LIGHT UP LITERACY!

Match and Memory

Materials: stickers or gift cards, heavy paper cut in 3 1/2” squares

Attach 2 of each different sticker to the squares. Younger children can use these as a matching game.

Older children can play a memory game with these by place them face down and turning over two at a time.



Fit Like a Puzzle
Materials: puzzle and frame, marker

Write an uppercase letter on each puzzle piece and a lowercase letter on the shape in the frame. As children match up letters they will complete the puzzle.

*Use for math facts, synonyms, number words, and other skills.


Foam Letters

Materials: gift bag, foam letters, paper, pencils

Place foam letters in the gift bag. Children draw a letter, write the letter, and then draw something or write a word that starts with that sound.

*Hide the letters in the classroom for children to find. Can they get with a friend and make a word with their letters?


Silly Glasses

Materials: silly glasses, paper, pencil, clipboard

Children walk around the room and write words they can read.

*Can they find a word for each letter of the alphabet?

*For a partner project let one child wear the glasses. The friend takes a pointer and points to words for their friend to read.

Book Presents (Danielle Underwood)
Wrap holiday books up like presents. Randomly choose a name out of a popsicle tin and let that child unwrap the present. After reading the book, display it for the children to look at during free time.

Holiday Brain Breaks (Sharon Smith)
Have the children stand and in place and

Melt like a snowman…
Waddle like a penguin…
Twinkle like a Christmas tree…
Prance like a reindeer…
Laugh like Santa...
Smile like an elf...

*Adapt for different seasons and themes.

P. S. Here's a video where I demonstrate many of these materials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT6ZaiWeiVs

ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT - I CAN READ!!!

Environmental print is one way young children “read pictures” and develop visual literacy. Using environmental print at the beginning of the school year is a great way to help children make print connections, develop visual memory skills, and motivate them to read.

Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard

Ask children to save food wrappers from snacks and their lunches. Glue wrappers to sheets of paper and write this rhyme at the top of each page:
 

Old Mother Hubbard
 

Went to her cupboard
 

To get her poor dog a bone.
 

But when she got there
 T

he cupboard was bare
 

And so the poor dog had…(Children read food logo.)

                                           

What’s for Breakfast?

Ask children to bring in the box from their favorite cereal. Cut the front section off and on a sentence strip write: “Child’s name eats name of cereal.” Glue to the bottom of the cereal box. Put all the boxes together and make a book. Write “What’s for Breakfast?” on the front cover. Hole punch and put the boxes together with book rings.
*You can also make a book with sacks from fast food restaurants. 

                    

Clothes 

Read sayings on T-shirts, sports jerseys, shoes, and other clothing the children wear to school.




We Can Read Bulletin Board

Ask children to bring logos from food boxes, magazines, toys, clothing and household products. Make a poster or bulletin board that says: “We Can Read!” Let children glue their logos to the poster. Read over the words together.




Read at Home Book

Cut 9” x 12” sheets of construction paper in half. Let each child choose 4 or 5 different colors and staple them together to make a book. Write “I Can Read” on the front and let the children decorate with their name and picture. Send the book home with a note to the parents about helping their child recognize different logos, signs, and words on products and in the home and as they drive down the road. Encourage parents to help their child cut out words they can read from boxes, magazines, and advertisements. Ask children to bring their books back to school to “read” with classmates.

                                                        

I Like

On Monday send home a sandwich bag with a note asking parents to help their child look for words she can read on food labels, toys, advertisements, and other products around their house. Children cut these out and bring them to school Friday in the sandwich bag. On Friday, encourage the children to “read” the labels that they have brought to class. Write the words “I” and “like” on index cards for each child. Model how to place the cards on the floor with a label from their bag. Point to the words as you read, “I like logo.” Ask the child to read it for you as you point to each word. Comment, “Look at you reading!!!!”



Block Engineers
Cut store logos from Sunday advertisements. Tape to wooden blocks and make your own mall in the block center.

                                                     

Out the Door
Several years ago when I was in Pleasanton, TX, Nadine Barrow shared this idea. She posts words and environmental print on the inside of her door. Students have to read two of the words before exiting the classroom.

                                   

LETTER LAND

I have been at this rodeo a LONG time, and I want you to know there is NO one correct way to introduce letters or teach children to read. Just take a look around you and you’ll see people of all ages who know HOW to read and they learned TO READ with a variety of different approaches, materials, and reading programs.

Many people ask me questions about how to introduce letters. Should you do capital letters first? Is there a specific order you should follow? There is NO definitive research to support one particular strategy. Children come to you with so many varied experiences and skills that one size will not fit all. There are two principles that I think are important.

First, make it authentic! Teach letters in context and connect with children’s names, units of study, nursery rhymes, and other interests. For example, a trip to the pumpkin patch would be the perfect time to talk about Pp. Talk about the letter Jj when you say Jack and Jill. If your football team is the Falcons discuss the letter Ff.

Second, make it playful and challenging. Use hands-on activities, songs, movements, and games to stimulate multiple senses. Blocks, play dough, puzzles, and magnetic letters are much more REAL than a worksheet or computer game.

Finally, remember that children take it in and take it in and take it in – and then something comes out! They don’t all learn in the same way at the same time, so you have to provide a variety of opportunities to learn. The key is to keep it fun and make them feel successful.


LETTER PUPPETS

Envelope Puppets
Seal an envelope and cut it in half as shown. Write the uppercase letter on one side and the lowercase letter on the other side. Sing the “Hokey Pokey” with the letter puppet.

                     
You put your (letter) in,
You take your (letter) out,
You put your (letter) in
And you shake it all about.
You make the (letter sound)
And then you put it down.

*Listen up! Tell children when you say words starting with that sound they can hold up their puppet. When you say a word that doesn’t start with that sound they should keep the puppet in their lap.

*Have children write a letter on one side and draw an animal that begins with that sound on the reverse side.

                                                         

*I Have - Who Has Alphabetical Order?
Seal 13 envelopes, cut them in half, and then write the letters of the alphabet on the envelopes. Pass out one or two envelopes to each child and have the child with A say: I have A. Who has B?
The child with B says: I have B. Who has C? And so forth.

*Let children hold up their letter as you sing different alphabet songs.

*Use these puppets to make CVC words.

Paper Plate Puppets
Staple two paper plates together 3/4 of the way around. Write a large uppercase letter on one side and a lowercase letter on the other side. Or, just write the uppercase and lowercase together on one side. Children wear these on their hands and hold them up when their letter is sung in an alphabet song.

                                    
*You can also use these to make CVC words or sight words.

Here's a video where you can watch me demonstrate some of these activities.


http://bit.ly/drjeanLetterLand

RHYME TO READ

A teacher recently told me that her administrator said, "Don't do nursery rhymes." What??? That administrator hasn't looked at the research!

rhymes:www.earlyliteracylearning.org

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20396377_Nursery_Rhymes_Phonological_Skills_and_Reading

Note!  I've heard complaints that nursery rhymes are stereotypic, violent, etcetera, etcetera.  If you don't like them, then don't do them.  However, most young children just find pleasure in the silliness of the words.  A mother recently told me how much her young daughter loved my "Tarzan" song and goes around singing it all day long.  Talk about nonsensical with Tarzan in the frying pan and Jane having a pain.  Children take things for face value, and that's why I like kids better than most adults I know!!

Anyway, saying nursery rhymes is a delightful way for children to practice oral language. Rhymes also develop auditory memory (good for the brain) and phonological awareness (key to beginning reading). Nursery rhymes have a simple plot and can be used to introduce story elements: characters, setting, problem, solution.

Nursery rhymes have been kept alive by children for hundreds of years. That is certainly testimony to their appealing quality to children. Nursery rhymes are short, simple, and are part of our literary heritage. Nursery rhymes are also FREE and can be integrated throughout the day to engage children.


Piggy Back Tunes
You can sing traditional nursery rhymes to tunes such as “100 Bottles
of Pop on the Wall,” “Yankee Doodle,” and ”Gilligan’s Island.”


Story Elements
Discuss the characters, setting, problem, resolution, etc. in nursery rhymes.


Rhyme of the Week
Select a rhyme each week and write it on a poster or language experience chart. Reread the rhyme each day.
*Clap the syllables.
*Find words that rhyme.
*Listen for words that start the same.
*Look up unusual words in the dictionary.
*Dramatize the rhyme.
*Say the rhyme the wrong way and let children correct you.
*Leave out a word and let the children fill in the missing word.
*Connect with art by letting children make puppets, play dough characters, etc.


Nursery Rhyme Club
Make a poster that says “Nursery Rhyme Club.” Whenever a child can say a rhyme, they get to sign their name on the poster. It would also be fun to give them a membership card!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1SnEagA4jljZmpEYnVyWFNaVk0/view?usp=sharing

Rhyme Pops
Cut 3 1/2" circles out of heavy paper and glue them to jumbo craft sticks. As you learn new rhymes write them on the circles and save them in a can. When you have a few extra minutes children can pull out a "rhyme pop" and lead their classmates in saying the nursery rhyme.




Puzzles
Write rhymes on sentence strips. Cut between the words and let children put them in the correct order in a pocket chart.

                                   

My Nursery Rhyme Book
Every child will need a spiral notebook or composition book for this project. Each week run off a copy of a rhyme you want to focus on. (Be sure and increase the font for little eyes.) Children cut out the rhyme and glue it on the left and then illustrate the rhyme on the right. Use the rhyme for choral reading and to reinforce specific skills (letters, left to right, sight words, punctuation, etc.) throughout the week. On Friday children take home their books and read the rhyme to their parents. Encourage parents to write their "comments and compliments" in the book.