literacy

Sound Cards, Child-Made Alphabet, Names

2/26/14

The classroom alphabet is child-made--giving the children ownership and pride over their classroom.  It is important to remember that this is their space, their home away from home, and they should feel happy, welcome, and proud each day being a part of it.  What we have done with our alphabet is place a student's name underneath the matching first letter of his/her name (for example, Abbie for A).  We had the children draw self portraits as well as write their names on a piece of paper.  We sat in a circle and talked about every one's name and where it would belong on our alphabet wall.  A week or two later, we associated a sound card above the appropriate letter.  We took time out to discuss the picture, what it sounds like, and if we could think of any other pictures that could work above that letter as well.  Perhaps this wall could extend into an "Environmental Print" wall as well.  The students could bring in a picture of something they are familiar with/can "read" (for example, McDonald's, STOP, EXIT, etc.) and have the children place the word they can "read" underneath the appropriate letter.  Linking their learning in school with their personal experiences creates a more in depth understanding of the world around them.     

Morning Message

Each day during Morning Meeting, the "daily reporter" has a special job of "reading" the Morning Message to the rest of the group.  Each sentence is represented by a different color.  The message is always very routine (good morning, day of the week, what "special" is that day, followed by "let's have an adjective (wonderful) day of the week (Wednesday)".  I use alliteration so depending on the day of the week the adjective to describe the weekday is different (for example, marvelous Monday).  This is to support their exposure and knowledge of beginning sounds.  As the year progresses, letters and words go missing (usually a box or a black underline represents that something needs to be filled in) and the daily reporter has to figure out what letters/words are missing and fill them in.  Most of the time, the child knows, other times it may be a little tricky and the teacher helps, but more often than not, students help eachother out.  Letters and words that go missing are never things that are brand new or words we have never talked about before.  In the photo above, we had already mastered most sounds and we were working on the word and.  The Morning Message is always repetitive, expected, and a teensie bit challenging to support pre-reading skills.  

The Importance of Names

2/17

A child's first word that s/he can write is typically his/her own name.  Our names are of great importance to us.  We can recognize them, spell them, and write them early on in the world of literacy and when we can do this, we are very proud.  I have multiple names' lists around my classroom. The above pictures are just two spots where I keep a list of my students' names (morning meeting area on the left and writing center on the right).  When children can start to associate their names with the first letter of their names, they can begin the process of associating other words with the first same letter as well.  For example, Brode may look at a picture of a ball and notice that it has the same first letter as his own name.  Children can grasp a strong, solid understanding of this concept of beginning letters and sounds when it is connected to something as personal as one's own name.  Children will even start to associate other words to their friends' names as well (for example, Caroline, cat).

To take names even further, sometimes we play a name game that supports phonemic awareness.  I change out the first letter of the child's name with another consonant letter--resulting in a different, yet rhyming name with her actual name.  I have a set of letter flashcards handy as a morning meeting game or as a filler when we have five minutes to kill.  This is how it goes:

Sadie's name begins with S, that's why we call her Sadie,

But if her name began with (this is where I pull out a consonant card and place it over the S in Sadie's name so that the children can see the visual as well as hear it--not 100% phonemic but I think this is helpful for my group of students--let's say I pulled out the letter L) L, we'd have to call her Ladie!

You can modify this game however you choose--my kids get a kick out of it!  They love hearing their names the right way and also the "silly" way.  It's great to support phonemic awareness, manipulating sounds, and practice beginning sounds.  Once the children get used to the game, I will go mute when it comes to recognizing the name the first time, recognizing the letter I pull out, and changing the beginning sound of the name (last part is the trickiest but with practice they are superstars!)