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May,
2001
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Volume 1, Issue 2
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Washington Research Institute
150 Nickerson Street, #305, Seattle, WA 98109
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Activities & Ideas
We have received many wonderful activity ideas and examples of children's work, and would like to share some with you here. Our apologies up front for not including everyone's - there just isn't enough space, but do keep them coming or post them on the Ladders web site ( www.wri-edu.org/ladders). You are a much more valuable resource to each other than we can ever be!!
Peanut Butter Books and Peanut Butter Ball Books were a hit in Jenny Eberth's preschool class in Wenatchee, WA. The children made peanut butter and peanut butter balls at school —and of course ate them! — then made little books to bring home and share with parent(s). Worksheets included.
 Wendy Evans-Gifford, also of Wenatchee, WA, sent us a great new take on Dr. Seuss Hat. She puts the title of each new story read in class on sentence strip paper, making one for each child. The children then put their strip onto their Dr. Seuss hat, and when full take it home to show to Mom or Dad.
Corduroy's Pockets also come in handy in Wendy's class for name recognition (or colors, shapes, animals, letter, number, sight words, etc.). Paper clips and short sentence strip paper are all you need!
Break out your vacuum cleaners everyone and say "VVVVVV." That's just what they did in Diania Mirian's pre-k class in Pinehurst, NC. Her children had vacuum races around a "V" track, making the "V" sound. (We bet the classroom got nice and clean too!!) Gross motor activity combined with letter-sound recognition was Diania's focus. Any takers for other letter-sound + gross motor games?
There's a very lucky young lady in Vass, NC, whose Mom does all kinds of at-home literacy activities. They bake cookies following a recipe, drain the hot tub with help from the instruction manual and look for the gas company in the Yellow Pages - it's all in a day's work. Name recognition took on new meaning (!) during gift opening at Christmas time. "This is mine," Cam declared emphatically, and continued to identify and pull out all her presents from under the tree. Thanks to Rhonda and Cam Sharpe, for these real-life literary moments. |
Zero to Three
Some of you may already be familiar with the publication Zero to Three. While it does offer a unique look at issues of concern to the birth to three population, and much of what is covered is certainly applicable to all young children and their families. A recent issue (Dec. 2000/Jan.2001) took a look at the role of public libraries in supporting emergent and family literacy. What follows is a brief synopsis.
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Across the country, libraries are re-designing themselves to reach out and
support families with young children. From toy lending to parenting classes, from community
coalition to inclusion, from designing infant space to meeting the needs of immigrant populations - the library is doing it! |
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Partnership between libraries and other community organizations are particularly effective in supporting early literacy, reaching out to new migrant and immigrant audiences, promoting young children's healthy development, and meeting information needs of parents and care givers. WIC, Head Start, DSHS, school districts, public health nurses, etc. are all joining in partnership with their community libraries in an effort to reach and better serve families with young children. |
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As the Federal Government pushes agencies to serve young children with special needs in natural environments, more and more kids with IFSPs are going to show up in your local library. One such library in Shirley, NY, teamed up with the county's EI site and began a Partners for Inclusion Project. Although this entailed much work, they found incredible benefit too. Programs developed originally to serve young children with special needs — such as adaptive toy collection — lead to more developmentally appropriate library services for all young children and families. | |
By now, hopefully, you have an idea of why your local library is vital to you as an educator. So get out there, meet for a home visit in the library, have one of your parent meetings there, go on a field trip with your young charges. Show your families how to get a library card - don't forget one for the kids too - and together explore the endless possibilities the library has to offer!
Contact Zero To Three:
1-800-899-4301
www.zerotothree.org.
Bug Book
Althea Hrbek, Pinehurst, NC made a classroom book about bugs! The children each drew a picture of a bug and dictated a statement.
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Jamel's therapist, Kim Berner, draws and writes as he dictates an adventure with Alligator and Pooh Bear. Restaurant Man is busy fixing these two hungry friends cooked grapes!
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Angela's Announcements
This will be our last newsletter until the Fall. We would love to start a Question & Answer section in the next news-letter that you contribute to - with real questions and real answers.
For example, a question may be:
"I'm doing The Three Little Pigs as vocabulary enrichment, and I'm having a really hard time keeping a couple of my boys with me. How do you manage story/circle time?"
or
"We're using menus at snack time to work on print awareness and sight reading. One of my kids has a motor delay and usually spills her drink at least twice during snack. How do I keep the focus on literacy while wiping up the spills? We have 14 kids, 3's and 4's, with just myself and my assistant."
So, while you're enjoying the summer months think about some times that have been frustrating for you this past year, as you implemented Ladders. Perhaps putting a question out there would be the most effective way to come up with possible solutions, and they're bound to be creative!
We would like to say a big thank you to all our sites and participants. You have been most gracious with your time and energy. It has truly been fun getting to know you. Lastly, this is a newsletter about literacy, don't forget to enjoy a good book this Summer! You deserve it!
Contact:
Washington Research Institute
150 Nickerson Street, #305
Seattle, WA 98109
http://www.wri-edu.org
or
Angela Notari
anotari@wri-edu.org
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