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Search Results for: Culture of literacy

Language & Literacy

August 9, 2008 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 22 Comments

Photo provided by Bies

“A bandaid feel me better.”  We relish the quirky sayings our children devise as they wade through the task of decoding the furtive rules we use as we communicate.  Our children’s faulty contrivances are not only endearing, but give us some insight into their progress as they decipher our mysterious code. 

The development of language and literacy skills are key to success not only academically, but in life.  Brilliance of thought or tenderness of feelings can easily go unnoticed without the ability to properly and effectively communicate.  In the words of psychologist Lev Vygotsky, “A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow.”  Moreover, language serves as the channel for most learning, as it involves the ability to receive information whether it be instructional, social, or otherwise.

[Read more…]

Language & Literacy

August 9, 2008 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 14 Comments

Photo provided by Bies

“A bandaid feel me better.”  We relish the quirky sayings our children devise as they wade through the task of decoding the furtive rules we use as we communicate.  Our children’s faulty contrivances are not only endearing, but give us some insight into their progress as they decipher our mysterious code. 

The development of language and literacy skills are key to success not only academically, but in life.  Brilliance of thought or tenderness of feelings can easily go unnoticed without the ability to properly and effectively communicate.  In the words of psychologist Lev Vygotsky, “A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow.”  Moreover, language serves as the channel for most learning, as it involves the ability to receive information whether it be instructional, social, or otherwise.

[Read more…]

Lifelong Readers {What’s on My Reading List}

June 21, 2013 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Uncategorized 14 Comments

What's on Your Summer Reading List

It’s easy for me to rattle of a list of book recommendations to parents with young kids.  For their kids, that is.  Books for grown ups take me a bit longer to get through!  To be quite honest, I really enjoy reading, and because of that, I’ve looked at it for too long as a privilege.  A leisure activity.  Something to do when I get all my work done.  (Like that ever happens!)

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First Friday Q&A: My 4 Year-Old Wants to Read NOW – What Do I Do?

April 6, 2012 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Uncategorized 3 Comments

What do you do when your 4 year-old wants to know how to read TODAY?  Here are some developmentally appropriate ways to build your preschooler’s literacy foundation, while also giving them ways they can read today.  (This video can also be viewed on YouTube here.)

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Repost Request: Push Down and Play Time

October 10, 2011 by notjustcute Filed Under: Uncategorized 7 Comments

A reader requested a repost of this “sermon”, originally posted in 2009.  I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

churchAyla87As I began writing this post, it became apparent that I was writing a sermon in two parts.  (Brevity has never really been my strong suit.)  Don’t worry, you don’t need to change into your Sunday best, your pajamas are just fine (you know who you are).  Just get comfortable, I’ve got a lot on my mind.

If you want to get preschool teachers all riled up, talk about “push-down curriculum” (pushing academic standards from one grade down to the next- pushing fluent reading skills from first grade to kindergarten, and now to preschool, for example).  I read this article  the other day, and it really got me thinking about academics and preschoolers. 

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Does Your Alphabet Chart Need to Be Recalled?

May 13, 2011 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers 21 Comments

This is a repost from June 30, 2010.

I’m issuing my  own product recall on alphabet charts, and yours might be included! 

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It’s First Friday!

March 4, 2011 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills Leave a Comment

Well here it is!  There were so many great questions and so little time!  I’ve supplemented with some links below.  Please add your links and input in the comment section as well!

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Does Your Alphabet Chart Need to Be Recalled?

June 30, 2010 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience 12 Comments

I’m issuing my  own product recall on alphabet charts, and yours might be included! 

[Read more…]

Repost: Push Down and Play Time

March 28, 2010 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 5 Comments

Sorry to be resorting to another repost, but little has gone as planned today……or this week!  Such is life!  We roll with it! 

This originally posted September 5, 2009.

churchAyla87As I began writing this post, it became apparent that I was writing a sermon in two parts.  (Brevity has never really been my strong suit.)  Don’t worry, you don’t need to change into your Sunday best, your pajamas are just fine (you know who you are).  Just get comfortable, I’ve got a lot on my mind.

[Read more…]

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

March 1, 2010 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience, Unit Themes 6 Comments

I have always loved Dr. Seuss!  As a child and even a teenager, I was drawn to the wackiness of his themes and made-up words juxtaposed with the reason of his perfect prose.  As I’ve studied early education and early literacy, I’ve come to love Dr. Seuss even more!  His books are pretty much the best for building phonological awareness, the development of which is critical for reading (read more here).  They not only expose children to rhythm and rhyme in an enchanting, almost intoxicating way, but they also introduce rhyming with invented words, which emphasizes further the importance of sound in rhyming – not meaning.  These “nonsense words” also open the imagination and  creativity of children in a simply magical way.  In my opinion, his work is so critical to a good education, I refer to him as the Shakespeare of childhood!

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I’m Amanda Morgan. Here’s what I’m about…

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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