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Starfall Education – Learning through educational games

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Starfall Education – Learning through educational games

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This resource is a website that enhances children’s reading and viewing skills through a series of online games and activities. This website encourages children to become intrinsically motivated to learn by exploring through web-based games. This is supported by a research of using web-based games to support early literacy development. It is evident that children demonstrate improvement in their phonemic awareness and letter knowledge through educational games that is intentionally designed to be engaging and repetitive. (Schmitt, Hurwitz, Duel, & Linebarger, 2017)

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Please see Starfall's how-to-teach-reading page, Learn to Read with Phonics, Fluency, and Comprehension, and print the Free Phonics Printouts for children. Starfall™ books, games, movies, and songs follow a research-based method of systematic phonics starting with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Emergent readers gain confidence as they progress to long vowels and other letter-sound relationships such as digraphs.

Brought to you by Zac the Rat™, Peg the Hen™, and Gus the Duck™.
Starfall™ Where Children Have Fun Learning to Read™

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Learn to Read with Phonics | Starfall Education

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Starfall's movies, games, and ebooks create an environment where children have fun as they learn to read. We use a proven sequential phonics method.

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How to Get Toddlers to Sit and Read with You

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How to Get Toddlers to Sit and Read with You

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This resource is a video consisting of techniques to read to young children by engaging with the pictures in the book. Some techniques used are repetition, and through the use of hands and gestures. This relates to viewing, as children learn to comprehend using visual texts, which is supported by a research regarding making meaning through picture books. Children need to study picture books with the guidance of educators. This is supported by Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding, as children ‘construct their own knowledge through interaction with the environment’ (Jacobs, 2001) and it is aligned with the Early Years Development Framework where educators need to build reciprocal relationships with the children in daily activities and through intentional learning. (Early Years Development Framework for Child Care Centres, 2013)

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How to Get Toddlers to Sit and Read with You: Tips from a Speech Therapist

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These resources are designed to help children settle into the classroom environment and will allow them to refresh and develop their communication, language and literacy skills. This resources offers books, guidance plans and session plans for educators to support children’s well-being. This is also aligned with the Early Years Development Framework of educators building secure relationships in the environment through language activities like reading. (Early Years Development Framework for Child Care Centres, 2013) This is also aligned with John Bowlby’s attachment theory where caregivers provide children with secure environment through communication. Reading to children is one of the ways for children to enhance and facilitate communication skills. (Riley, 2010)

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Children will understandably be coming to school or nursery with additional anxieties in the current crisis. These easy-to-deliver resources are designed to help children settle into the nursery and classroom environment and will allow them to refresh and develop their communication, language and literacy skills.

New books such as While We Can't Hug by Eoin McLaughlin and Polly Dunbar, published by Faber and Faber, can help children understand the changes that are happening all around them. Listen to Eoin introduce the book and read the story.

Some children and families will choose to remain at home while settings re-open. We offer guidance for hosting Facebook Live activity sessions with your families so that you can still support parents and children virtually during these challenging times.

The resources include:

A list of books to support children's mental wellbeing.

A session plan linked to Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival to help children share their feelings and feel a sense of belonging in the new environment (can be used for nursery, reception and Year 1).

Guidance and session plans for hosting virtual meet-ups with families using Facebook Live.

The resources support:

Communication and language.

Wellbeing.

Partnership with parents.

We will continue to update this page with relevant and useful resources. Please email earlyyears@literacytrust.org.uk with any particular requests or suggestions.

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Back to nursery and reception: wellbeing resources | National Literacy Trust

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Children will understandably be coming to school or nursery with additional anxieties in the current crisis. These easy-to-deliver resources are designed to help children settle into the nursery and classroom environment and will allow them to refresh and develop their communication, language and literacy skills.

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This resource is an educational online game website that boosts children reading abilities through letter recognition and comprehension activities. These games are designed to help children begin a lifelong love for reading. This resource could be used for teachers in the classroom. This research shows that teachers’ pedagogical knowledge increases when use games and technology as a teaching tool. When teachers react positively to the use of technology, there would be more learning opportunities. (Hsu, Liang, Chai, & Tsai, 2013)

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Try these preschool reading games from the online learning system, Brainzy. From alphabet practice to interactive storybooks, we've got games that make learning fun.

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This resource is an educational website which provides tips that links print awareness to oral language. It provides examples of how to introduced books to young children. It can be beneficial for teachers and parents who are guiding early emergent readers to recognize the relationship between written language and oral language. As child’s learning is being scaffolded through adults providing children support learning something new, children will have a better understanding of the different concepts on print awareness supported by Vygotsky’s theory of Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding . (Mercer and Fisher, 1993, as cited in Shabani, Khatib, Ebadi, 2010)

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What Is Print Awareness?

A child who has print awareness understands that print represents words that have meaning and are related to spoken language.

Kids who have print awareness are able to do things like hold a book correctly and understand that books are read from front to back. They also realize that sentences are read from left to right.

Print awareness is one of five critical pre-reading skills. Without print awareness, children are unable to develop other literacy skills such as reading, spelling, and handwriting.

How Print Awareness Develops

Kids who are read to on a regular basis naturally pick up many of the skills by following the examples of the people around them.

A child's print awareness develops when those close to him point out letters and words in text found in the child's environment. It also develops through playing word games, when you turn the pages of a book, and when you run your finger under a line of text as you read.

Quick Check for Print Awareness

Here are five signs that indicate that your child has print awareness.

Your child knows how to hold a book correctly. If you hand your child a book upside down, he will turn it right side up before looking through it.

Your child understands that books are read from front to back and from left to right and knows how to turn the pages in the correct direction.

Your child pretends to write by scribbling or writing marks on paper. He understands that the "words" he is writing communicate meaning.

Your child points to text and asks what it says. He has become curious about the meaning of the printed text he sees all around him.

Your child picks up a familiar book and "reads" it aloud. He understands that the printed words are connected to the story.

5 Fun Ways to Develop Print Awareness

The best way to develop print awareness is through a variety of print-rich experiences. Here are five engaging activities to enjoy with your child.

Teach the Alphabet

Teach your child to recognize the letters of the alphabet through the activities in this blog post. You'll find ABC Playdough Mats, ABC Bracelets, Tactile Letter Cards, and more.

Tell a Story

Have your child tell you a story. If your child needs a prompt, wordless picture books are great for this! Write it down on paper for her to illustrate.

Make a Sign

Help your child create signs for the doors in the house, such as "Welcome to Lexi's room," "Bathroom," "Mom and Dad's Room," or "The Kitchen Is Open."

Read the Mail

When the mail is delivered each day, have your child help you sort it according to which family member's name is on the label. If interesting cards, ads, or magazines arrive, read parts of them aloud.

Read Aloud

Read lots of picture books aloud to your child. Read reviews of fantastic picture books to share together, or download our extensive list. As you read to your child:

Mention the parts of a book as you read. "Look at this cover! This book must be about elephants!" "The End...that's the last page of the book."

Have your child help you turn the pages.

Model that we read from left to right by occasionally running your finger under the text as you read.

Ask your child to point to the first word on the page.

Occasionally point out periods and exclamation points.

Print Awareness Is One of the Big Five Skills

Print awareness is one of the five critical skills for reading readiness that we call the " Big Five Skills." The other four skills are:

If you're ready to tackle the rest of the Big Five Skills, be sure to check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Your student will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love the way your student effortlessly learns essential pre-reading skills.

Do you have any questions about print awareness? Post in the comments below!

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How to Develop Print Awareness (FREE Quick Guide)

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A child who has print awareness understands that print represents words that have meaning and are related to spoken language. Kids who have print awareness are able to do things like hold a book correctly and understand that books are read from front to back.

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This resource contains visual supports to communicate with people on the autism spectrum. These visual supports could be used in most settings as they help to make communication physical and consistent. This relates to visual literacy and is supported by research that states the need for inclusivity in the classroom by providing support for neurodiversity. Using picture cues is one of the ways to teach challenging situations that a child may face. (Sigmon, Tackett, & Azano, 2016) This is also aligned with the Ministry of Education Curriculum Guide, which mentions the ‘use of visual cues to make sense of print in the environment’. (Ministry of Education, 2013)

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Visual supports can be used to communicate with people on the autism spectrum. They are adaptable, portable and can be used in most situations.

Visual supports can help to provide structure and routine, encourage independence, build confidence, improve understanding, avoid frustration and anxiety, and provide opportunities to interact with others. They can make communication physical and consistent, rather than fleeting and inconsistent like spoken words can be.

Find out about the different types and uses of visual supports and where to find resources. See some examples and read our top tips.

Types of visual support

A wide range of items can be used as visual supports. For example:

tactile symbols/objects of reference, eg swimming trunks, packaging, food labels

photographs

short videos

miniatures of real objects

coloured pictures

plain squares of coloured card

line drawings

symbols

written words.

These can be real objects, printed images, or on a smartphone, tablet or computer.

Uses of visual supports

Visual supports can be used in a range of ways, eg:

as a single message, eg the person takes a yellow card from their pocket when they need to go to the toilet, or a puts purple card on the board when they're feeling stressed

in combination to create a daily timetable, schedule, sequence or reward chart

to make a choice, eg the person can put the trampolining symbol in the 'afternoon' area of the board

to illustrate a social story or comic strip conversation.

Examples of visual supports

Top tips

Make visual supports portable, durable, easy to find, personalised and consistent.

Portable

Make the visual supports portable by:

using a visual supports app on the person's tablet

storing photos and pictures on the person's smartphone

putting symbols, pictures and schedules in a folder for the person to carry with them.

Durable

Laminate printed visual supports.

Back up any app, photos and pictures you use on a smartphone, tablet or computer.

Easy to find

Ensure that visual supports are easy to find, for example by:

placing them in prominent places at eye level

putting them on an actual object

putting a single symbol in the person's pocket

distributing them throughout particular environments, eg objects and areas in the classroom and at home could be labelled

putting a shortcut to them from a tablet home screen

attaching symbols to boards so that people know where to go to look at them - you could also use Velcro strips to attach symbols to a board, meaning schedules can be easily altered, eg activities removed once completed.

Personalised

Visual supports are very personal and what works for one person may not work for another. Use the person's special interest, eg a visual timetable could be made in the shape of a rocket.

Remember that some autistic people have difficulties generalising, eg they may not realise that a Hula Hoop packet symbolises all crisps.

It can sometimes be helpful to use more than one type of visual support, but always introduce visual supports gradually. Start off with one symbol and then build up a collection.

Consistent

If using pictures, once you choose a type or style (for example, line drawings), use it consistently. Ask family members, friends, teachers or support workers to use the same visual supports consistently.

Find resources

You can make, download or buy printed pictures, or you can use an app.

ASD Visual Aids

Autism app reviews

Books Beyond Words story app

Colour coding for learners with autism, Adele Devine

Colourful semantics
Tom Tag versatile picture schedules
Microsoft Word

PECS - Picture Exchange Communication System

Symbol world

The Internet Picture Dictionary

Therapy box

Tom Orr Accessibility by Design

Visual Autism Resources

Widget Health
The Play Doctors
More information
Communication tips
Research Autism's evaluation of PECS

Social stories and comic strip conversations

Using technology

Visual supports for people with autism: a guide for parents and professionals, Marlene Cohen and Peter Gerhardt, 2016

Last reviewed June 2019

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Visual supports can be used to communicate with people on the autism spectrum. They are adaptable, portable and can be used in most situations. Visual supports can help to provide structure and routine, encourage independence, build confidence, improve understanding, avoid frustration and anxiety, and provide opportunities to interact with others.

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This resource offers opportunity for children to observe literacy behaviour through the four process of seeing adults demonstrating reading to them, then allowing children to collaborate with the adult who is interacting followed by children practicing reading on their own and child shares what has been learnt to the adult who has been guiding along,  and this relates to listening, which is supported by theory of development by Holdaway where the method of teaching is designed to promote developmental literacy learning through observing and listening to books that adults read to them (Holaway, 1982) .

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Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression. The shared reading model often uses oversized books (referred to as big books) with enlarged print and illustrations.

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Shared Reading | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression.

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This resource is a video of an activity where children in small groups match images of objects that rhymes to develop phonological awareness which relates to children listening to the rhyming sound produced by the image. This is supported by Chall’s stages of reading development where it is concluded that phonological awareness, word analysis, decoding and sound/symbol relationship is essential in beginning to learn to read and at this prereading stage, children begin to realise that words are made up of sounds, and that these words have same beginning and ending sounds (Chall, Resnick, & Weaver 1979).

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Match the Rhyming Objects!: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness

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This resource is an e-book comprising of a story on cultural diversity. This book is focused on encouraging respect for cultural diversity in the early preschool settings. This relates to viewing as it tells the story of children examining similarities and differences. This is supported by a research that states that children who are exposed to reading multi-cultural books are being empowered to be inquisitive regarding cultural diversity. (Kim, 2016) This is also aligned with Yenawine’s thoughts on image selection, as she mentioned that by providing diverse visuals, early viewers ‘become aware of subjects, values, and appearances beyond the viewer's own experience’. (Yenawine, 2003)

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All My Friends
and Me

Building belonging: A toolkit for early childhood educators on
cultural diversity and responding to prejudice (2016)

My name is Pax. These are my friends.
We meet here in preschool where the fun never ends!

We talk and we play and we soon realise,
We have lots in common, just look inside...

Eyes brown like chocolate,
Eyes blue like the sky,

But we both like to tuck into yummy stir-fry!
We slurp all the noodles and munch every pea.
Eating together, Fergus and me.

Tall like a giraffe,
Small like a mouse,

But we both have a brother crawling around our house!
We're on the same branch of our family tree.
Big sisters together, Ling and me.

Skin tanned like caramel,
Skin brown like cocoa,

But we're both experts when it comes to play dough!
We make cups and saucers and share morning tea.
Playing together, Kojo and me.

Hair straight like an arrow,
Hair curly like a spring,

But we both love to dance and we both love to sing!
We make up new songs and we toot them with glee.
Singing together, Merindah and me.

Clothes long and colourful,
Clothes short and bold,

But we both like to dress up and see stories unfold!
Doctors or pilots or lifeguards by the sea,
Pretending together, Parima and me.

So no matter the colour of your skin, hair or eyes.
We're all very similar when you look inside.

Come rain or shine,
no matter the weather,
My friends and I are happiest
when we are together!

The End

Building belonging: A toolkit for early childhood educators
on cultural diversity and responding to prejudice (2016)

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All My Friendsand Me Building belonging: A toolkit for early childhood educators oncultural diversity and responding to prejudice (2016) My name is Pax. These are my friends. We meet here in preschool where the fun never ends! We talk and we play and we soon realise,We have lots in common, just look inside...

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This resource consists of an example of questioning techniques that could be used when reading books with young children. This relates to visual literacy, where children enhance their skills by comprehending the story and concepts in the book. In this video, the parent does not immediately correct the child, but gently models the correct answer. This is supported by the State Government of Victoria where children make meaning of visual texts through examining the image. (Victoria State Government, 2018)

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Continuing the conversation after you have read helps to strengthen their understanding of the story and maximize their oral learning experience. By making reading time "conversation" time, both you and your children will enjoy the experience more.

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Continuing the conversation after you have read helps to strengthen their understanding of the story and maximize their oral learning experience. By making reading time "conversation" time, both you and your children will enjoy the experience more.

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The Dialogic Reading Method from Read Together, Talk Together 

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The Dialogic Reading Method from Read Together, Talk Together 

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This resource consists of dialogic reading strategies for educators to use to guide children to be effective communicators. This relates to viewing, as children make sense of the pictures in the book as they respond to questions. This is supported by the Ministry of Education Curriculum Guide where educators encourage children to talk about what is happening in the picture through prompts. (Ministry of Education, 2013) This is also beneficial to children as when dialogic reading is being used in classrooms, children become confident learners as they increase vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. (Stricklin, 2011)

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This resource is a video consisting of storytelling techniques that could engage young children. This relates to understanding texts. Some of the storytelling techniques are reading aloud, dramatisation and through the use of props. This relates to The Early Years Framework for Australia, where educators provide opportunities to make meaning from texts by ‘chanting rhymes, jingles and songs’ and also engage with texts and pictures. (Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2019)

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Reading to Children - Tips & Techniques - "Itchy Bear" Neil Griffiths - ELC

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Audio books in classroom to boost literacy development

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Audio books in classroom to boost literacy development

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This resource contains ideas for teachers to use audio books in class to develop children’s literacy development. This relates to element of listening which allow children to hear fluent reading and listen to what reading should sound like with proper pacing and intonations of reading and how punctuation should be read through the audio book. This provides children an important introduction to listening- a skill that is required in order to learn to read and enable them to transfer that knowledge to their own reading. This is supported in literature that audio books expand the ways in which children can experience literature followed by developing the literacy development ( Fellowes & Oakley, 2020).

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Thirty second graders are sitting at their desks, entranced. The classroom lights are dimmed and the only sound is a suspenseful voice coming over a pair of speakers. The students are listening to the audio version of Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series, part of a special tradition in Brown's classroom. Every day after recess, Brown's students spend ten minutes listening to a shared audiobook and then discussing what they heard as a class.

Brown says that it's one of her favorite moments of the teaching day, and her students love it, too. While a few of them could read Buckley's series on their own, most aren't ready for it as independent readers. Yet the audiobooks allow everyone to participate in the experience, enjoying Buckley's vivid characters, challenging vocabulary and rich, imaginative world.

Exposing all students to complicated storytelling, no matter their reading level, is just one benefit of using audiobooks in the classroom. But the research shows there are many other advantages too, including an increase in reading comprehension, motivation and self-confidence.

That's why we've gathered 10 teacher-tested ideas for using audiobooks in the classroom, from ways to help your struggling readers to strategies for gifted learners and students with special needs. Read on to discover how you can use this assistive technology to help all kids fall in love with reading.

1. Model Joyful, Fluent Reading

Whether it's Stockard Channing reading the Ramona books or Tim Curry narrating A Series of Unfortunate Events, part of the fun of listening to a story is the wonder and magic the reader brings to the performance. Stories come to life when read aloud, and as listeners we can see the characters and situations in new ways. You can describe fluency all you want, but nothing illustrates the concept more vividly than the animation a professional narrator brings to an audio recording.

"My class was so tickled by the audio version of James and the Giant Peach that I challenged them to create their own 'audiobooks' based on reading fluency, expression, and vocal emotion," says Molly Jane Rosen, a fifth grade teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. After "grading" the professional recording using a fluency rubric, Rosen's students went onto stage their own versions of the story. "They had a blast making their voices excited, neurotic, British, hopeful and all the myriad emotions only Roald Dahl can inspire," says Rosen.

Audiobook Teaching tip: Have students evaluate a professional audio recording based on reading fluency, expression, and emotion. Then challenge students to employ the same criteria as they read aloud themselves.

2. Hook Readers

You don't have to listen to an entire recording to reap the benefits of audiobooks in the classroom. Just a few minutes is often enough to introduce students to a new genre, author or literary technique, says Florida high school teacher Margaret Briskey. "When my students listen to an audiobook as a class, we do so in a variety of ways," says Briskey. "Sometimes we listen only long enough to get 'hooked' on a story, sometimes we listen to select parts to heighten the suspense or read with a fluency the students don't have, sometimes to get us through difficult pronunciations of unfamiliar words."

From there, students can engage with the print version of the text or continue listening on their own. "When I have hooked a new listener I may loan him or her one of my iPods with the full audiobook loaded," says Briskey. "I love when I am asked if I have any more 'like that one.'"

Teaching tip: Try playing an audiobook clip from the middle rather than the beginning of a story. The heightened drama and excitement may inspire students to pick up the book on their own.

3. Differentiate using audiobooks in the classroom

When you have to reach 30 different readers with 30 different learning styles and capabilities, audiobooks can help you bridge the gap and keep students engaged in meaningful literacy activities. For example, fifth grade teacher Ashley Naul uses audiobooks to make literature circles work in her classroom. "While students do some reading aloud within their circles," Naul says, "they also rotate to listening centers when I cannot join them for that class period. During this time, they listen to an audio version of the book. I don't have to worry about confusion, off-task behavior or mispronunciation."

Naul also uses audiobooks in the classroom to help catch up students who are absent due to illness, and to challenge her advance learners who may be ready for a new book sooner than their classmates.

Teaching tip: Set up a listening station in your classroom that contains tablets, computers or other playback devices, headphones and audiobooks. Post a list of instructions at the station so that students can easily begin work without your support.

4. Strengthen the School-Home Connection

Listening to an audiobook as a family can be a powerful shared experience, especially for students who don't necessarily come from a print-rich environment. The recording can serve as a model for reading aloud for parents and offer opportunities for discussion and reflection as family.

Teaching tip: Try sending home an audiobook loaded on an iPod or a Kindle, with discussion questions and a journal for reflection, suggests first grade teacher Carmela Annicchiarico. The next day, invite the student to sit in a special spot and share his or her journal entry with the class.

5. Focus on a Literary Device

Whether you're teaching personification, onomatopoeia, metaphor or hyperbole, listening to several audio clips that contain the device can often help students understand the concept quicker than reading it in print. Try playing three to five clips at the beginning of a lesson and challenging students to identify what the snippets have in common. Alternatively, once students have learned about a given literary term, you might ask them to journal each time it occurs in an audio recording.

Teaching tip: When students are giving oral book reports, ask them to play a favorite clip from the audio recording, then describe the literary techniques that makes the passage so effective.

6. Use Audiobooks in the Classroom to Engage With Nonfiction

With the Common Core's increased emphasis on nonfiction, many teachers are looking for ways to integrate more informational text into the curriculum. Listening to nonfiction on audio can be a great way to pique the interest of students who may not be as familiar with biographies, science and history books as they are with novels and poetry. Playing audiobooks in the classroom can also help you illustrate key characteristics of nonfiction, such as the use of relevant details and domain-specific vocabulary. Sometimes hearing the concept can make it click better than seeing it in print.

Teaching tip: Look for nonfiction with vivid language and storytelling, such as Jim Murphy's An American Plague or Tanya Lee Stone's Almost Astronauts.

7. Use Audiobooks to Compare Versions of the Same Story

In addition to the greater importance placed on nonfiction, the Common Core also calls for students in middle school and above to "compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama or poem to viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text." In other words, under the new standards, students need to be able to analyze the similarities and differences between a printed text and a performed version of the same story.

With audiobooks in particular, you might ask students how the narrator's tone, pace and inflection affect the interpretation of a story's characters, settings and events (e.g., Does the protagonist in the audio recording sound like students imagined? Why or why not?).

Teaching tip: Take the comparison a step further by analyzing two audio recordings of the same book read by different narrators (for example, Roald Dahl's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory compared to Douglas Hodge's).

8. Use Audiobooks to Serve Students with Special Needs

Audiobooks in the classroom can be the way into reading for students with a number of special needs, including vision impairments, sensory integration issues and learning delays. As middle school special education teacher Maggie Johanson puts it, "Audiobooks increase students' comprehension skills as well as allow them to feel accomplished and talk about books that their friends are reading. This sense of accomplishment paired with a quality, engaging audiobook can instill the desire and love for reading in students that will last a lifetime!"

If you teach in an inclusion setting, you can have students with special needs listen along to the book that the rest of the class is reading in print. Or you can try assigning texts based on students' reading levels-remembering that students listening comprehension is often beyond what they understand in print.

Teaching tip: Choosing a device for students with special needs can be just as important as delivering the right content. Some students may prefer listening to an audiobook on tablet, while others may prefer a smartphone, CD player, or special playback unit.

9. Use Audiobooks in the Classroom as an Incentive

It sounds simple, but the opportunity to listen to audiobooks in the classroom can be a powerful motivator for students, says Felicity Steers, a second grade teacher in Idaho. Steers likes to offer audiobooks as an option during free choice time, and she reports that it's "always one of the first choices that gets snatched up!" To make it even more engaging, Steers allows students to listen in groups of up to three students. The result? Students "view reading as a fun and social event."

Teaching tip: Rather than offer stickers or prizes to students who reach literacy milestones or goals, make reading its own reward by inviting students to spend classroom time listening to a favorite audiobook.

10. Invite Students to Record Their Own Audiobooks

Listening to great stories and reading aloud go hand in hand, so after your students have become familiar with a professional audiobook, challenge them to make their own versions of the same story. Second grade teacher Bernadine Lormilus recommends using an iPod or smartphone as a simple recording device, or alternatively a program such as iMovie to capture a full-blown filmed version of the tale. "My students love hearing themselves," Lormilus says, "and they can judge whether or not they were reading fluently."

Indeed, making your own audiobooks helps to close the circle of fluency and comprehension, developing students' understanding that stories are both an art form and a means of communication.

Teaching tip: Make sure to share your personal audiobooks with students' families, your school community or online. Spread the joy of listening to a terrific story being read aloud!
Audiobooks are a great tool for teachers to relax with too! Check out our favorite list here.

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10 Ways to Boost Literacy Using Audiobooks in the Classroom

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Thirty second graders are sitting at their desks, entranced. The classroom lights are dimmed and the only sound is a suspenseful voice coming over a pair of speakers. The students are listening to the audio version of Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series, part of a special tradition in Brown's classroom.

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Book reading - exploring reading through different types of books

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Book reading - exploring reading through different types of books

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This resource is a website on the different types of books for young children. The variety contains books that are for different types of learners, the tactile, auditory, visual and verbal. It is important that different types of books are introduced to the children to find out their interests and which helps them to understand the concept of reading better. Children use information in context from pictures and other sources to assist in making meaning. Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) (The Department of Education and Training (Victoria) and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority , 2016)  states it is important to also take into consideration children’s interests and topics closely related to them. Through a variety of book children will also understand the concept of printed words, reading from left to right and top to bottom.

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Making meaning through print-rich environment

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Making meaning through print-rich environment

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This resource shows an example of print-rich environment in which children are exposed to labels of the different things available in the classroom, their artworks with mark-makings, words or even sentences and even displays of books on topics of interests or related to lessons. This will be beneficial for children to make sense of the world around them and learnt to read. It is important that the classroom environment helps extend children’s learning and environment as third teacher as supported by Reggio Emilia (Tarr, 2002, 2004 as cited in Teresa & Julia, 2007)

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Creating a Literacy Rich Environment | Reggio inspired classrooms, Fairy dust teaching, Preschool literacy centers

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Oct 21, 2016 - Creating a literacy rich environment can be a teacher's strongest tool that sets the stage for student success all year long. What is a literacy rich environment? An environment where children are exposed to and offered multiple ways to interact with: letters, books, environmental print, and writing materials. Letters …

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This resource is a website providing a list of songs that helps guide children to learn phonological awareness through songs. Teachers and parents can use it to guide children in learning about vowels, rhymes, word family, word recognition, segmenting, blending and manipulation of phonemes and syllables. Through these songs, children can also learn to read firstly by learning the different speech sounds. This is supported by a research done by on “The Effect of Using Songs On Young Learners and Their Motivation for Learning English” (Džanić & Pejić, 2016)  Furthermore children can are also able to learn on their own by listening and observing the different sounds in the songs, which helps them when they read where they have gained a wider and familiar vocabulary from the song. In this sense, young children are acknowledged as “competent, active agents of their own conceptual development”. (Bruner, 1972, 1981a, b; Carey and Gelman, 1991; Gardner, 1991; Gelman and Brown, 1986; Wellman and Gelman, 1992).

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These phonemic awareness songs are available from a variety of albums:

Concepts of Words and Syllables
Animal Hand-Clap Rap - Liz Buchanan
The Apes, The Monkeys and The Chimpanzees - Vincent Nunes
A Vowel Sound in Every Syllable - Jennifer Fixman
Chickadee And Chipmunk - Hap Palmer
Clap, Stomp & Chomp (Syllable Song) - Jack Hartmann
Clap Our Syllables - Jack Hartmann
Count and Move - Jack Hartmann
Face to Face - Fran Avni
Names in Motion - Jack Hartmann
Just One Word - Fran Avni
Sports Syllable Song - Jack Hartmann
Syllables - Stephen Fite
Syllable Song - Fran Avni and Nancy Schimmel
Words - Danny Weinkauf

Recognition and Production of Rhymes
Betty Spaghetti - Kymberly Stewart
Build a Word - Jennifer Fixman Rhyme Time - Fran Avni
Do's and Don'ts - Fran Avni
Exercise When We Rhyme - Jack Hartmann
From Here To There - Margot Bevington
Funny Rhymes (Long Vowels) - Ron Brown
Going Down the Road - Little Miss Ann
Good for You - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avni
I Gave That Bear A Rocking Chair - Vincent Nunes
Make a Rhyme, Make a Move - Jack Hartmann
Name Game - Fran Avni
Over the Deep Blue Sea - Susan Salidor
Random Rhymes - Fran Avni
Rap, Clap and Rhyme - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme and Dance - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme and Move - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme Riddles - Marla Lewis

Rhyming Square Dance - Music with Mar.
Rise & Rhyme - Culture Queen
Say the Number - Stephen Fite
Stop When It Doesn't Rhyme - Music with Mar.
Time to Rhyme - Johnny and the Raindrops
Workout When We Rhyme - Jack Hartmann

Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia - Stephen Fite
Onomatopoeia Alphabet - Jack Hartmann

Word Families -- Phonograms -- Onsets and Rimes
All Together - Jack Hartmann
Beginning Sounds Workout - Jack Hartmann
Bop 'Til We Drop (OP Word Family)- Hap Palmer
Bounce - Hap Palmer
D-O-G: Walking the Dog (OG Word Family) - Hap Palmer
Exercise to Onsets & Rimes - Jack Hartmann
Family of Words - Jack Hartmann
Let's Make Words - Jack Hartmann
Let's Rhyme with the Animals - Ron Brown
My Playful Pig (-ig Word Family)- Hap Palmer
My Ramblin' Cat (-at Word Family)- Hap Palmer
The Name Game - Jack Hartmann
One Little Word - Hap Palmer
Phon-ercise - Dr. Jean
Random Rhymes - Fran Avni
Rime Time - Dr. Jean
Rug in the Middle of the Room - Fran Avni
Word Families - Liz Buchanan
The Word Family - Dr. Jean
The Word Family Song - J.W. Snyder
Word Family Workout - Jack Hartmann
Word Play - Jack Hartmann
Words! - Ron Brown

Recognition, Segmenting, Blending, and Manipulation of
Phonemes and Syllables
AI-AY - Ron Brown
(AR) Bossy R - Ron Brown
AW - Ron Brown
Apples and Bananas - Traditional
Bb - Greg Whitfield
Beginning and Ending Sounds - Jennifer Fixman
Beginning Blends - Jennifer Fixman
Bitty Bi Bo Bu - Dr. Jean
Change It! - Music with Mar.
Chunk It - Jack Hartmann
Compound Word Wiz - Jennifer Fixman
Compound Words - Mr. R's Songs That Teach
Compound Word Workout - Jack Hartmann
Digraph Dance - Jack Hartmann
Down by the Track (Segmentation of Phonemes) - Nancy Schimmel / Fran Avni
Drop It! (Phoneme Deletion) - Fran Avni
EE - Ron Brown
ER-IR-UR - Ron Brown
Echo Game - Ron Brown
Echo the Letter Sounds - Jack Hartmann
Eemo Imo - Skip West
Fiddle Around with the Middle Sound (Phoneme Substitution) - Fran Avni
Hat and Cat - Fran Avni
IGH - Ron Brown
_ight - Jennifer Fixman
I Lost a Sound (Deletion of Phonemes) - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avni
ING - Ron Brown
Letter Blender - ABC's & Much More
Letter Sounds A to Z - Jack Hartmann
Miguel the Magic Monkey (Beginning Sounds) - Jack Hartmann
OA - Ron Brown
OI-OY - Ron Brown
Old MacDonald's Blend Farm - Stephen Fite
On Your Lap (Phoneme Addition and Blending) - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avn
Pp - Greg Whitfield
Phoneme Deletion Freeze - Jack Hartmann
Phonogram Funk - Jennifer Fixman
Pineapple - Fran Avni
The Secret Word - Hap Palmer
SH - Ron Brown
Sing an Echo Song - Margie La Bella
Syllable Song - Fran Avni and Nancy Schimmel
TH - Ron Brown
Take a Word Apart - Fran Avni
Tell Me All The Sounds - Liz Buchanan
There's a Starfish Hidden Under My Bed - Fran Avni
Tongue Twister - Fran Avni
The Tongue Twister Song - The W.L.A. Children's Choir
Tongue Twisters - Jack Hartmann
Tooty Ta - Dr. Jean
Tooty Ta (open version) - Dr. Jean
Topsy Turvy (Phoneme Manipulation) - Fran Avni
Two Little Sounds- Hap Palmer
Who Knows the Alphabet Sounds? - ABC's & Much More

Book suggestions:

See more of our Language Arts & Reading Skills Song Lyrics

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That Build Phonological Awareness (Including Phonemic Awareness)

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Children's Songs and Educational Music for preschool, elementary, middle and high school. Lyrics, mp3 downloads, DVDs and CDs.

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This resource is  a website of the different games available for children to learn decoding words. Decoding words help children decipher and make up the words they are reading. Successful decoding helps children make connections to similar words and understand the context of the sentence better.  (Perfetti, 2010) Decoding is also the base of other reading  practices, mainly fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

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When little ones start learning to read, one of the important skills they'll need to develop is decoding. But what is decoding, and how do you teach it? Read on to learn all about decoding strategies and get lots of teaching activities.

What is decoding?

Put simply, decoding is the ability to sound out letters and understand the words they make up. A new reader needs to recognize each letter, determine the sound it makes, then put all those sounds together smoothly to say and recognize the word. The process goes slowly at first, but as kids build their skills, decoding becomes automatic, leading to reading fluency.

The theory of the science of reading puts it like this: Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC) = Reading Comprehension (RC). When you learn about decoding, you'll hear some common phrases like phonics, phonemic awareness, phonemes, segmenting, and blending. You may also encounter concepts like symbol imagery and concept imagery, since connecting mental images with letters and words helps students retain information.

All of these skills work together to create confident readers, and kids can practice them using these decoding strategies and activities. ( Learn about finding good decodable texts for reading practice here.)

1. Have fun with phonics

Phonics is a key part of decoding, and there are so many fun activities kids can do to learn diagraphs, phonemes, and other letter sounds and blends. Check out our full list here for lots of phonics fun!

2. Hang a decoding poster

Our free printable poster has a variety of decoding strategies all in one place. Hang it in your classroom, or pass out copies to students to take home as reminders when they're reading with their families.

Get it: Decoding Strategies Poster

3. Play hide-and-seek with words

For younger kids, place a letter manipulative into a covered box, and ask them to reach in and feel the letter. Based on what they feel, what letter do they think it is? For older kids, lay out an entire word in the box, and see if students can reach in and "feel" out the word.

4. Draw your words

People remember pictures. When you're introducing new words to students, ask them to draw an image that has meaning to them that goes with the word they're learning. Even creating an image in their head has benefit, but asking them to draw an image around a word on paper can be more fun-and more valuable.

5. Twist pool noodle letters

These pool noodle letter beads are so much fun, and they're so easy to make! Slide them onto a tube of construction paper, then twist and turn them to form new words. Have students name each letter and sound it out with the beads spaced apart, then push them together and say the entire word.

Learn more: Use Pool Noodles To Teach Phonics

6. Slide beads to practice segmenting

Bead slides are popular decoding strategies because they're easy to make and simple to use. As a student says a word out loud, they slide a bead along for each syllable. This helps them segment words, breaking them down into more manageable parts.

Learn more: Marvelous Multiagers

7. Write in shaving cream

Here's another classic decoding activity: shaving cream writing! Spread the shaving cream on desks (they'll be squeaky clean afterward!), trays, or even windows. Then have kids write letters and words, sounding them out as they go.

Learn more: Gift of Curiosity

8. Take a mind picture

Show students a letter card and have them say it out loud, along with the sound it makes. Then, have them trace the letter with their finger. Finally, ask them to "take a picture of it" in their minds, and take the card away. Now ask them to write the letter themselves, either on paper or in the air (see below).

Get it: Printable Alphabet Cards at Prekinders

9. Write in the air

Writing letters in the air helps kids learn to "image," or see, the letter in their heads. The experts at Lindamood-Bell recommend doing air-writing in lowercase letters, since that's what we see most often when we read. Their research indicates that developing symbol imagery by writing in the air is more productive than writing on a piece of paper.

Learn more: First Grade Smiles

10. Blend with musical plates

Write word endings on paper plates and lay them out in a circle. Then, give each kid a card with a word-starting blend written on it. Start up the music, and let kids dance around the circle until it stops. When it does, they match up their card with the plate in front of them, and sound it out to see if they've made a real word. If not, they're out, and the game continues until you have one winner. (Unlike musical chairs, don't remove plates after each round.)

Learn more: Cara Carroll

11. Read left to right

Use classic stoplight colors to help students remember to read letters from left to right. It seems like a simple concept to experienced readers, but it's harder for some students to master than others.

Learn more: The Literacy Nest

12. Flip the vowels

One of the trickier parts of decoding is understanding that vowels can make different sounds, depending on the word. Practice the concept by "flipping" the vowel sounds from long to short and then seeing how the word changes. Then when kids are reading new words, they can try both vowel sounds and see which makes more sense.

Learn more: Finally in First

13. Meet the Chunky Monkey

"Chunking" words breaks them into parts kids already know or find easier to sound out. This cute song to the tune of Yankee Doodle can remind students of this strategy.

Learn more: Tejada's Tots

14. Put together word puzzles

Breaking words into smaller chunks is the first step. After that, kids have to be able to put them back together to form the whole word. Simple puzzles like these help them visualize both parts of the process.

Learn more: I Heart Teaching Elementary

15. Make word-building folders

This clever little kit means kids can practice their decoding strategies just about anywhere. They build words using letters and blends, then write them out. Finally, they draw an illustration of the word, helping them use imagery to remember.

Learn more: Lucky Little Learners

What are your favorite decoding strategies to use with emerging readers? Come share your ideas and ask for advice in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

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15 Effective Decoding Strategies and Activities for Emerging Readers

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Decoding is one of the key parts of the science of reading. Learn more and get effective decoding strategies to use with emerging readers.

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Fluency through Choral reading and model reading

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Fluency through Choral reading and model reading

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This resource is a video of Choral Reading. Choral reading is reading aloud as a group. It helps children to problem solve the fluency of their reading while reading as a whole group. There are also different types of Choral reading including refrain, unison, antiphon, cumulative, solo lines, and line around. All the types involved listening to each other reading and learning from one another. In this case, children can learn from their teachers, parents or peers. Albert Bandura’s Social learning theory emphasizes that by observing those around the child, the child can gain new information and skills. (McLeod, 2011as cited in Edinyang, 2016)

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This resource is a website showing how Elkonin boxes activity can be used to build phonological awareness through segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. This relates a continuum of skill, phonological awareness, ranging from basic skills as rhyming and alliteration to more complex ones (Gillon, 2004) which aid in children to better understand the alphabetic principle in decoding and spelling. This is supported by Road to the Code, a phonological awareness program by Blachman (2000), where it teaches phonemic awareness and letter sound correspondence. Phonological awareness has been found to have a significant and causal relationship with both early and future reading success (Gillon, 2004).

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Elkonin Boxes | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Elkonin boxes build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word.

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Expanding vocabulary through modelling words or sentences 

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Expanding vocabulary through modelling words or sentences 

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This resource is a video of the how children can be introduced to new vocabulary. In this video, it explains about the context of the story, what the word means in a sentence, a teacher’s example using the word and providing children the opportunity to create a sentence using the same new vocabulary. By modelling vocabulary through speaking to the children and writing the word on the whiteboard, children will gain more exposure to it. Vocabulary information has long been established as one of the best reading comprehension predictors (Davis, 1972; Thorndike, 1917 as cited in Lane & Allen, 2010)

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This resource is a website stating the different activities families can do with children to encourage reading and support children’s literacy developments. Family play an important part in building children’s exposure and confidence in reading. Together with educators, family support can allow fopr continuous learning at home as well as in school. Urie Bronfenbrenner, co founder of Head Start and a psychologist who founded the Ecological system theory supports this statement. He mentions the importance of interaction and communication as well as teamwork between those in child’s microsystem. This theory also serves a fundamental grounds of the Family literacy Programs. (Byington & Kim, 2016)

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers

By NCLD Editorial Staff

The research is clear: Children raised in homes that promote family literacy grow up to be better readers and do better in school than children raised in homes where literacy is not promoted. We know that promoting family literacy is important to future reading and school success, but does that mean parents should be prepared to read 100 books a week to their preschoolers? Of course not. While family literacy activities are often based in reading, there are lots of other ways families can conduct literacy activities at home through picture books, songs, poetry and storytelling.

Family literacy is defined as home literacy activities that provide literacy skill-building opportunities for young children while enhancing literacy skill development in all members of the family. While researching family literacy you will often come across terms like, "literacy-rich homes," "family-focused reading" and the importance of building strong "home-school communication." All of these components are essential for promoting family literacy activities and raising ready readers. This month's feature will provide you with ideas for promoting family literacy in your home that go beyond reading storybooks, as well as provide you with free resources to use at home or to distribute to parents in your setting or school.

Books: Key Members of Your Family
One of the easiest ways to show your child the importance of reading is to make a special place to store your child's books. Assigning a place for your child's books shows your child that books are special and deserve an organized storage place all their own. Making room on a bottom shelf of the family bookcase or placing books in a drawer within your child's reach are great ways to create a home library. Parents and family members should model how to organize books on the shelf and teach children how to handle books as a way to promote ownership of the library.

Have you ever flipped through a friend's photos and imagined a story to go along with them? Young children love to use their imaginations to create stories to go along with pictures. One of the earliest literacy skills children develop is the concept of sequencing, or telling a story from start to finish in order. One way to practice this skill at home is to create your own picture books, or books without words. Using photos, pictures from magazines or your child's drawings, books can be created and placed in the home library for easy access. Family members can "read" the story with the child by asking him or her to take them through the story. As the child gets older, family members should have the child dictate the story to them so they can write it down and then move on to encouraging the child to write the words themselves.

Storytelling: Talking about Family History and Creating New Adventures
One of the best ways to help foster family literacy in the home is to encourage all family members to engage in storytelling. Not only is storytelling a great way to share family history, it is also a great way to engage all members of the family -- especially those who are building literacy skills regardless of their age. Start by having an older member of the family tell a story about a major family event (wedding, birthday, graduation). Afterward, ask a younger member of the family to re-tell the story in his or her own words. Family members should be supportive when the child misses an important element and help the child pronounce key vocabulary words like names of relatives, locations, etc. This activity helps build vocabulary, understand sequencing and recall information.

Writing Notes: Connecting Family and Friends
Learning to read and learning to write go hand in hand. It is important to practice and encourage emerging writing skills with young children and those new to learning a language. One way to encourage writing practice is to have family members leave notes for one another on a regular basis. Leaving a note in a lunch box, taping a note to the mirror in the hallway or slipping a note under a pillow are great ways to reinforce the importance of writing to communicate information. Children should be encouraged to send notes at every stage of their development -- from scribbles to sentences.

Another way to encourage written communication between family members is to send each other frequent e-mail messages. This is a great way to help young children keep in touch with distant relatives or friends. Working with an adult, have the child dictate or attempt to type a short message. If the child has typed the message without help, the adult can type a translation of the message underneath it. All attempts at typing and dictating should be encouraged. Engaging in a frequent email exchange with relatives and friends builds a child's letter recognition skills and provides practice organizing thoughts and ideas.

Using the Library with the Whole Family
Visiting the library together is a great way to foster family literacy activities. Not only do libraries often offer access to books on a wide range of literacy levels and subjects, libraries often have books in several languages as well. Adults and children can improve their literacy skills by reading books in the family's first language and then reading the same book in English. By doing this, family members will build vocabulary, the ability to use context clues to learn new words, and enable adults to ask the child questions about the illustrations and predict what will happen next. Families should also visit the library to connect with community literacy projects, storytelling, tutoring and reading clubs.

Learning to love to read starts at an early age and often starts at home. If families make the effort to encourage, support and engage all aspects of literacy in their homes, children and family members will enjoy reading and writing together for the rest of their lives.

Suggested Tip!

Read Books New Ways

Does it feel like you've read the same story 100 times? Read it a new way: Ask the child questions about what they think will happen next and encourage them to tell you what they see in the illustrations.
Learn more >

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers

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Promoting Family Literacy: Raising Ready Readers By NCLD Editorial Staff The research is clear: Children raised in homes that promote family literacy grow up to be better readers and do better in school than children raised in homes where literacy is not promoted.

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Building listening skill through dramatic play 

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Building listening skill through dramatic play 

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This resource is a website that offers a wide range of ideas and themes of dramatic centre for classroom. Dramatic/ Pretend play provides a valuable context for speaking and listening as children internalise, exposing the child to new situations to actively interact with other peers and adults by listening and responding to one another ( Fellowes & Oakley, 2020). This relates to the element of listening and responding to as they listen for information, to perform a task and to listen to participate in class activities. This is supported by Piaget’s theory where children acquire knowledge through interacting with their surroundings in the world and that cognitive skills that are related to a child’s reading and writing abilities may be developed through pretend play (Mooney, 2013).

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Dramatic Play Center Ideas and Resources for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten.
How to set-up and organize a dramatic play center your in preschool, pre-k, Head Start or kindergarten classroom.

The dramatic play area is a favorite with both boys and girls. Every year it's a tie between which center is the most popular in my classroom, the dramatic play center or the blocks center. Young children thrive on pretend play, they love to dress up and act out real life situations in the play center. The opportunities for developing creativity, imagination, and oral language skills in the play center are endless!

Preschool Dramatic Play Center

The pretend center can be filled with many opportunities for both learning and fun. If you're intentional about planning rich and meaningful play experiences for your little learners, they will not only be having fun, but they'll be learning through play!

Pretend play promotes the development of higher level thinking skills, problem solving, oral language development and oh so much more! When your kids engage in pretend play they are developing critical skills across all learning domains such as language and literacy, math, science, social studies, fine and gross motor, and even social skills!

Dramatic Play Themes

You can change your dramatic play center throughout the year to keep it fresh, fun, and exciting. We like to start out the school year with the basic home living or play kitchen center, and then we spice things up by changing our dramatic play themes about every two weeks. Changing dramatic play themes every two weeks allows children opportunities to practice the vocabulary and begin to internalize the new words offered in each play theme.
Click on the links below to see pictures of and learn more about the different dramatic play themes we have used in our classroom.
Dolls for Pretend Play

Having dolls that represent a variety of ethnicities in the dramatic play center will provide opportunities for cultural identification for some students, and acceptance for others.

I found all of the dolls pictured here at my local Goodwill store for a few dollars each. I was lucky enough to have a parent make doll clothes one year, and I bought the rest of the clothes for the dolls at the toy store since I didn't have to pay much for the dolls.

Props for Play

Old purses, wallets, keys, and used gift cards are always extremely popular in the pretend play center. I found the purses at a garage sale. I also save my old gift cards, wallets, and keys to use in the dramatic play center. You can ask your family and friends to save these things for you too.

Dress Up Clothes for Pretend Play

Clothes for dress-up play are hanging from sticky hooks attached to the wall. The best place to get dress up clothes is the thrift store. You'll find a wide variety of fun clothes that won't break the bank at your local thrift store.

Another way to get inexpensive play clothes is to shop the costume sales after Halloween.

Books in the Dramatic Play Center

A tub of books about homes, clothes, food, and families is available to students. You want to have books available in this center to help young children understand the importance of reading - especially to the baby dolls! Show them how to read board books to the baby dolls as they hold and rock them in the play center.

Favorite Toys for Pretend Play

Printable Labels

When it comes to cleaning up the play center, labels are your best friend! If you label absolutely everything in this center it will make clean-up time go so much more quickly and smoothly for everybody! You can take pictures of each item in this center with your phone, then add them to a Word or PowerPoint document. You'll also want to add words along with the pictures on the labels to help create a print rich environment in your classroom.

If that sounds like a lot of work, I've got your back! I created these free printable labels for you to print and use in your pretend play area to help organize the pretend food and dishes- I hope you like them!

Play Center Materials

Below I have listed some of the other items we have in our dramatic play center:

Book Basket (featuring books about homes, household items, food)

Purses with wallets & keys (these are a HUGE hit)

Table and Chairs

Pencils and Paper

Restaurant Menus

Old Cookbooks and Cooking Magazines

Homemade telephone book with pictures next to each number (library, friends phone numbers, pizza etc)

More Center Ideas from Pre-K Pages

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Dramatic Play Center in Preschool Pre-K and Kindergarten

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How to set up a dramatic play center for learning and fun in your pre-k or preschool classroom. Spice up your dramatic play center with these fun and creative ideas. Your little learners will have a blast pretending to be bakers, chefs, doctors, paleontologists and more!

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This resource is a song about recognising the months of the year and it guides children to identify the number of syllables there are in each month through movement activities such as clapping and stomping. It also comes along with a visual guide that breaks down the month into syllables. This is supported by Howard Gardner’s multi-intelligence theory, where children who are musical and bodily-kinaesthetic would benefit from this as the activities would enhance the children’s phonological awareness by leveraging on the children’s strengths and interest. (Gardner & Hatch, 1989)

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Months of the Year Syllable Song | Phonological Awareness | Jack Hartmann

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Reading opportunities at dramatic area for text users

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Reading opportunities at dramatic area for text users

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This resource is a website showing examples of ways dramatic play centres can be set up to enhance children’s literacy skills, mainly reading. By providing labels, pamphlets, recipe, shopping list and books, it allows for children to be aware of different types of text sizes, fonts and arrangements for example which is important for them as they understand the purpose of different texts. As supported by the Four resource Model of reading, the text user is when a child is engaged in a social context in which written words is the foundation of the activity. (Luke & Freebody, 1992 as cited in Simandan, 2012)

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With the beginning of school, we are all setting up our centers. We wanted to repost our Dramatic Play make-over pictures with the explanations of what was done and the explanations. Enjoy!

As Early Childhood teachers we know the dramatic play center is so much more than "play" time. When set up appropriately, this center provides many opportunities for the students to practice important literacy and math skills. We always look for as many ways as possible to get them reading and writing . This month we set up a vet's office.

We made the patient waiting room complete with a sign in board and a basket of books to read while waiting. You can see two "patients" waiting for the doctor. To add functional print we have a dog entrance and a cat entrance labeled.

During the examination the doctor has many tools - x-rays, bandages, gloves, etc., (all donated by our local vet) as well as "medicines" (we used empty vitamin bottles), a prescription pad, various wellness products, pamphlets for the owners and of course nonfiction books.

Notice the pocket chart with all of the words we brainstormed for the vets office.

During the actual exam the "dining" table is turned into the examination table. As you can see our patient has a head wound.

Of course there are patient records that need to be filled out .

After the visit with the doctor is finished, it is time to pay and make a follow up appointment if necessary. The receptionist will be there to assist the patients.

We equipped this area with a receipt book, a money drawer, pretend checks, a money chart, a calendar and telephone for making and recording appointments, a phone book, a price list, hours of operation, and a telephone message pad. Everything the patient and doctor need to complete the visit.

Thanks for touring our vet's office. If you would like some of the free functional print we used please click the picture below.

We have a dramatic play packet with all the forms your kids will need to open a vet's office, a restaurant, an eye doctor's office or go on a vacation on an airplane! Click on the picture below to check it out.

Next week we will be adding literacy to the block center. Hope you can join us!

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The Dramatic Play Center - The Fun Factory

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With the beginning of school, we are all setting up our centers. We wanted to repost our Dramatic Play make-over pictures with the explanations of what was done and the explanations. Enjoy! As Early Childhood teachers we know the dramatic play center is so much more than "play" time.

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Multiliteracies and multi modal  activities for  children's different learning styles

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Multiliteracies and multi modal  activities for  children's different learning styles

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This resource is a website that provides examples of different multi-sensory activities when teaching children to read. Multiliteracies model pedagogy zooms into children’s prior experiences, backgrounds and interests. It emphasizes on experiencing, conceptualizing, analysing and applying learning.  Children are introduced to known and new experiences, conceptualizing by naming followed by theorising, analysing functionally before analysing critically, applying appropriately and then applying creatively. Multimodal allows for different modes of teaching information such as through pictures, facial expressions, gestures and relates mostly to the different senses, leading to an effective learning and comprehension. With this 'a renewed focus on visual and media literacies' has begun and is beneficial for children to make sense of the world around them. (Chung & Kirby, 2009; Metros, 2008; Morrison et al, 2002 as cited in Dousay, 2015)

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I'm honored to join many other amazing bloggers from iHomeschool Network this week as we all post 5-day series. This week, my topic is Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading! I hope you'll follow along as I think you'll LOVE the ideas shared each day.

What is Multi-Sensory Teaching?

Simply put, multi-sensory teaching is teaching that is done in such a manner that it appeals to the fives senses. Instead of just telling someone about an avocado, we let them touch it, smell it, taste it, etc. The concept was borne out of Dr. Samuel Orton and Dr. Anna Gillingham's work with special needs students in the 1930's. This teaching method is now known as the Orton-Gillingham method or multi-sensory teaching.

Who Benefits from Multi-Sensory Teaching?

"The benefits of involving more than one sense during instruction is not limited to those with pronounced learning disabilities. Multi-sensory teaching is effective for all learners." {The Struggling Reader-Phonics Instruction Activities book, pg. 2} Even adults learn best when taught in a multi-sensory way. When we have more senses to connect new information to, we can remember things better.

Struggling readers {and learners}, especially those with special needs, may be very weak in one particular area {for example: auditory}. Marianne Sunderland also says in her book Dyslexia 101, "Research has shown that dyslexics using all of their senses as they learn...are better able to store and retrieve information. Using as many of [them] as possible at once (simultaneously) is best." {pg. 30} In other words, if we "hit them" with strategies and activities that incorporate all of the senses, they have some way to "file" the new information that makes sense to them.

As a side note: Most people are strong in one specific area. For example, you might have heard someone say they are a visual learner. And while it is important to help kids learn through their strengths, we also need to come at them with all the modalities of learning to help them strengthen their weaker areas. This is especially true with struggling readers. {I'm loosely quoting Kristen of The Struggling Reader.}

Here are the topics* and links from this series:

*While I'm going to post most of the multi-sensory reading activities separately, many of these activities incorporate more than one of the senses; which is a great thing. The more you can integrate them, the better.

Additional Struggling Reader Resources:

~Becky

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Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading

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This post may contain affiliate links. To read more about this, please see my disclosure policy. I'm honored to join many other amazing bloggers from iHomeschool Network this week as we all post 5-day series. This week, my topic is Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading!

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This resource is a video consisting of syllable clapping activity where an educator models by breaking the words by clapping the syllables which allow children to listen to the words and divide them into parts that aids speed the process of decoding. This relates to phonological awareness of segmenting words through listening to them even before children encounter prints. Being able to hear and identify syllables aids children learn to read and spell. This is supported by John Munro’s research which states knowing of the sound patterns is necessary for effective literacy learning (Fellowes & Oakley, 2020). The ability to segment words and syllables into constituent sound units are the best predictor of fluent reading (Layton & Deeney, 2002).

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1. Overview

Clap your hands for each syllable in a word or name. This game reinforces the idea that words with different numbers of syllables can be analyzed and broken into parts.

This is the same activity as Drumming Names (E10), but with clapping instead of drumming. The clapping provides less kinesthetic feedback than drumming, so your child will have to listen for the syllables more than feeling them. This activity should be easy for children who have mastered feeling and drumming syllables.

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2. Materials

All you need for this activity is the same Word List you used for the previous activity, Drumming Names (E10).
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3. Activity

Before starting the game, review with your child what a syllable is:

Adult: You did a good job drumming the parts
in all those words and names.
Those parts are calledsyllables, remember?
Saysyllable.
Child: Syllable.

Video: How to play Clapping Names

Now show your child how to clap the syllables in a variety of familiar words and names. Print out our word list (the same list from Drumming Names (E10)) for examples of words of different lengths. Use names of people and characters that are very familiar to him: family, pets, friends, and favorite fictional characters. Make sure you use names of varying syllable lengths: e.g., Jeff, Fido, Granny, Elizabeth, Uncle Julio, etc.

Start with a series of one-syllable words and names. Then move to two-syllable compound words, followed by two-syllable non-compound words.

Adult: I am going to say a name, and I am going to clapAdult: Good job.
one time for each part, each syllable, of the name.
You tell me how many parts you hear.
Listen.Mom-my. Mom-my.
[Say name clearly. Say it again, clearly, while clapping syllables.]
Adult: Say it with me...
Child and Adult: Mom-my.
Adult: Say it again, and clap for each part of the word.
Child: Mom [clap] - my [clap]
Mommy is a word that has two parts, two syllables.

Once your child grasps the concept, have her say each word with you and clap with you. Eventually she should be able to hear and clap the syllables on her own.

When the child has the hang of hearing the difference between one-syllable and two-syllable words, move on to three-syllable words and names, and then a few four-syllable words and names.

After introducing all the different word lengths, give the child a mix of some one- and two-syllable names. Once she has a solid grasp of one-and two-syllable names, throw some three- and eventually four-syllable words into the mix.

Stick with this activity until the child has mastered the skill of hearing the difference between one- and two-syllable words and names. This is a critical step toward a child's ability to hear the individual sounds in words later on.

NOTE: For any error the child makes, have her repeat the use of her fingers under her chin and feel the number of syllables while she repeats the word. Then have her clap the word again.
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4. Confidence Builder

The adult should model holding two fingers parallel to and touching under the chin while saying the word. Then help the child hold her fingers under her own chin. It is important that the child feel her chin move when uttering each syllable.
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5. Extension

Have your child clap out the syllables in longer names with four or five syllables. Examples: Aunt Elizabeth, Dora the Explorer, Tyrannosaurus. Stick with names that are very familiar to your child. (We adults know that each of these names are multiple words, but to children they are just one name, so you can use them to teach your child to count the syllables.)

Alternately, vary the instructions with each word. First, she says the word while clapping; then she whispers the word while clapping; then she mouths the word silently while still clapping on each syllable.
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6. Variation

Let the child sit or stand and stomp out the number of syllables she hears with her feet. Or make it more of a game by having your child switch between clapping, tapping, and even knocking on each syllable.
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7. Small Groups (2-5 children)

Lesson Objective: Children will hear a word and repeat it while clapping out and then correctly identifying the number of syllables.

GELDS (Georgia Early Learning & Development Standards): CLL6.4e

Georgia Standards of Excellence: ELAGSEKRF2.b

Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.B

Adaptation: Read the main activity, watch the video, and follow the instructions above, with the following changes:

Review by drumming each child's name. Explain to the group, "Today we are going to clap names and words. Do you remember what the word parts are called? Syllables. Let's tap syl-la-ble. Now let's clap the word syllable. How many claps?"

Practice with first and last names as well as words from the printed word list. Let children take turns calling out different group members' names and then have the whole group clap out the syllables in the name that is called.

Reinforcement: Sing "Where Is [Child's Name]" to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin?" The child responds by clapping and saying his name.

Use this Reinforcement at Home form to tell parents and guardians how they can reinforce lessons outside the classroom.
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Clap your hands for each syllable in a word or name. This game reinforces the idea that words with different numbers of syllables can be analyzed and broken into parts. This is the same activity as Drumming Names (E10), but with clapping instead of drumming.

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This resource is a website that offers activities with a listening focus. Dictoglass is one of the activities where it requires children to listen to educators read/tell a short story. Children then try to recall the content to remember the details of the story and reconstruct it as best as they can in pairs. This relates to the strong focus of listening skill which assist children to attend to and recall meaning when listening.  This activity benefits children because the talk or discussion during reconstruction supports their growing understanding of the literacy elements (Gibbons, 2015). This is supported by the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (2019) of children are effective communicators that literacy incorporates a range of modes of communication which includes listening, as well as talking, or storytelling and that educators need to provide opportunities for children to listen and respond to stories.

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Dictogloss: Try out this Challenging ESL Activity for Listening

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Dictogloss is an ESL listening and speaking activity that makes an excellent warm-up for children, teenagers or adults. Try it out today.

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This resource contains action rhymes and provide suggestion on how educators can introduce that to children in a meaningful way. Action rhymes involves children performing the action as they recite the rhymes. When children are engaged in action rhymes with adults, they tend to associate what they hear with certain words that sounds similar which plays an important role in the development of phonological awareness (Fellowes & Oakley,  2020). The leaning opportunities provided by the action rhymes relates to phonological awareness of the rhythm and rhyme, semantics where children associate words and phrases with meaning and it support the child’s ability to listen with attention to understand the sequence of the rhyme. This is supported by the Nurturing Early Learner framework (2013), Learning goal 1, children listen for information and enjoyment through stories, rhymes and poems which expose children to new words and allow them to pay attention to sounds and intonation patterns which enhance their phonological awareness (MOE, 2013).

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This resource is an online lesson plan which stay as a guide for teachers to enhance children’s listening skill through drawing the story. The website has prompting questions before, during and after the activity that allows children to listen, visualise and tell the story from their own illustration. As teacher makes up the story and as children raw or make markings, helps to see if children are listening attentively and aids in building their literacy skill. This relates to purposeful listening skill which allows children to make meaning from what they hear and stays as an important part for learning ( Tindall & Nisbet, 2008). This is supported by the Victorian curriculum VCELY 244 from State Government of Victoria (2019) that states children listen meaningfully for details and information, which includes instructions, and broaden children’s ideas and thoughts in discussion.

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This resource contains activities that are catered for children who needs addition support in learning literacy. This Barrier game stands as an activity to promote children’s listening skills, oral language skills, social language skills, clear talking and understanding of concepts. They also provide as an extension for children to absorb information through listening. This relates to listening and auditory memory of children which stays as a platform to build their language and literacy skill. Auditory memory is child’s ability to remember information that is being said rather than a written form.  This is supported by several empirical research with young children that have shown positive relationship between oral language such as listening comprehension and vocabulary and reading success after statistically controlling for fluency and phonemic skills (Marley & Szabo, 2010). This research suggests that instructional strategies focused at listening are crucial part in curriculum which ready children to be able to read (Marley & Szabo, 2010).

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Barrier games are fantastic resources to support your child's speech and language skills, and the best part, anyone can use them; speech pathologists, teachers, child-care workers, parents, and support workers! There are many benefits from using barrier games with a child such as developing: listening skills, oral language skills, social language skills, clear talking and understanding of concepts. They are great for extending the amount of information your child can understand or express within a sentence.
What are barrier games?
Barrier games are played like the board game Battleship. Two people sit opposite each other with a barrier (e.g. box, or book) in the space between them. Instructions are spoken (or written depending on the goal) for each person to follow. The aim of this idea is that when the barrier is removed both the child and adult will have the same result (e.g. same picture scene or Lego construction). This will be because the child has listened carefully and/or gave clear accurate instructions to the adult.

Bonus: Barrier games can also be played in a group setting!
Where can I find barrier games?
One of the great features about barrier games is that they can be flexible, portable, and inexpensive and suited for a wide range of age groups! Barrier games can be easily adjusted to the child's goals and skill level, and can be made more complex as the child progresses.

1. Your Speech Pathologist can supply you with picture sets. They can also demonstrate how to carry out a barrier game to support your home practice. Better yet, they may have already planned to target your child's speech pathology goals using barrier games because they are so valuable!

2. There are links provided throughout this blog to access free picture sets that you can download and print

3. Toys/objects around the home: Once you understand how to carry out a barrier games you will realise that there are endless materials that you can use to create fun barrier games with your child/children.
Ideas: Blocks, Lego, miniature objects, animals and figures, sticker sets, picture cards from games, coloured pencils and paper, real objects, maths materials, collage materials.

How to use the picture sets:

1. Print and laminate two copies of the sheets, so that there is a set for each person.

2. Leave the background sheet or large pictures as a full page and cut up the small pictures into individual pieces. Each player should have one background sheet and one set of small pictures. You will also need a barrier such as a large book or folder.

3. Next sit facing each other. Set down the background sheet and lay out the small pictures so that your child can see all of their pictures. Place your own background sheet and small pictures in front of yourself.

4. Check that your child knows the names of all the small pictures. If there are any they do not know remove them or teach the word to your child. If teaching, check again that your child has learnt it before beginning.

5. Explain to your child that you are going to play a game to show off that you are good listeners and talkers. Explain that you will put your pictures onto the background and tell the child what to do to make their picture look the SAME as yours. Tell them that they need to listen carefully, because they will not be able to see what you are doing. Stand up the barrier and explain that this is so that the child cannot see what you are doing. Again, remind the child that he/she needs to listen carefully, so that you finish with the SAME picture.

6. Place your small pictures on the background one at a time and give your child clear instructions about how to put their pictures in the same position as you go. Make sure you give your child enough time to respond before giving the next instruction.

7. When you have placed all the pictures on the background take the barrier away and talk to your child about the pictures that they have placed in the correct position. Explain to them that this means they have listened carefully. Explain the correct position of any pictures that the child may not have placed correctly.

8. Play the game again and this time, tell your child that it is their turn to talk. Explain that you will listen carefully and make your pictures look the same as theirs. Put the barrier up again and ask the child to tell you where to put the pictures. If your child's instructions are not clear, you may need give verbal hints e.g. if your child says "put the car there" you might say "I've got the car, but I'm not sure where to put it."

9. Take the barrier away and look at all the pictures that are correctly positioned and tell your child how this means that they did a good job of talking and that you listened carefully. Talk about any pictures that are in the incorrect position. Model the correct instruction such as "oh, I needed to put the cat under the tree".

Reminder: Once your child understands how to play barrier games, you can use a range of items from around the house to make your own games. You can gradually make a game more difficult by increasing the length and complexity of the instructions, and the number of items that need to be placed. You can introduce concepts of space such as: in, on, under, next to, above and below. You can also introduce concepts of colour and size.

Here are 10 ways that you can use barrier games to develop communication skills:

1. Listening and auditory memory.
Auditory memory is the child's ability to remember information that is spoken (rather than written).To develop listening and auitory memory skills you need to begin with an instruction that your child can follow easily. If they can follow this easily you can then gradually increase the length of the instructions. It can be helpful for the child to repeat the instruction to support their memory and to check if they are listening.

There are more ideas and activities for developing skills with following instructions here.

You can print two copies of the following instructions activities to turn them into barrier games.

There is more information about developing listening and following instructions here.

2. Extending sentence length.
To increase your child's sentence length, encourage the child to 'be the teacher' in the barrier game i.e. they give the instruction to adult. Let them try it by themselves first to check how many key words they are using. Aim to increase this by at least 1-2 key words each time.

First, ask them where to put one picture, then two and so on. Practice at a level where your child needs a little help but not too much and gradually add an extra word as they get more skilled and confident. If your child finds it hard to form the sentences taking turns can help, 'I'll tell you then you tell me' because you can model for your child how to make the sentences. If your child has a go but makes some mistakes, model and say their sentence back to them the right way but be encouraging and positive.

Here are some simple barrier games for practicing both listening and forming longer sentences.

3. Developing vocabulary. To develop vocabulary in younger children begin with games where they know most of the words and add a few new ones each time (for example, familiar and unfamiliar animals). Start with your child listening and completing the instructions, then aim for them to use these new words in phrases/sentences as they tell you what to do.

Barrier games are also great for familiarising preschool children with new vocabulary. If your child is going to be learning about dinosaurs or Africa or insects at school why not make a barrier game and use this to practice the vocabulary your child will be needing to understand and use. Ask your child's teacher for a word list and use Google images to find some pictures to use. For more information about developing vocabulary and some lotto games that can make simple barrier games click here.

4. Developing understanding and use of concepts. Once your child knows how to do barrier games, can follow simple instructions with at least three key words, and form simple sentences, you can begin to add some concepts to your games. These can include size, shape, position and colours. Remember to keep in mind how many key words your child can understand and that the concept words count too. " Put the big pig in the truck" would be three key words. " Put the big pig under the truck" would be four, because you need to pay attention to the position word ( under) as well. Here are some pictures you can use in your games to practice colour and size concepts. For more information on developing concepts click here and you can also download some games for developing position words. Print two copies to make barrier games!

5. Developing descriptive language. A fun game to support development of descriptive language is to make a rule that you cannot say the names of the pictures. Therefore, to "put the dog on the boat" you might have to say "put the brown animal that barks on the blue vehicle that goes in the water". Another way to develop descriptive language can be to incorporate more complex materials. There are some more complex barrier games to print off here. Step up your child's descriptive skills three dimensional (i.e. real) materials such as blocks or objects such as plastic animals. This requires more careful description to place the items in the correct spots. You can begin by placing items such as plastic animals onto a printed board such as the one from the farm game, then move to using other objects such as trees, fences or blocks to form the background instead of the printed sheet. Drawing is also challenging. You might start with a grid as a background to help with positioning them move to a blank page as your child becomes more skilled. Here are some more ideas for developing descriptive language.

6. Developing grammar skills. Taking turns and modelling target sentence structures is one way of developing grammatical language using barrier games. After the child's turn, repeat back their sentence and correct any errors they made. You can help your child include small grammar words such as articles 'a/the' and prepositions 'in/on' by using a sentence strip as a cue. Show your child how to put the small picture onto the strip and point to the words as they say the sentence. You can download some printable sentence strips for the beginner's barrier games here. You can download the beginner's barrier games here.

Specific structures, such as pronouns (he, she, they etc) can also be targeted using barrier games. You can also use barrier games to target specific structures such as pronouns. Download some simple barrier games to practice the pronouns he/she and his/her here. Download some sentence strips for the pronoun game here. The visual and verbal feedback provided in barrier games helps children learn to self-monitor and self-correct their errors.

7. Transferring new speech sounds to conversation. Using sound loaded barrier games is a great way to practice newly learned speech sounds at a conversational level. You can download sound loaded barrier games for some common speech sound targets here: s barrier game, l barrier game and k barrier game.

8. Developing clearer speech. Barrier games are great for children who mumble, or speak too quickly or softly. Barrier games provide opportunities for listeners to provide immediate and honest feedback about the child's communication skills and clarity of speech. For example, "When you speak so quickly, I am not sure what I need to do" or "When you said that slowly and clearly, I knew just what I needed to do". This provides the child with good practice to recognise how well the listener has understood the message. Therefore the child is able to practice using clear speech so that their message can be understood.

9. Developing theory of mind. Theory of mind is about understanding other people's perspective. Developing theory of mind using barrier games works in much the same way as developing clear speech. That is, by giving your child clear, specific feedback about how well you can understand their instructions. Children with poor theory of mind will often say things like "put that one over there" because they do not realise that you cannot see what they can see. By talking about this and pointing out that the barrier stops you seeing what they are seeing, they can learn to use more specific words as they learn to think about the perspectives of others. You can then use this understanding to develop their knowledge of theory of mind in broader contexts "You need to tell me all about what happened today at school because I was not there and did not see what happened".

10. Developing written language. Children who are often reluctant to write can often be motivated to write through barrier games. An idea can be to take turn writing down instructions (rather than speaking them) and carrying them out. This targets fine motor skills by handwriting, a number of language skills such as; grammar, sequencing and planning, and also targes literacy skills of reading and writing. A step up would be for the child to write all the instructions for the game.

Variations on barrier games for groups. Barrier games can be effectively in small groups and classes as well. Children can sit in a circle and one child sits with their back to the rest of the group and gives the instructions. Alternatively, children can take turns giving one instruction each. You can do barrier games as a whole class activity using photocopied background boards and instructions which involve drawing, pasting or colouring on the sheets.

To find out more about how the Talking Matters team can help your child click here. We provide speech pathology and occupational therapy services to children with a range of needs including autism spectrum disorders.

To find out more about Talking Matters visit us on our website, Facebook page, Twitter, or Pinterest.

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10 ways to use Barrier Games for fun and learning

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Barrier games are fantastic resources to support your child's speech and language skills, and the best part, anyone can use them; speech pathologists, teachers, child-care workers, parents, and support workers! There are many benefits from using barrier games with a child such as developing: listening skills, oral language skills, social language skills, clear talking and understanding of concepts.