It's Works for Me Wednesday!
My friend, Sarah, had the great idea to use a classroom wall alphabet as a border in her son's room. I copied the idea from her and used it at eye-level in Jonathan's room. (Thanks, Sarah!) It was an inexpensive way to add color to his room. Since it's a train, he loves it! And, it's one more way to bring the alphabet (and the seeds of literacy) into his life. I find it easier to make conversation with Jonathan about the world around us than to sit down and deliberately teach him something. (Sitting down to learn something is not so easy for him, either!) So, making the alphabet part of everyday life "works for me!" A few days ago, he decided he wanted to tell me all the letters and the pictures that they stand for. And he went through every single letter in the alphabet! He got some of the pictures mixed up, but it was a great opportunity to talk about some of those obscure pictures as well as letter sounds. My favorite one was "Q." "Q is for king and bird!" he said. "Well," I said, "that bird is a special bird called a quail, and a girl-king is called a queen. Q is for queen and quail." And he replied, "That queen is the princess' mommy." I loved that. And I love that he wanted to talk about the alphabet. I've also found that even though we haven't emphasized lower-case letters, he's picking those up along the way, as well. I hope that all the small ways we bring the written word into his life will make learning to read easier for him when the time comes.
Besides our first and favorite way, reading books, here are some other fun ways we've brought the alphabet into everyday life:
Alphabet Train (shown here-find it at your local teacher's store.)
Fridge Phonics and Lowercase Expansion Pack (thanks to Grandma!)
Alphabet Train Floor Puzzle (thanks to Doreen!)
See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle (thanks to Grandpa!)
Alphabake Cookbook and Cookie Cutter Set (we don't have this-but doesn't it look fun?)
Immersing kids in the letters of the alphabet-it Works for Me! What are some of your favorite ways to bring literacy into a young child's life? Leave a comment here to share, or just to let us know you stopped by!
And visit Rocks in My Dryer for more great Works for Me Wednesday tips!
**UPDATED** A reader asked where I got this alphabet. Here it is online from Carson Dellosa, but we found it at the local teacher supply/educational store. There are lots of others to choose from. You could also use a set of bulletin board letters in your child's favorite color(s)!
6 comments:
Love these ideas! My son is 3 and he's really showing an interest in letters now.
We let him watch a PBS Kids show called "Word World" where the charecters build a word. He loves this and it's a great educational show. You should check it out!
What a great idea! I've thought of putting the alphabet up, but never as an eye level room border like that. I think we'll do this, thanks. My son loves trains, too.
Great ideas. Land of Nod has cute alphabet sets that can easily be displayed in a child's room.
I love how you make learning a part of your everyday life.
I have looked at Staples and Wal Mart and the Dollar Store for one of these borders and I can't find one! Arg! Where did you get yours?
Lovely!
Thanks for all the ideas!
You can find out what works for me ::here::
Have a wonderful day!
Thanks for the great ideas. I actually have an alphabet line that I made for my classroom. Each letter is the start of a Bible passage (for example, U..."Unto us a child is born!") I would have never thought to hang it in my girls' room, maybe now some day I will!
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