BOOK   FEATURE

I 'd like to recommend Chicka, Chicka, Boom-Boom by Bill Martin. This is a really fun way to learn your letters. All the letters try to climb up a coconut tree but they fall down because they're so heavy. It's got great pictures and I like how the words rhyme, they sound like they're dancing. My Mom also got me the CD-ROM of this book and it's fun too.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Aladdin Picture Books) by John Archambault, Bill Martin, Jr., Lois Ehlert (Illustrator)

Greetings & News
from Judy Challoner & Angela Notari-Syverson

Welcome to our first edition of Ladders! We really want to stay in touch with all our trainees and sites and felt that a quarterly newsletter might be a good way to accomplish this goal. However, we also want this publication to be meaningful for you, so we need your help. Ideally, we would like to publish your ideas - your teaching tips, activities you really like doing with your children (as parent and/or teacher), samples of your child's outstanding literacy that you just have to share with others! In other words, send us your stuff and we'll type it up.

A Question and Answer section might also be helpful as you begin to implement the Ladders curriculum, and it might be fun to feature a particular site or team as well. You have so much combined knowledge and real-life experience in the field of early literacy, let's share it! Contact us at 206.285.9317, anotari@wri-edu.org, or challoner@MSN.com

Parent Perspective
by Judy Challoner

How do you get dinner on the table, that one last load of laundry in, bathe everyone and do a literacy activity? Impossible? No, just think in the moment and keep it simple!

"The Dandelion Seed"

The other day as I was driving to pick my children up from school, I saw a Dad with a baby in a backpack and a preschooler, probably four years old. They had just picked a dandelion seed head and were blowing the fluffy seeds into the air. The toddler's face was filled with wonder and rapt attention as she watched these floating parachutes. It got me thinking about using this very simple moment as a springboard for literacy.

Webbing

Putting It Into Practice

O.K. so you've got this web in your head, but you still have all those household chores to do, and I said to keep it simple. Impossible? Certainly not! How about using those vocabulary words as you put in the laundry together?

As you fix dinner, have your child draw at the kitchen table. She can relate her story to Dad while he's bathing her, and as a last hooray before bedtime, dance around the living room, clapping and singing "dan/de/li/on"! And that's just the beginning.

You could practice those gross motor skills by jumping off the bed like a parachute seed; guestimate the number of seeds on a seed head and then count one (cognition); make a collage using the parts of the dandelion plant (fine motor)…….You get the picture!!

Teacher Tips

The October edition of The Reading Teacher (Vol. 54, # 2) had a great article by Yopp & Yopp addressing phonemic awareness development in the classroom. Twelve activities for building sensitivity to sounds of speech are presented in detail, and include activities that focus on rhyme, syllable mani-pulation, onset-rhyme manipulation, and phoneme manipulation.

You're now thinking that these sound really interesting - not! But just take a look at the activities, they're a whole lot of fun for both kids and teachers. Here is a synopsis of one that focuses on rhyme using "The Hungry Thing."

The charm of Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler's story is its play on language. Nonsense rhyming words are clues to what the Hungry Thing wants to eat. The townspeople (and your listening children) must think of rhyming foods in order to make sense of the Hungry Thing's requests.

As you read the story aloud, encourage children to make predictions. The Hungry Thing wants feetloaf. What can that be? Pause and allow children to make guesses before you read "Meatloaf." After reading the book, pull out a lunch bag, announce your hunger and look in the bag saying "Mogurt! I love mogurt!" Once they've guessed yogurt, take it out of the bag to show them and ask them how they knew. Repeat this with 3 or 4 other food items in your "lunch."

Next, let the children make their own lunchbags using paperbags, paper, markers or magazine pictures of food. Have each child sit with a partner and provide "clues" about what his or her bag contains. "I have nizza for lunch." The partner's job is to determine what "nizza" is.

A center with plastic foods and lunch bags would provide nice follow-up to this activity. Children can play with these items as they retell the story and create rhymes which their peers have to guess. Be sure to leave a copy of the book in the center too.

Sounds like fun! If you are unable to get your hands on a copy of these articles, just let Angela know and we'll forward it to you.

Resources

The Fall 2000 edition of Young Exceptional Children features a Resources Within Reason page, and this one just happens to be on supporting emerging literacy skills! All resources reviewed cost $50 or less. Here are the web sites with a brief synopsis of each one:

Reading is Fundamental program, includes reading checkup guides, story time tips and a fun with kids section. www.rif.org 1-800-637-3652 www.TeachingStrategies.com

Building Your Baby's Brain: A Parent's Guide to the First Five Years has sections on emerging literacy including talking, listening, and sharing books together. Spanish and English versions available.

Helping Your Child Become a Better Reader features many every-day activities and resources to encourage a child's love of reading and strengthen language skills. www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Reader

Much More Than ABCs:- The Early Stages of Reading and Writing offers concrete suggestions to support literacy-related learning for infants and toddlers. 1-800-424-2460 www.naeyc.org

Http://www.ed.gov go to: RSR for Family go to: Family/Familias go to: Family/Cuidadores READY*SET*READ guides are for families and care givers, available in both Spanish and English, and provide ideas for helping young children learn about language and reading through age-appropriate activities. Suggestions are grouped by age (young babies, crawlers & walkers, toddlers, and preschoolers).