Whether you call it “Show and Tell”, “Sharing Time”, “All About Me” or some other name, providing children opportunities to share information about themselves and their preferences is a classic classroom activity that offers a powerful way to develop early literacy skills, especially in young children. Encouraging children to bring objects from home and describe… Read more »
Tag: Language
What Do the Numbers Say? The Math and Literacy Link
In early childhood education, math and literacy are often viewed as completely separate learning domains. However, while math and literacy may seem like completely different skills sets, they are actually interconnected and can support the development of one another. Furthermore, some research has found a strong link between children’s numeracy skills and their reading skills…. Read more »
Monkey See, Monkey Do- It’s More than Just a Game!
Why do we play imitation games with young children? Of course it’s fun, but did you know that the ability to imitate actions and sounds is a crucial aspect of children’s literacy development? Let’s explore why encouraging children to imitate actions and sounds is an important part of their literacy journey. It Builds Cognitive… Read more »
Culturally Responsive Literacy – Día de los Muertos
What are you learning about with your students? Fall to Winter in the PreK-3 classroom usually means one thing – holidays. While we know you’re busy picking books, scripting plays, making treats, and coordinating your holiday teacher sweaters, we thought the season was ripe for recommending some fresh ideas for doing holidays inclusively with your young… Read more »
Oral Language Development Beyond Building Vocabulary
Intentionally planning vocabulary instruction (see Words, words, words post) is an important part of developing children’s oral language skills, but what other research-based practices can you use? See below: 1) Ask children many open-ended (those without a specific answer) questions throughout the day. Make these interactions effective by providing scaffolding support that enables children to… Read more »
All About Dialogic Reading
Dialogic Reading Link is an evidence-based interactive shared-reading practice that teachers and families can use to enhance children’s oral language development. It involves using the same book multiple times to progress through three levels of questioning with small groups or individual children. Dialogic Reading introduces new vocabulary, supports comprehension, and develops creative and critical… Read more »
Rich Language Modeling in Diverse Books
As you’re working to diversify your library, you might consider exploring the linguistic diversity of the students in your classroom and in American society at large. Linguistically diverse children’s books can help accomplish this! Read below to learn a bit more about dialects of English and speakers of English as a new language, then find… Read more »