Summer School Time Already?

It just seems like not too long ago the school year began. But here we are at the end of March and it is time to start planning for this year's ELL Pre-K and Kinder Summer School.

Preschool Language Development

Enhancing Language Development for Preschoolers

As I continue to do research on helping young pre-kindergarten children develop language, here are some nuggets I gleaned from an article in Early Childhood News.The article is titled "Enhancing the Language Development of Young Children" by Sandra Crosser, Ph. D. 

This is what she suggest doing in order to develop language in young preschoolers:

• An interactive reading style where children are encouraged to make comments, predict events, and ask questions about the story and illustrations during reading. We don't want quiet children while the story is being read. Kids need to encourage children to talk about the story while it is being read
• Reread stories time and again. It encourages students to really key in on the words/vocabulary of the story.
• Look for really good children's literature which contain strong story lines, good poetry, and make sure to include non-fiction books.
• Encourage three- and four-year-olds to ask questions. When we do this, we promote language.
• Certain types of play and playthings promote language development. Some examples are telephones in different centers, people added to the toy car collection, puppets, changing the dramatic play center to a shoe store, gas station, campground, stuffed animal clinic, pizza parlor, or workout gym where children the adult facilitate the special and technical vocabulary for each one
• Use language props such as a pretend microphone, a walkie talkie, a megaphone, and a tape recorder. A comfortable listening center where students can listen to books on tape is another suggestion.
• Use actions in songs and music to have children expand their vocabularies. The can slither, leap, or waddle. Using movement can also help children learn what it b\means to glide, slide, stomp, march, tiptoe, gallop, lung, twist, twirl, and flop.
• Finally, the author encourages preschool teachers to engage in focused conversation with young children. 

Ms. Crosser ends her article by saying that in order for all of the above to be successful, children need to feel like they have a warm, safe, secure environment.

Developing Strong Oral Vocabularies in Pre-Kindergarten

Some Key Understandings to Think About:

• Expanding vocabulary involves much more than learning words.
• Intentional vocabulary instruction can help pre-k students more rapidly expand their knowledge base and the words that describe it.
• Reading aloud is an effective way to build vocabulary. The reading should be accompanied by conversation about the text.
• Shared reading of poetry can also contribute to vocabulary expansion.
• Children should be adding five to ten new words to their working vocabularies every day.
• Vocabulary instruction should be embedded in meaningful conversation.

Pinnell and Fountas in their book Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook summarize chapter 7 of their book with the above key understandings. 

Teaching Vocabulary in Pre-Kindergarten

As part of their Personal Learning Networks a few of our Pre-K teachers are wanting to learn more about teaching vocabulary in Pre-K. In addition, when looking at our C-PALLS+ assessment data, vocabulary is the one area where our students score the lowest. So, doing more research on vocabulary development is a priority for me as well.

In an article I found from Young Children - July 2010, Tanya Christ and X. Christine Wang outline four research-based vocabulary teaching practices. Here they are:

1. provide purposeful exposure to new words,
2. intentionally teach word meanings
3. teach word-learning strategies, and
4. offer opportunities to use newly learned words.

After introducing the four teaching practices, the authors give examples and more detail on how to do each. They conclude that a variety of teaching methods should be used to improve children's vocabularies because having a well-developed vocabulary correlates with greater reading comprehension and overall academic success.

Trying New Things: Love the Cool Cat Teacher-Vicki Davis and Her Posi...

Trying New Things: Love the Cool Cat Teacher-Vicki Davis and Her Posi...: Well it is a new year-new semester! Today there was an email from Vicki Davis-The CoolCatTeacher in my inbox. It is always exciting to get a...

Building Blocks - What Have We Learned So Far?

What Have We Learned?



During our January 12th staff development I asked for feedback on what our Pre-K teachers had learned so far this year as we have focused on Blocks and Beyond for our book study. I love getting to see each teacher's take on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following are some of their responses:

• The significance of using blocks in the classroom-shapes/geometric shapes
• Spatial thinking helps with STEM learning, development, geometric, and spatial knowledge helps develop cognitive abilities.
• Lines in space and nature and shapes in space and nature is another way to promote spatial development. Finding new ways to incorporate blcoks into lesson plans.
• Kids learn through touch and at the beginning they rarely know what they did or how they did it. After, with guidance, they are learning to collaborate and learning new vocabulary.
• Students love to play with blocks and create incredible things that help them to learn and compare with real objects (train/car/etc.).
• Children have a purpose for learning, are applying skills with real objects, and are becoming more creative with their structures using expressive vocabulary.
• I need a good set of blocks. Blocks are great for measuring, sorting, and building teamwork between the children.
• Children learn better with blocks and cubes.
• I still need to do pictures and have incorporated different blocks at one time and observed and discussed with students what they created.
• Blocks are enagaging for our students and they can learn many math concepts of geometry.
• They love to show off their creations and seem to be more focused in the center. They often ask for me to get the iPad to take a picture.
• The kids LOVE having more room and have made some amazing creations. They come and get me to look at what they've made. They show such pride.
• Children will create when they feel encouraged.
• Many math concepts emphasized through blocks.
• Many math concepts can be taught using blocks, such as measuring, patterns, matching sets, shapes, and counting.
• Children are beginning to see shapes when building and they are making connections.
• Children are very verbal in this center. It is where they fight the most at the beginning of the year, but now they are talking to each other and work together. It has become really collaborative and they like to build high. They just realized that they can put blocks on shelves and start high.
• When I spend time in the center, they become excited. I started taking photos of their structures. Now they all build and want me to take photos of their creations.
• More students are interested in soft blocks and hard blocks.
• How important blocks are in learning - shapes and spatial relationships.
• More effective than before-it is now purposeful and not random.
• More kids have been wanting to go and explore-including kids who weren't previously interested.
• Frederich Froebel
• Spatial development is a foundation for geometry.
• Blocks can be used for many math concepts, including one-to-one correspondence, normal matching, measurement, etc.
• The students need a lot of ideas since they got bored with them quickly. I plan to look for ideas using my PLN.
   
WHEW! That is a lot of feedback! But it is music to my heart and soul. Ultimately, my hope is that this learning will impact each student and teacher positively in many ways now and into the future.

 



Love the Cool Cat Teacher-Vicki Davis and Her Positive Perspective!

Well it is a new year-new semester! Today there was an email from Vicki Davis-The CoolCatTeacher in my inbox. It is always exciting to get a message from her. I LOVE HER POSITIVE PERSPECTIVE on life and teaching!

The title of her blog today is 3 Steps to Make 2015 Epic.

Ms. Davis begins by stating that in order to make it an epic year, you have to have "gumption". The definition is "spirited initiative", a word used in the Southern US with Scottish origins. Another meaning for gumption is resourcefulness. The Cool Cat Teacher then goes on to give us her 3 steps for getting up our gumption to achieve greatness this year.

Learn From Your Mistakes and Move On Smarter-
Epic Action #1: Get up your gumption by learning what you can from your mistakes. Stop now and reflect on your mistakes. Make a list of how you can do better next time. Move forward.

Set Audacious Goals-
Epic Action #2: Get up your gumption by setting one big goal. Take some time to list all the goals you would like to achieve. Keep this list with you over a few weeks, and each time your thoughts return to one of them, make a mark beside that goal. While you can have more than one, pick one audacious goal. Write it on a card. Keep it with you in your wallet. Read the goal to yourself. Take steps toward creating a habits to hel that goal become closer to reality.

Make Epic Memories-
Epic Action #3: Get up your gumption to do something out of the ordinary today. Determine that you're going to get out of the ruts of your past and do extraordingary things to make memories. Do something different.

Ms. Davis concludes telling us that life is hard, but even harder when we lack the gumption to move forward. She challenges us to have the gumption to make our lives epic. If we do so, 2015 can be one of our best years ever. Below is the link to her blog.

edutopia.org/blog/3-steps-make-2015-epic-vicki-davis