Lisa's Classroom

Reading Alphabet City

o      Objectives:

-         The children will show interest in the book.

-         The children will answer questions about the book. 

-         The children will recognize that printed materials provide information.

-         The children will identify upper-case letters. 

o       Rationale:

This classroom is very much literacy-oriented, and makes great efforts to work reading and writing into a responsive curriculum.  The class really loves books, so I believe that they will respond positively to exploring this one.  Also, the goals are appropriate for the level the children are at; they know the alphabet, but will have to look at the letters a little differently to recognize them in some of the pictures, which makes reading the book almost game-like.  It also provides opportunity for the children to be able to “read” the book, as there is no text other than the pictures of the letters, which is conducive to engaging readers of all levels.  The reading should also spark a dialogue about the alphabet and provide an opportunity for them to think critically about what letter comes next or what the letter looks like to help them find it in the picture. 

o       Procedure:

-         Following Morning Meeting and Weekend News Journals, the children will return to their seats in the library. 

-         I will introduce the book as being about the alphabet, but explain that the letters in the book are pictures of the letters appearing in a city.  I will tell them that after reading the book, there will be an activity at Exploration Time having to do with the book.

-         I will begin reading the book.  For the first few pages, the dialogue will be asking what the letter is that they see and if they know what the picture is of.  (“What letter is this?”  “E!”  “Do you know what the E is made of?”  “It’s a stop light!”)  I will proceed to bring the book around for all to see as we have such discussions.  After a few letters, questions will also ask them to predict what letter is next. 

-         When the interest fades I will explain that the activity they can choose will be making silly letters.  We will talk about how the letters in the book are in funny or unexpected places, and how some of the kindergarteners like to make silly letters during Handwriting Without Tears.

o       Evaluation:

The activity went as I expected it to.  Though I would have liked the class’s attention to last a little bit longer, I did anticipate that a long literacy meeting was not a reasonable expectation after a writing exercise.  Children were responsive to the book and enjoyed examining the pictures closely; I did need to bring the book around for each child to see the pictures.  They answered my questions about the pictures and were successful in identifying and predicting letters.

In the future, I would select a better meeting time, or would perhaps elect to read the book with a smaller group.  Also, the book could be modified to be a sort of game by asking the children to identify the letters in the pictures out of order. 

All of the objectives I had for the activity were met; the children were all interested in the book and answered my questions correctly.  They could identify the letters in the pictures and understood the information that the book provided. 

Making Silly Letters

o       Objectives:

-         The children will copy of write identifiable letters including those of their own name. 

-         The children will experiment with letters to make them silly or crazy while remaining legible. 

-         The children will enjoy working on writing.

o       Rationale:

This activity gives the children the opportunity to practice writing while also being entertained and creative.  Children are granted a freedom with writing letters that they are not usually granted and hopefully will have some motivation to write.  Because beginning handwriting is a part of the curriculum, this should be an activity that all can participate in.  While Handwriting Without Tears is not necessarily fun for all of the children, this is potentially one modification that will be enjoyable for many of them. 

o       Procedure:

-         I will introduce the activity by explaining that the project will involve making crazy or silly letters at the art studio.

-         I will show the children who select the activity that the larger cards with the letters on the back are for making a silly alphabet for the class, and explain that I would like everyone to make a few of those silly letters. 

-         I will try to get children to start with some of the silly letters of their name, since those are most familiar to them.  After those letters, I will ask them to work on missing letters. 

-         Because this activity will span two days, I will make a second set of large alphabet cards for the second day to get as many children as possible involved in the making of the class alphabet. 

-         I will wrap up this activity by sharing the work that some children did during sharing time, which will also hopefully inspire more children to participate in the activity the following day.  I will also explain that the large cards will be used to make a game that the children will be playing. 

This activity went well.  Sam was one of the first children to try the project.  He had some trouble understanding how to make the letters silly, and his first few attempts made the letters illegible or into other letters (“See? I made this longer on the D to make it silly.” –resulted in D becoming P).  However, with some patience and dialogue he was able to successfully complete his name as well as missing letters, and he mastered the concept of making sure the letter was still intact when he was done.  Brian was chose the activity without being asked, and was prolific in his letter-making, writing not only his name, but several missing letters as well.  Caroline also enjoyed the project; she was eager to share some of her ideas with the others (“Look! I made a diving board r!).  Charlie, who loves making silly letters at HWT, made his easily, and they were mostly made up of faces.  Emily took some coaxing to join, but once she began, made not only her first name but her last as well, plus many other letters.  Robert was very methodical about his process and was careful to ensure that you could still read the letter.  Several others participated as well.

The objectives of the encounter were met; while it took some encouragement to ensure that the letters were legible in some cases, most were able to make the letters without help, and the children fed off of each other’s ideas.  It seemed like all of those who did participate enjoyed it; they were very talkative and enjoyed sharing their processes with one another and with me.

I followed this encounter by making the class alphabet into a Memory game.

Silly Alphabet Memory

-         The children will identify upper case letters.

-         The children will practice memory skills.

o       Rationale:

This experience will grant children some continuity between the projects they will be working on across the week.  Using the silly letter cards from the previous activity, the children will be playing a matching and memory game.  They will recognize some of the cards as their own, and will be naming the letters and talking about them as they search for pairs.  They will also be practicing the memory and strategy skills used in the game.

o       Procedure:

-         I will make a copy of the silly alphabet created by the class in the previous exercise. 

-         I will glue the silly letters to the colored rectangles and cover the rectangles with a laminating sheet.

-         I will make up small “games” with 7 or 8 pairs in each to begin with. 

-         To introduce the activity I will explain that I made a matching game with the silly alphabet that the class created and will be playing with the children who are interested.

-         To play the game, I will put the cards face down on the table.  Everyone will take turns turning over two cards at a time.  If they match, the person keeps the pair.  If they do not match, they are turned back over in their original location. 

-         Play will proceed until all of the matches have been found. 

-         As play proceeds, I will encourage the children to name the letters as they find them.  I will talk with them about who made each letter, why it is silly, whose name begins with or contains that letter, or what sound it makes.

o       Evaluation:

This activity was a great success.  The children were engaged and skilled at the game; they picked it up quickly and really seemed to enjoy playing.  They did like seeing the letters they made as part of the game, and pointed theirs out when they came up or even the ones others had made.  Different situations have occurred when I have played this game with the children; the first time, many were interested, and so one big game was set up (between 6 and 8 children, began with half of the deck).  After the children easily completed one game it was set up again with the whole deck; they enjoyed the challenge and were successful in completing it.  However, I have also played the game in smaller groups on several occasions as well.  In those situations I usually play with about half of the deck, but when playing with more advanced players (Gabby is excellent at this game and beats me on a regular basis) I have used the whole deck. 

The objectives for this activity are readily met each time it is played; the children happily name the letters each time they are selected and enjoy dialogues about them.  They are all competent at playing the game on a basic level; some understand higher-level strategies such as selecting different cards at the beginning of the game to find out where as many letters are as possible; others tend to turn over cards that have already been turned over (Robert and Sam tend to begin in this way; I try to remind them to turn over different cards so we can see what they are).  They have a lot of respect for each other, recognizing that some are more skilled than others with congratulations rather than jealousy.  They also have a beautiful habit of helping each other (“The L is over here!”) rather than getting overly competitive.  Max is a wonderful example of both of these tendencies; while he is not the most expert player, he frequently applauds others with phrases like “Great move!” and always helps by pointing out where cards are rather than finding them himself.

It is easy to adjust the size of the game according to skill level, and part of the game’s fun is it simplicity.  While the game is simple, using their silly letters has really made it something personal to the children that had helped in both making a literacy connection and making the experience enjoyable due to their feelings of investment in it.