OK, for those of you looking for more Dr. Seuss activities, here are five favorites to start off with! More to come!
(Does anyone else ever feel like they’re juggling this many things?)
Whole Child Development
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Create, Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement, Snack Time 3 Comments
OK, for those of you looking for more Dr. Seuss activities, here are five favorites to start off with! More to come!
(Does anyone else ever feel like they’re juggling this many things?)
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement 9 Comments
This is a great song for learning about colors and for building rhyme recognition, an important skill for pre-readers (read more about phonological awareness here). Use this song during large group, music and movement time, or just as a filler during a transition. The little ones love it! Eventually, they’ll be ready to be the ones giving the clues!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments
I was first introduced to Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler’s The Hungry Thing at a workshop on phonemic/phonological awareness (learn more about that here). So, obviously, this book and activity are great for building those critical prereading skills. In this story, the Hungry Thing shows up in a town, asking for food. The people can’t figure out what he wants. When he requests “shmancakes” they each have a different idea about what “shmancakes” actually are. One boy makes sense of it all, reminding them that “shmancakes” sound like “pancakes”. So they give the Hungry Thing some and he eats them all up! This continues on to include “feetloaf” and “gollipops”, “boop with a smacker” and “tickles”. As I read this story, I always pause a bit, allowing the children to chime in with the appropriate rhyming word.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment
Here’s an activity I think I picked up in a phonemic awareness book once upon a time. You begin by telling the children you have a friend who wants to be an invisible man, perhaps as a Halloween costume. (You may need to explain what “invisible means”.) Show a picture of a person (stick figures are ok) or just a face, if you’re working with younger children, drawn on a chalkboard or dry erase board. This man is not invisible at all! Tell the children that if they want to make part of the man invisible, they have to say the rhyming word. Give a few examples. If you or the children say “pies”, you erase the eyes. If you say “farm” erase an arm. Accept nonsense words (“gegs” rhymes with legs) as rhymes. Rhyme production is more difficult than rhyme recognition, so for younger children, you would say the rhyming word and give two options for the part to be erased (rhyme recognition). “What if I said “south”? Would that be the mouth or the eyes? South-Mouth, or South-Eyes?” For older children, you might say, “What word rhymes with arm?” (rhyme production)
Photo by phillip13.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement, Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Photo provided by rrss.
Want a fun little song that gets the wiggles out while enforcing phonemic awareness skills? I thought you might be, so here it is!
It’s a very simple song, but kids love it! To the tune of “Shortnin’ Bread”:
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 4 Comments
For a fun rhyming activity with your preschoolers, create a Rhyme-A-Saurus! This dinosaur is not a meat-eater or a plant-eater, he eats rhymes!
Using a set of rhyming cards (you can find printable ones here or purchase a set at a teaching supply store) give your children one card each, and keep the rhyming pair yourself. Explain that this dinosaur is a rhyme-eater and loves rhyme sandwiches. Ask them to help you make a sandwich by putting two rhyming words together and feeding them to the dinosaur!
In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.
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