Storytime Deconstructed (Krista)

This week, I offered the children the opportunity to create a "story board".

Jalie, Allie, Damon, Alaira, Jason and Mia Gleinser (she's made a request that I refer to her as Mia Gleinser, instead of Mia G, which I totally understand ;)) were interested in the activity.

Inspiration:

I offered the children a small story board that is divided into 3 sections, an array of markers, pens and colored pencils, the wooden box of sandpaper letters and a basket of various animals and insects for inspiration.

Process:

The creative process was different for each child.

Jalie sorted through the box of letters before choosing the sandpaper letter 'a'. Together we came up with a list of words starting with the letter 'a'.

Here is our list:

apple ant anteater

apple juice Alaira Anika

Allie alligator

After reviewing the list, she decided to tell a story about an ant. She dictated the story to me, and then carefully chose the colors that she would use to illustrate the story. She laid the markers out in a row and worked methodically.

Mia picked 2 frogs out of the basket and set them next to her story board. She tested several colored pencils and markers before finding the ones that matched the color of the frogs exactly. It was important to her that her drawing look like the frogs. She took a lot of time with her illustrations.

Damon referred to his story as a comic book. He said that it was his first comic book and he was incredibly proud of it.

Jason grabbed the markers and began excitedly dictating to me as he drew. He took my finger and placed it on one of his drawings, "This is the plane, right here. Write plane!"

Allie told me several stories before finally letting me write one down. It was important to her that the story ended with everyone's dream coming true.

Alaira asked to do two story boards. She told her stories quickly and with a lot of enthusiasm. She re-told the stories as she illustrated them. Twice, she said that she was finished, and then returned to add some more. She chose to dictate two stories because she thought that the first story was too mean.

The story boards are displayed in the foyer, and the children are quite proud of them, so please take a moment to read their stories next week.

Happy Weekend Everyone! xo

Tell me a Story...Early Literacy (Krista)

This week, Andrea and Christine explored clay with small groups while I focused on literacy concepts with groups of children. Together, we explored the wonderful world of letters, sounds and words, with a particular focus on the letter ‘S’. First, I tapped into my Montessori roots and offered sandpaper letters, and a basket filled with different materials that start with ‘S’. We explored these materials on and off of the overhead projector.

I invited the children to make the "ssssss" sound, and to list words that start with ‘S’:

Here is their list:

Scuba diver Slippery

Squirrel Skip

Snake Sister
Slide Spider

Starfish Skirt
Sophia Stone
Stories Spoon
Splash Star pose
Snack Slipper
Sunflower Secret
Stone Sun Surprise

We also touched on the idea of action words. They totally got into this concept and we played a little game that went along with the words that they listed:

Stand Sit
Smell Smile

Spin Sneeze
Scoot

Finally, the children worked together to create ‘tag-team stories’ that centered around the items from the basket:

Day 1

Corbin began:

Once there was a shark.. He was eating fishes in the water with a fish in his mouth. He had s-s-s-strong, s-s-s-sharp teeth.

Allie continued:

Then he sawed a snake. The snake was really mean. He roared so loud and he was sad.

Mia G took over:

Then a little squirrel had a big tail and she went to her mother’s home and she had hot chocolate.

Allie:

And then the squirrel ated him all up and comeded out of his body and lived happily ever after!

Anika added:

Then a mean shark came over…

Corbin:

And the squirrel was chased by the shark and then a snake was here and the snake ate the shark.

Day 2

Mia G started:

One day a scubadiver went to the shore and rested on his pillow

Corbin added:

Then he went way down inside a stone and he couldn’t get out so he hit the door open

Allie continued:

And then the stone opened wide open

Anika finished the story:

Then the scubadiver fell asleep and then it was morning time.

Day 2:

Ava:

The starfish landed in the water and woke up and he then went outside and was floating in the water and he said, “where’s momma?” and then he said, "mommy I’m so happy to see you and then the starfish put on a dress and then he went to a wedding".

Day 2:

Jalie started:

A squirrel was walking alone the path and stopped and told his mommy, “I’m tired”.

Anika continued:

Then he walked and walked and walked and walked and fell asleep

Ava:

And woke up and realized there were a lot of nuts on the tree and grabbed them all and ate them all up.

Allie:

He…a bear comeded and it chased and went home and his dreams came true

Sophia:

Then he was tired and he had an owie and his mommy gave him m&ms and candy and a dvd

Mia G:

Then he went home and he said, “mommy, mommy, I missed you sososososososo much!”

Day 3:

Mia S:

A little spider craweled up a spider web

Allie:

Then he found them and they were just at his house playing hide-n-seek

Corbin:

Well, then his mommy went off to get some food

Jalie:

Then he walked up the path lonely and sad and then he felt happy again

Eddie:

And then the spider fell down and he hurt his legs

Lucca:

Are you okay Eddie?

Early Literacy

For those older children who have shown an interest, I’m excited to have started some small early literacy groups. I’m doing this because some children are showing an interest in print awareness, so I’m simply guiding them as they explore this. As a former elementary school teacher, it’s important to me that this be done in ways that are natural and meaningful to the children, and not in a regimented, and excessively didactic way.

As parents and educators, it’s important to be mindful of our children and their development, and not become obsessed and push our children before they’re ready. We should give children time to get used to, and familiar with the look of letters and words, before beginning any type of formal instruction. This is a very good reason, among many others, for letting the child themselves decide when he/she wants to start to read. And we want our children to build a love for reading, so they become life-long readers. So many older children and adults have a dislike of reading, and it makes me wonder, why?

Back to the topic of print awareness. I would like to share this analogy. If you take a sample of printing of a different language, say Japanese or Arabic, and try to find the words that occur most often on the page, it would be difficult as the words may look like a jumble of strange shapes. In the same way, it takes a child some time to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he/she can see at a glance that this word is like that word, and this word altogether, is different. One of the reasons why children from unlettered homes are at a disadvantage when they start learning to read may be because they lack familiarity with the shapes of words and letters.

Terra Luz is a print-rich environment and a wonderful selection of books are everywhere throughout the schoolhouse. The children have a HUGE passion for books and having stories read to them. So, one project I began working on with some of the children is asking them to make up a story and dictate it to me based on a picture-only book. Not only does this help your child’s cognitive, creative, and speaking skills, the other children are working on listening to their friends in an informal setting. This is meaningful and fun.

::

We are also going to begin sending informal Home Reports home. For those veteran Terra Luz families, this is similar to what I used to do with our Home-School journals last year. The home school report is simply a short update on your child and their experiences and our observations at school. We tossed around the idea of bringing back the home-school journal (in which parents actually write back and return to school), but we want to make sure this doesn’t end up being too time consuming for all parties. We'll see how the home school reports work, and go from there.

Have a fabulous weekend!
Andrea