For the past five years, I’ve been sharing some of my favorite books along with the perfect gifts to go with them. It really is one of my favorite recipes for gifts for children: 1 great book + 1 fun toy = sure-fire winner with loads of use!
Language for Literacy – The Importance of Building Vocabulary in Preschool
Speak Up! How Words Can Make a Big Difference for Little Kids
The 30 million word gap has become somewhat legendary. But in case you missed the recurrent rumbling, here’s the quick rundown. Back in 1995, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley recorded hours and hours of interactions between parents and children. What they found was startling. By age three, the average child from a family in the professional class heard 30 million more words than did the average child living on welfare. What was perhaps most striking about this research was their finding that there was a tight link between the number of words a child heard and their future academic success. This link was so strong that it appears to exist even when other factors, including socioeconomic factors, were controlled for. In essence, they asserted that closing that word gap could close the achievement gap between the social classes.
Subsequent studies have found that it isn’t just the quantity of words, but the quality of conversation that makes such a big difference for kids. [Read more…]
Diversified Learning: Scrambled Eggs Activity Three Ways
Anyone who has worked in education knows that to be most effective, you need learning activities that can be differentiated to meet a variety of levels and objectives. That’s part of what makes play-based learning so effective — it’s naturally adapted to the needs and objectives of individual learners. I’m always excited when an activity can be tweaked to meet each learners needs, and we happened to have a perfect example pop up at our house recently. (Pardon the cluttered table. Just keepin’ it real, folks!)
The Importance of a Good Foundation
I’m sharing some favorite posts from the past as I spend some extra time with my family after our new addition.
Imagine yourself as a home builder. You’ve acquired new clients who are excited to be building their dream home. You’re excited too. You love watching your hard work create a beautiful, lasting structure. Your clients bring in a file of all the things they want to see in their new home. paint chips, magazine clippings, and carpet samples come pouring out. You start building right away, paying attention to every last detail they spelled out for you. the home is magnificent. Simply beautiful. There’s only one problem. Your clients never mentioned anything about the foundation, so you never put one in. They wanted a house they could see, not yards of concrete buried by dirt.
Inspiration for Summer Reading
Summer is a great time to get lost in a good book. Not only is it an enjoyable and inexpensive way to have an adventure, but reading aloud with your children builds language and literacy skills while building bonds and memories that last. (If you need more reasons for reading together, check out this post from A Mom with a Lesson Plan or this one from Imagination Soup!)
Mind in the Making: Chapter 3
With each chapter, I find myself wondering, “How am I going to whittle down all these things I’ve starred and underlined (and underlined twice) into one concise post?” And then I remind myself that you are hopefully reading along as well, with stars and underlines (and double underlines) as well. I’d love to hear what caught your eye.
The Silliness of Seuss
It’s no secret that I’ve long had a love for all things Seuss. As a child, as a teenager, as a teacher, as a mom. I have just always loved those books! (In fact, here’s a piece of trivia for you. In my high school it was tradition to decorate the top of your cap for gradutaion. My artistic older brother gave me one of the best graduation presents by doing a perfect ink drawing of the Cat in the Hat on mine! So there’s the proof. I’ve always been a Seuss-ophile!)
Speak UP! Why We Should Use Big Words with Little Kids
The following is a repost from July of last year. Also, don’t forget to enter the Literacy Beginnings giveaway. Entries end Tuesday at 11:59pm MST.
Have you ever overheard someone talking to an infant, and they use that high, sing-songy voice? That’s called “parentese” and it’s been shown in research to support language development in infants.
Now, have you ever heard someone use that same voice and watered-down words with a preschooler? That’s called patronizing, and it shows a gross underestimation of a child’s capacity for vocabulary building.
A child between the ages of 2 and 6 has the ability to learn between 6 and 10 words per day(1). That’s up to 70 words a week! But there’s no way a child can reach those kinds of numbers if she isn’t exposed to language in meaningful, interactive ways. [Read more…]
Book Activity: Mouse Paint
I’m sharing a few old favorites while I’m away this week. This one was originally posted January 19, 2010.
Mouse Paint
