Strategies

Suggestions for Enriching the Environment

• Ensure all children accessibility to books and a variety of print materials in the environment (magazines, cereal boxes, posters).
• Keep hard cover board books (which have sturdy cardboard pages) on shelves where children can have easy access.
• Create comfortable, engaging areas outside where children can read, look at books and listen to stories.
• Play a variety of music, including multicultural and children’s songs and taped environmental sounds.
• To develop the skills and strategies of successful readers and stimulate curiosity, provide an environment filled with age appropriate reading materials, including both fiction and nonfiction books, as well as magazines, charts, poems, and other engaging print that reflect the cultures of the children.
• Set up comfortable and inviting spaces in different parts of the classroom for children to be engaged in literacy. For example, a cozy library/book area where reading is enjoyable; a writing area with a variety of paper, pencils, crayons, and markers; a listening area with audio books or stories; a housekeeping area with notepads, pencils and books; and a technology (computer, iPad, iPod), area if available.
• Post songs, poems, a schedule with the daily routine, etc., on charts or large paper using words and symbols and point to the words while singing and reading.
• Provide meaningful print in the environment. Allow children the opportunities to help label meaningful items, storage areas/containers, or designated spaces using pictures, symbols or print. Pictures and names of toys can be kept on shelves to show where they belong. Use children’s names and photos to label their cubbies/personal spaces/pictures, etc
• Add many hands-on materials to various centers throughout the environment; including magnetic letters, alphabet blocks, and materials children can use to form letters such as play dough and pipe cleaners.
• Have sandpaper letters available for children.
• Establish daily routines in which you give simple directions for children to follow. (“First, let’s pick up all the blocks, and then come sit on the rug.”)

Effective Strategies to Support Children’s Development and Learning

• Provide interactive books that allow children to push buttons to hear sounds in the story, and books with textures to feel. Consider adding textures to books such as fuzzy fabric scraps to books about animals
• Give children access to books throughout the day. Provide books that young children can put in their mouths and books with pages that turn easily, such as cloth and board books.
• Include books that show children with disabilities in a natural way as part of the stories and pictures.
• Make available books that reflect sociocultural experiences at home and in communities.
• Provide page-turning devices and book stands to hold books in place for children who need them. These can be purchased or made from household materials.
• Use computers with touch screens and interactive programs and apps, such as “Living Books.”
• Make books using pictures of family members and other familiar objects found in magazines, catalogs, and environmental print (such as pictures from catalog cut-outs and labels from favorite foods). Make books of trips, events you have shared, and children’s art.
• Make stories come alive by using different voices and body movements.
• Ask simple questions and make comments about books to start conversations with children. Talk about similar things that young children may have experienced. (“Do you have a pet?” “What did you see at the zoo?”) Welcome and encourage children’s questions, too!
• Help children tell stories and act out parts of stories they have heard using words, pictures, movement, puppets, and toys.
• Point out words in books and in the environment (street signs, toy boxes, words on pictures in the room).
• Use large print books and big books.
• Provide time in the daily schedule for large and small group activities, and large amounts of time for children to select from a variety of activities at centers or interest areas.
• Involve children in regular story time experiences which include exposure to books, finger plays, poems, songs, rhymes, puppets, dramatic play, repeated readings of familiar text, and acting out familiar stories. Provide children with materials they can use to act out and retell stories (flannel board cutouts, puppets, dolls, props, pictures, etc.).
• Encourage children to read repetitive, familiar parts of stories in simple, predictable books, which have only a few words on each page, like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Ask children to predict what a story might be about after showing them the cover of the book. During the story, occasionally ask them to predict what might come next in the story. Respond to children’s observations about books and answer their questions.
• Talk about the “beginning” and “end” of books, and point out authors and illustrators as children get older. Run your fingers under words as you read them so children can see that reading proceeds from left to right.
• Demonstrate your own enjoyment, interest, and motivation to read in a variety of ways, showing children that reading is fun and useful. Model caring for books and treating them with respect.
• Read high-quality books to individuals and small groups, making sure the books avoid stereotypes and reflect children’s interests, culture and home language.
• Frequently read and sing with books like Mary Had a Little Lamb and The Wheels on the Bus that contain words to songs. Sing the alphabet song while pointing to the letters.
• Engage children in making books that they can read independently. Children can collect pictures of familiar brand names (such as the front of cereal boxes), photos of children in the group with their names, photos of familiar signs, cultural events, etc. These books can be made from photo albums or stiff paper stapled together.
• Talk about some of the interesting words found in books as your read to children to help build their vocabulary. Re-read books multiple times, changing the approach as children become familiar with the book. On occasion, ask question that tap their understanding of why characters are doing things and talk about the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Read a variety of culturally diverse books, poems, and nursery rhymes with children.
• Provide experiences that help children learn new words such as taking field trips and sharing interesting objects.
• Play games that focus on the beginning sounds of words, words that start with the same sounds, as well as words that rhyme.
• Model and promote positive feelings about reading. Allow children to choose books they want to read. After reading, ask them to talk about why they liked the book.
• Encourage volunteers from the community to assist in reading stories to individuals and small groups.
• Create a connection between home and school through such means as developing a takehome book program, sharing books from home, engaging parents in literacy experiences, holding workshops, or creating a newsletter for parents. Make sure you send books home in the family language.
• Include strategies for promoting phonological awareness, print and alphabet knowledge within daily conversation, activities and routines.
• Discuss letter names in the context of daily activities (as opposed to teaching one letter per week) and provide opportunities for children to hear specific letter sounds, particularly beginning sounds.
• Make Venn Diagrams with older preschoolers showing comparisons between 2 characters in a book or between characters or settings in two different books.

Strategies

Suggestions for Enriching the Environment

• Provide many, varied opportunities for very young children to use small motor movements, rotating their wrists, and pincer grasp (with finger and thumb) through exploring and playing with a variety of materials and experiences, including water play, dumping and filling containers, stacking, eating, and grasping.
• Create a writing center/writing area with writing tools such as stamps, paper, envelopes, writing tablets, alphabets, over-sized paper, crayons of various sizes and shapes, and other writing materials. Include note cards with a few common words and pictures to support children’s writing.
• Provide pencils, markers, crayons, paper, chalk, chalkboards, computer keyboards, stencils, and rubber stamps with washable ink in centers/interest areas throughout the room, including the block area, dramatic play area, art area and others.
• Provide centers where children can experiment with writing letters and words in shaving cream, salt, play-dough, etc.
• Occasionally change the dramatic play area into a post office to encourage children to write to parents and other children.
• Provide opportunities for children to explore writing in a variety of materials, such as sand, shaving cream, and paint.
• Label common objects in the room and items children bring from home to share. Make sure that children often see their name in writing, such as on their cubby/personal space and personal belongings.
• Provide adaptive writing tools when needed, such as: • Oversized pencils/crayons/markers or sizes that meet the child’s needs; • Rubber pencil grips that fit over pencils or other adaptations to the writing utensil; • Adapted keyboards, such as IntelliKeys, or voice recognition software.

Effective Strategies to Support Children’s Development and Learning

• Bring books, paper, and writing/drawing tools outside for children to use and enjoy.
• For older toddlers, point out a few familiar letters such as the first letter in a child’s name and call attention to them occasionally. If a child asks for a letter name, provide it. Do not drill children on reciting the alphabet or naming letters.
• Promote literacy-related play activities that reflect children’s interests and sociocultural experiences by supplying materials such as telephone books, recipe cards, shopping lists, greeting cards, and storybooks for use in daily activities.
• Encourage children to re-tell experiences and events that are important to them through pictures and dictation.
• Assist children in making their own books and class books.
• Use different textures of paper to write on, including sand paper and very heavy paper.
• Writing on a slanted surface helps many children; a large binder on a table can create a slanted surface. Easels and writing on paper taped to the wall (vertical surface) are good tools.
• Model writing whenever possible for children, such as during attendance, lunch count, making lists, writing reminders, noting changes on a message Talking board or writing other messages.
• Talk out loud while writing with the children so they can understand the process of writing. Say letters out loud while writing, describe step-by-step while writing for a variety of purposes in classroom routines (name on paper, description of art work, thank-you notes, menus).
• Demonstrate enjoyment, interest, and motivation to write for a variety of reasons, such as making lists or writing a note, showing children that writing is fun and useful.
• Provide dictation opportunities such as “What would you like to say in your card to your mom?” or “Tell me what you like to do outside and I’ll write it down.” Read the writing back to the child to strengthen the connection between the printed and spoken word.
• Offer shared writing experiences to small groups of children, writing down their ideas on a large piece of paper for all to see, with ideas such as, “Let’s make a list of things we saw on our field trip.” Take pictures of the experiences and write captions to go with the pictures or compile pictures to create a book.
• Write songs and poems on charts with the children to share while singing and reading.
• Encourage children to re-tell experiences and events that are important to them through pictures and dictation. Encourage children to share titles, words, sentences, or short stories written to accompany their artwork.
• Give children frequent opportunities to draw, scribble, and print for a variety of purposes.
• Show step-by-step how to form a letter on unlined paper when a child asks.
• Display children’s writing and comment on their successes.
• Discuss letter names in the context of daily activities (as opposed to teaching one letter per week) and provide opportunities for children to hear specific letter sounds, particularly beginning sounds.
• Provide individual dry erase boards and unlined paper for children to write on.
• Provide multiple opportunities for children to experiment writing their name (sign-in list, waiting list, labeling pictures, graphs, etc.).
• Use many concrete, hands-on visual materials when helping children learn new words.
• Encourage children to write without an adult model for a variety of purposes (label their drawings, leave a note to a friend, shopping list, etc.).