room for 4 children. This came in reaction to a huge need in our area for more quality infant care. As a director, I was thrilled to be granted the opportunity to expand and was ready for the challenge of creating a new room from the ground up. In theory it seemed easy; plumbing, cribs, call the state (licensing), call new families … no problem! My goal was to have this room open by the start of the school year (August 29th) … that was the plan.

Like any construction project the process slows down; and I learned quickly that we were truly at the mercy of our construction workers. We had a great team of contractors, but of course things happen: supply deliveries are delayed, one of our workers experienced an injury that took him off the project for 4 days, required inspections were delayed due to scheduling … and THEN came Hurricane Irene which put a large part of our community in the dark for up to 5 days.

With a little patience and a lot of hard work … our new infant room was complete and our state licensing department approved it with flying colors. Our thoroughness and attention to detail actually made for a pleasant visit. Our hard work and patience had paid off and we were able to open our new room the week of September 19th.

It was a proud moment to take a look at this new room completed. Fresh paint, new cribs, welcoming posters and photos on the wall and a very excited staff member all came together to make a room that is simply precious.. Enjoy!

Sidenote: the color of the wall paint is called “cuddle”….how perfect!

Have you ever expanded or setup a classroom from the ground up? What things did you learn in the process?

Going “green” in preschool

Posted on September 14, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

I recently attending a local workshop in my state called Greening your Early Childhood Center. (Sponsored by the Connecticut Children’s Investment Partnership and the CCAC Accreditation Facilitation Project ). We learned about ways we can reduce energy and water use, create a healthy environment and save costs in our early childhood programs.

There have been great advances in “green design” for new buildings and facilities to save energy and implement the use renewable energy sources. However, I think it’s safe to say that most of us (early childhood teachers, directors and administrators alike) probably aren’t in a situation where we will be designing an early learning center from the ground up. Most of us are in existing homes and buildings, and funding is tight.

However, through this workshop, I did learn of some small things that all of us can do (in our homes and at our child care centers) to save energy, water and money. Our “greening” presenter was Mike Lindstrom, a nationally-recognized early childhood facilities architect. He explained that “green” design and practice means “designing things and doing things in such a way they have a positive impact or low impact on the world we live in“. For existing early childhood centers, even small changes to implement green practices can add up to big savings.

There are many facets to “green strategy” – so I’ll be breaking this out into categories over the next couple of weeks. For this post, I’ll share some ideas for how to make your “envelope”more energy efficient. (I learned a new term at this workshop … the “envelope” refers to your building’s roof, walls, windows and floor).

It’s worth the time to have your building undergo an energy audit (check with your local utility company to find out about energy efficiencies programs they may have, and if they do free energy audits). An audit will assess the efficiency of your heating, air conditioning, insulation and air-tightness of your building.

For teachers, there are things you can do in right in your classroom to help your room be as energy efficient as possible:

• Draft proofing: Using colorful draft guards near doors and windows can keep the classroom warm and comfortable in the cold months, reduce allergens and save energy/costs. Weather strip around windows that are drafty.

• Use window blinds/shades to help save energy: Close them to cool rooms in the warm months and open them to allow sun to warm the room in cooler months. Also look into exterior shutters for rooms that are consistently too warm due to intense sun exposure.

• Don’t block air grilles, heating vents or air returns: Look around your room to make sure no shelving, rugs or any other furniture is covering air/heating vents.

• Encourage teachers and children to dress for the weather: Sweaters in winter / shorts in the summer. Don’t over-heat or over-air condition the room.

This is just a start to some of the information I learned at this workshop … there is much more to share! This workshop gave us the impetus to start a new section of our website called The “Green” Room where will we share resources that programs can use to learn more about “going green”.

Have some “green” ideas of your own? Please leave a comment and share them with us!

Resources: “Greening Early Childhood Centers” Resource Guide (published by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation / CT Children’s Investment Partnership)

Displaying children’s names in preschool

Posted on September 8, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

When Tressa and I decided to start writing a blog as part of our website, one of the main reasons for wanting to do this was to be able to provide information and support to early educators and parents and start discussions. We LOVE to receive questions from visitors to our website and blog! We received the following early literacy question from a preschool teacher:

“I teach 3’s in a half day church program. Handwriting Without Tears recommends that you teach children to write their name in uppercase letters first and then before K teach them in upper and lowercase. Do you agree with this and if you do, should I post their names in their cubbies in only uppercase? I understand HWT’s reasoning that uppercase letters are easier to learn since they all start at the top. Thank you for your help.”

This is a great question!! It has been our experience that Kindergarten teachers prefer their children to know how to write their names with upper and lowercase letters upon entrance. As preschool teachers, we have found that teaching children to write their name in all uppercase letters, and then attempting to re-teach using upper and lowercase can cause a great deal of confusion. We have always found it easier and beneficial to teach children the upper and lowercase method from the start.

Cubby tags, names on artwork, print around the classroom, etc. should also follow this method so the child can visually recognize their name in the environment. We also provide parents with information on how to reinforce handwriting at home, including proper pencil grip and construction of letters to ensure a child is receiving consistent instruction.

That is our experience. But I wanted more opinions on this – so I asked our early literacy expert, Colleen Brunetti to add her input on this discussion as well.

Here’s what Colleen says:

I was curious if there was a “best practices” or researched based answer to the question “What’s the best method for handwriting instruction? Upper or lowercase first, or both together?”. After some research, I’ve concluded the answer is … there isn’t an answer! It seems to be largely based on program and/or personal preference.

My personal opinion is that when you are creating a print-rich environment, such as you are helping to do by labeling the cubbies, you should model the correct form with the first letter being uppercase. I really believe in modeling all language in a “real world” way like this – after all, what you model is what kids will be most tuned in to and learn from!

Handwriting Without Tears is a great program for teaching letter formation but, aside from writing their names, you’re primarily focusing on letters in isolation at this point, somewhat different from seeing printed words as a whole in the real world. I see no problem with sticking to the curriculum you’ve chosen for actual instruction and also modeling proper word formation around the room. Outside of the classroom they’ll be seeing that mix of upper and lowercase in lots of places too!

Thanks for your input, Colleen!!

Lastly, I decided to also turn to a resource that I learned about this summer in researching more opinions on this topic. I participated a Book Study Blog party of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). This book is a wonderful resource for early educators who want to learn more about the emerging literacy learning of young children.

Chapter 20 of this book was all about NAMES! A great quote starts off the chapter of this book …“The most powerful and effective way for children to begin learning the complex process of learning about letters is by writing their own names.” — Carol Lyons

WOW! That just adds more weight to this question, doesn’t it? According to the authors Pinnell and Fountas, “Once children learn that their names are words and that they are made with the same letters in the same order each time, they begin to understand the concept of a word.” (p 194).

Deborah Stewart (Teach Preschool) reviewed Chapter 20 as part of the book study. All of the photos displayed in this chapter and in Deborah’s post showcase wonderful literacy activities that display children’s names using upper AND lowercase letters – supporting this approach to displaying children’s names in the classroom. I encourage you to read Deborah’s full post onChapter 20 – NAMES.

I’d love more input on this topic!

How do YOU teach children to write their names in preschool? How do YOU display children’s names throughout the classroom?

R is for Relaxation

Posted on August 31, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

We are honored to participate in a fun “blog hop” called “The ABC’s of Teaching Preschool“, organized by the awesome Deborah of Teach Preschool! Today she reached an incredible milestone of 20,000 “likes” on her Facebook page! Deborah does so much to support early childhood professionals with her blog and her presence on social media – that we are thrilled to be able celebrate with her today! Each participating early childhood blogger has taken a letter of the alphabet and come up with some fun and helpful tips that you can use with the young children in your care!

We chose the letter “R” for “Relaxation” … I’ll bet you are thinking “who gets to RELAX when we’re at preschool!”. 🙂 Well, children and teachers alike all need to find time to take a break in their day to relax and take a breath. As a parent or an early childhood provider, there are times when you need to help your child (or children in your care) to relax. Whether it be to transition from active play to rest time, or to calm a child who is upset; young children often times need assistance to learn the skills they need to relax themselves.

Below are a few ideas that you can use at home or at your school or child care center that you can do with your child. These ideas were shared with us by Michelle Catania, MFT during our Healthy Kids workshops in April 2011.

Relaxation bean bags

You can make “relaxation bean bags” to use in activities that will help your child (or children in your care) to relax. These are even great to help a group of children to wind down before nap or rest time. Fill socks with 1-2 cups of rice (depending on the size you want to make). If desired, add 2 drops of fragrance oil for a sensory experience (try lavender for a relaxing scent).

Mix the scent around in the socks so that it gets distributed throughout the rice. Tie the sock closed with ribbon. Choose 2-4 different types of ribbon to tie around the end of the sock. Using different textures of ribbon can add a tactile experience to the bean bag that many children find relaxing.

The weight and texture of the bean bag can be comforting to young children. They can put the bean bag on their shoulder, balance it on the back of their neck, squeeze it in their hand to release tension, rub the textured ribbon to soothe them, etc. You can have children use the relaxation bean bag on it’s own, or with one of the activities below.

Withering flower activity

Have child/children pretend to be a flower starting as a seed (they can do this activity with or without the relaxation bean bags described above). Then have them pretend the flower is starting to bloom and grow, stretching up. If they are using the bean bag, have them balance the bean bag in their hands as they stretch up. Turn off the lights and children slowly wither to the ground.

Balancing Act

Have child/children lay on backs and point their feet in the air. Have them keep their feet horizontal and try to balance bean bag (or other object) so it doesn’t fall.

Another way that teachers can assist young children in relaxing is by creating a quiet space in the classroom. A ‘be-bymyself’ space can be set aside in the classroom for a child to use when he or she feels overwhelmed, upset, or tense. This serves as a protected place where children are taught to go to in order to relax, calm down, or take a break.

(Relaxation activities are adapted from the book “101 relaxation games for children: finding a little peace & quiet in between” by Allison Bartl)

Be sure to check out all the other “ABC’s of Teaching Preschool” by clicking on the button below!

Crafty 4 Kids Giveaway: “I am Uniquely Made” paper dolls!

Posted on August 14, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER… Jennifer C.! Winner notification has been sent by email. Thanks so much to all who visited and participated!

We are excited to participate in the Crafty Kits 4 Kids Giveaway Event with 13 other crafty bloggers! The event will run from August 1st – 13th. (Winners will be drawn on August 14th). Hop around to each blog and enter in one or all of them to have a chance to win a crafty kit for your kids!

Here is our kit that my daughter was all too eager to test out for me! I had access to make some paper doll die cuts, so I started there, but I wanted to add another element to it. Since we have been doing a lot of “Tie Dyeing” this summer, I figured why not do that for our paper dolls! So, here is our “I am Uniquely Made” paper doll kit!

This is a two-part craft – but as I found out from doing this with my daughter – your child may have some of their own ideas to extend the activity (which is always great!).

PART 1: Mini tie-dye t-shirts

Using t-shirt patterns (which will be included in the kit), cut t-shirt shapes out of coffee filters. There will also be traceable “die cut clothes” for the paper dolls, so you can trace and cut out some doll shirts from the coffee filters as well.

Give your child the coffee filter t-shirts and let them use washable markers to color them in any design they wish. Once they are done designing, have them use a small spray bottle with water to spritz the shirts. You can do this outside, or on a piece of wax paper inside. Have them watch how the colors spread and blend. Set them aside to dry (they will dry in the sun very quickly, if doing this outside).

My daughter was insisting on making one of her dolls shirts ALL pink (but of course, I wanted her to make a tie-dye). So, she did both – and it was fun to note how evenly the marker color spread when she colored the entire shirt pink (no need for spraying that one!) She added some cute sticker polka dots (see pic above) – so I threw some of those in the kit as well! 🙂

The larger t-shirts can be strung up with mini-clothespins on some cord or string (included). These can be hung up on the fridge or in their room.

The doll sized shirts will be used for their paper dolls … now onto Part 2!

PART 2: Paper dolls

You can use paper doll shapes that come in the kit (there are plenty for multiple children in the kit) — but you can also save one or two to use as templates to cut more dolls out of cardstock. Give your child a paper doll, and have him/her make the facial features. They can draw them or use other embellishments that are included, such as googly eyes, pom pom noses and yarn for hair. When the shirts are dry, they can add glue and attach the shirt to their doll.

Now, I had planned to hang the dolls on the fridge to display – but my daughter, of course, had other plans. These dolls are also good for playing with, so have your child make a few!

The GIVEAWAY!

We are giving away a kit of paper dolls with all the “trimmings” so your child/ren can make a plenty of paper dolls! In this kit, we are including: a set of 8 washable markers, over 10 paper doll die cuts (in two different sizes) , paper doll clothing die cuts, polka dot stickers, 2 sizes of googly eyes, mini-pom poms, mini-clothespins, coffee filters (some already cut into t-shirt shapes, yarn samples, 2 glue sticks and t-shirt templates and instructions.

How to enter (mandatory)

Leave us a comment below on what YOUR favorite “paper” craft was as a child (or a favorite “paper” craft that your child currently loves)!

Then send us an email with your contact information (via our form on the right, or directly atThe SEEDS Network) – so that we may contact you if you win. (Your email address will never be sold, and we will not put you on our email distribution list unless you specifically ask us to do so.)

Additional entries

Receive additional entries into the contest by doing any/all of the following:
• Follow us on Twitter
• Subscribe by email or follow us via RSS
• Make a comment on any non-giveaway post on The SEEDS Blog. You can do this for up to 5 posts but please note that the comment must be dated after the start date of the giveaway – not valid on previous comments. (1 entry per comment)

You can also receive updates on blog posts, events and new website features by following us on Facebook.

Open WORLDWIDE. Giveway ends August 13, 2011. Winner will be drawn by random.org and announced on this blog as well as emailed. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. Email address must be sent to us so we can contact you.

Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 22: Observing reading behaviors in preschool

Posted on August 7, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

We are nearing the end of our book study of “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). I have enjoyed all the ideas that I’ve gathered from the book and other bloggers in the Blog Party. We are now at the part of the book that talks about how to assess literacy learning in preschoolers. Now maybe that doesn’t sound as exciting as some of the other chapters … but it was interesting to me, in that this section gives some clear, concrete ways to observe and document reading and writing behaviors. In the words of the authors, this chapter discusses ways to “guide your observations”. And anything that can help teachers best utilize their time and talents when assessing children is worthwhile, and yes .. a little exciting!

“Teachers can become astute observers of reading and writing behaviors and skilled at producing responses which advance the child’s learning.” — Marie Clay

The best way to assess a child’s understanding of basically, anything, is to simply watch them play or work. Take time to interact with them as they play – talk and listen to what they tell you. Teachers do this on a daily basis all year long. So, how do we best document their understanding of literacy? What should we be looking for? And how long will all this assessing take?

I’ll answer the last question first … it doesn’t have to take long at all. The authors suggest observing 2-3 children a day and taking notes (using notecards or a clipboard) – with each observation only taking a few minutes. Doing this periodically 3-4 times a year will give you a great deal of information to aid in your planning and to share with parents.

The authors then discuss three types of reading experiences that can be observed –interactive read-aloud, shared reading and independent book experiences. The behaviors mentioned in the sections below are what you can expect to see from children AFTER they have had many experiences with the types of reading activities listed.

Interactive Read-Aloud

In an interactive read-aloud you read a story to the children and then discuss it. You can point out new vocabulary, talk about the sequence of events in the story, talk about how the story makes them feel, etc.

What should you look for while observing?

When observing a child participating in an interactive read-aloud, the authors give some clear things to look for on page 209 – such as, does the child…
• look at the book while it’s being read
• join in on repetitive parts of the book
• make comments that are appropriate while the story is being read
• make comments after reading that show an understanding of the story

These are specific behaviors that are observable and that teachers can take notes on.

Shared Reading

Shared reading is when teachers and the children read the text together (using big books, flip chart poems or songs or writing a rhyme on the chalkboard).

What should you look for while observing?

The authors give some more specific questions to keep in mind while observing a child during a shared reading activity on page 209 – does the child …
• participate during rereading with some accuracy
• look at the print while reading
• locate a few words in the text
• match spoken with written words (point under each word while reading)

Independent Book Experiences

Ideally, there should be times throughout the prekindergarten day for children to look at books independently or with a friend. Classrooms may have a specific “library time” or it could be a choice for children at specific times of the day. Observing children as they handle books can give teachers some insight into their understanding of literacy. Watching how a child holds the book (right side up), turns the pages (right to left) and talks about the pictures are important behaviors to note.

When observing a child during a reading experience, asking some of the questions below will help you gather specific evidence of that child’s understanding of literacy. The authors list some questions to ask on page 210, such as:
• Point to the title of the book
• Show me your favorite part of the book (and ask why)
• Show me the beginning/ending of the story (and ask what happens at the end)
• Can you find a word that starts with the same letter as your name?

Keeping track of your observations

The authors talk about using simple methods to keep track of your observations, such as on index cards or with a sheet on a clipboard. I came up with a simple “Literacy Assessment Sheet” that can printed and be used on a clipboard and stored in a 3-ring binder. It lists up to 3 children on a sheet (so you can quickly assess up to 3 children at a time). I also setup a fillable form version (opens up in MS Word), if you are transferring notes onto a computer and storing them there.

What methods to YOU use to keep track of your observations of children’s reading behaviors?

To get more indepth descriptions of reading experiences, such as interactive read-alouds and shared reading, refer to the following chapter reviews:
• Pre-K Pages – Chapter 5 and Chapter 13
• The SEEDS Network (Chapter 5)
• Look at my Happy Rainbow (Chapter 11)
• Growing in PreK (Chapter 12)

Next up – is Chapter 23: Observing writing behaviors in preschool!

Grab the button below:

book study blog party

Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 25: An end-of-prekindergarten checkup

Posted on August 4, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

We are wrapping up our review of how to assess literacy learning in young children as part of the Book Study Blog Party review of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell).

Today’s post is on chapter 25, which provides four simple systematic assessments you can use at the end of prekindergarten to help you record the growth of your students, and provide information to parents and kindergarten teachers. In addition to the formal assessments that we will talk about here – teachers should also collect drawing/writing samples and reading observation notes to be able to show families the progress their prekindergartener has made throughout the year. The quick optional assessments that the authors talk about are: letter recognition, phonological awareness, concepts of print and word writing.

Letter Recognition

To determine a child’s knowledge of letter names, you can make up or use a letter recognition sheet (samples shown on page 221 – and in Appendix L). These are fairly easy to make in a Word processing program – or you can download the letter recognition sheet that we made. By displaying the letters out of alphabetical order, the assessment is truly based on what the child recognizes (not memorizes). Go through the list and ask the child what each letter is, and if you keep getting no response, ask the child “Do you see any letters that you know?”. You can include the date on the sheet and make notes (such as how many letters were recognized).

You can also find letter assessment sheets and other downloadable assessments over at Pre-K pages.

Phonological Awareness

Helping children learn to say words slowly will help them to hear the individual letter sounds in words. Once they can identify the individual sounds, they can identify the individual letters within the words and begin to make that connection. For prekindergarteners, a good way to begin this process is to observe and record a child’s ability to hear the BEGINNING sound of a word. You can do this with initial picture sound cards (such as is shown on page 222 – and in Appendix M). For example, you have a picture of a CAT and say the name of the picture with the child. Then ask if they can tell what letter makes the first sound in “CAT”. The authors suggest showing pairs of pictures with the same beginning sound (ie. CAT / CAKE) to help the child hear the beginning sound (in this example, the letter “C”).

Phonological awareness can also be assessed by observing the child’s ability to hear RHYMES in words (the ENDING sounds). You can assess this similarly using picture cards and matching up pictures of objects that rhyme (ie. CAT / HAT). Rhyming card sheets are shown on page 223 and in Appendix N.

Concepts about Print Interview

Another assessment suggested in the book is to help you assess how well a young child understands print. Begin by using a sentence strip with the child’s name inserted (I will use an example like the author’s give on page 224):

Sarah and I can see the sun.

Point to each word while reading the sentence to the child. Then you can give the child a series of instructions to gather information about his/her understanding of print. Some examples are:
• Point to your name.
• Point to the first letter of your name.
• Point to the letter “I”.
• Where do you start reading?

Word Writing

The last optional assessment the authors suggest is word writing. You can ask the child to write his/her name or any words that he/she knows (you can guide this along by suggesting some words the child might know like MOM, DAD, CAT, etc.). You can ask the child “What did you write here?” and print the word next to theirs. This can be collected with other writing samples throughout the year and will show their progress in understanding print.

We have come to the end of the last chapter of our online book study! We’d love to hear your feedback!

What did you think of this book study? What is one thing new thing that you learned that you will definitely use in your classroom this year?

Thanks so much for joining us – and I hope you will visit us and all the wonderful early childhood blogs who participated often!