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Life Sparks Learning-Creative and Reading Programme

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Life Sparks Learning-Creative and Reading Programme

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("Programme – Life Sparks Learning", 2020)

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CREATIVE WRITING & READING PROGRAMME

The Creative Writing & Reading Programme is designed to help children build a strong foundation for good English writing and reading skills. Through this programme, we aim to inculcate in children a love for reading, and nurture writing skills creatively.
The programme covers the teaching of how to form basic sentences, putting simple sentences together to create a paragraph, and simple grammar and comprehension. Through the use of pictures, stories, and fun practical activities and scenarios, writing becomes fun.
This programme will help children to learn the building blocks of writing in a confident manner, using descriptive language expressively and accurately. In the process, their vocabulary and grammar skills are enhanced.

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CREATIVE WRITING & READING PROGRAMME The Creative Writing & Reading Programme is designed to help children build a strong foundation for good English writing and reading skills. Through this programme, we aim to inculcate in children a love for reading, and nurture writing skills creatively.

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(I Spy With My Little Eye (Car Game) | BREEZY LOVE, 2021)

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I Spy With My Little Eye (Car Game) | BREEZY LOVE

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“I Spy…” is a great activity during transit where one player (Spy) selects an item that can be seen by all the players in silences. They then said, “I spy with my little eye….” naming the object chosen vaguely such as by the letter, the colour and for younger children, maybe even the object themselves. The other players then will have to guess and find the objects. In order to get the right answer, the players tend to guess and choose their possibilities. The person who guessed it right, becomes the spy for the next round.

The game promotes language development by reinforces vocabulary, encouraging social play and interactive turn taking.

This is in line with the Speaking and Listening Literacy Learning Progression Element as it promotes active listening, strategic and respectful questioning and using language to share information (Australian Curriculum, n.d.).

As children participates in the game and take turns, they may model and imitate other players spontaneously and they realise that interactions require attending to the other player’s actions, gestures, sounds, and words and responding in a way that is somehow related to the partner’s turn (MacDonald & Stoika, 2007).

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("Programme – Life Sparks Learning", 2020)

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(Nickelodeon, 2014)

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walykazam (70) izleyin - Wallykazam Dailymotion'da

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(Rodriguez, 2017)

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Kids love to hear stories about themselves. Chances are you can remember dozens of stories about your children from when they were small tykes, like your son's first birthday party, your daughter's first joke, or when your youngest child had his first accident. Family memories are great launching pads for after dinner storytelling.

The power of memories is that they are deeply connected to feelings. That first birthday reminds us of joy. The first joke your child shared brings a feeling of happiness. And that first accident ignites the worry you felt.

The power in storytelling is connecting stories to feelings and one of the easiest ways to teach that to your kids is through sharing memories. Try this easy dinner table storytelling activity with your family.
What You'll Need

A small basket, bowl or container

Blank slips of paper

Pens and pencils

What to Do
Step 1: Each person at the table brainstorms, and writes down on paper events in their life that trigger vivid memories. My list might include a bike accident that happened when I was seven, our holiday vacation in Florida, or the day my oldest son was born.

Step 2: Put everyone's memory slips into your basket and place it on the dinner table.

Step 3: Either during or after dinner, take turns selecting individual papers from the basket to read aloud. The person who wrote the memory down begins telling the story of the event. Others at the table can add to the story, telling their memories of the event if they were a part of it.

Remind everyone that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You might try prompting your children to expand their story with these prompts.

What happened next?

Where did your memory take place?

Can you think of any more details about your memory?

Step 4: The real power of a story comes when it generates a connection through a common feeling. Make sure to ask each person around the table how he or she felt when the event occurred.

This storytelling activity could turn into a nightly or weekly family pastime, depending on how many memories were generated. The exercise also works well with larger family gatherings when other loved ones join you for dinner and conversation.

Pull up a chair and share memories with your kids. You will be teaching your children a powerful lesson about being a great storyteller, sharing family history, and instilling a love of family.

Featured Photo Credit: © daizuoxin/Thinkstock; stockcam/iStockphoto

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Practice Storytelling With Your Kids at Dinnertime

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Kids love to hear stories about themselves. Chances are you can remember dozens of stories about your children from when they were small tykes, like your son's first birthday party, your daughter's first joke, or when your youngest child had his first accident. Family memories are great launching pads for after dinner storytelling.

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This activity helps to build the children’s vocabulary as the older family members may include many words that young children may not know but can understand based on the context of the story. Children will not only benefit from listening to the stories, but they will also be able to tell better stories as they recall the stories and have better comprehension. Children’s oral language and literacy development are enhanced through storytelling.

This activity allows children to listen, speak and interact which relates to Speaking and listening Literacy Learning Progression Element as supported by the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework, under outcome 5: Children are effective communicators in which communication and self-expression takes many forms such as sharing stories and symbols from their own culture re-enacting well known stories to communicate with others (Victorian early years learning and development framework: For all Children From birth to Eight years, 2016).

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("Fishing For Letters Game", n.d.)

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This fishing for letters game was a favorite in my classroom and is really easy to make. I love fishing games for kids because they teach them so many things, not just letter recognition. Persistence, hand-eye coordination, and patience are a few! Tuck those kids in, grab some scissors and start cutting, by morning you'll have a fun fishing game to play with your kids!

1. Gather your materials. You will need multiple colors of cardstock or sturdy construction paper, a marker, scissors, eyelets and an eyelet setter, or you can also use paper clips!

2. Draw a fish to make a template. Make sure the tail is large enough to write a letter on it. Cut it out and use this to trace all the fish.

3. Start tracing the fish on your cardstock/construction paper. I normally trace one for every two fish.

4. Get comfy on your couch, and cut! Layer two or three pieces of paper to make it go faster but be careful , the paper can shift.

5. Add a letter on the tail and a smile too. If you are using paper clips add an eye too!

6. If you are using the eyelet option, add the eyelet as the eye for each fish. The eyelet should be magnetic, double check though since some are so heavily coated with paint the fishing pole may not pick them up!

7. I am using a fishing rod that came with a Melissa and Doug puzzle but you can easily make one with a chop stick, ruler or blunt knitting needle. Add some yarn or ribbon with a strong magnet on the end and you are set!

8. Wake your baby ( aren't they always our babies? ) and show them the new game!

More Ocean Activities

Find great beach and under the sea themed activities here!

Books About Sea Animals

Who doesn't love a good under the sea book? These are the best! Read the full list here.
Read more about this great thematic unit here!

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Fishing For Letters Game - No Time For Flash Cards

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This fishing for letters game was a favorite in my classroom and is really easy to make. I love fishing games for kids because they teach them so many things, not just letter recognition. Persistence, hand-eye coordination, and patience are a few!

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Fishing for letters is an activity where children and family members use a ‘fishing line’ (stick with string and magnet at the end) and they fish for fished (paper cut into fish shaped with alphabet on it). This will activity combines letter recognition and fine motor skills. Parents can also further extend the activity by encouraging the children the phonics of the letters or even combining a few “fishes” to form a word and guiding the children their phonological awareness skills.

It is key that beginning readers are well versed in letter recognition as it allows them to work out how printed text is related with the spoken language which in turn guide them to map the relations between the letters and its sound. This skill has to be achieved before phonological awareness and decoding of letters and children will require them to read unknown words. Letter recognition and phonological awareness plays an important part as they form an inside-out process that comprises emergent literacy, one of the necessary sets of knowledge for the acquisition of literacy (Tunmer & Chapman, 2015). This supports the Reading and viewing Literacy Learning Progression Element.

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(Nickelodeon, 2014)

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Lifesparks Learning is an education service provider conducts enrichment programmes in preschools around Singapore that was founded in 2003. Their instructors have years of teaching experiences and qualification.

One of their programmes is the Creative Writing & Reading Programme which helps children with their writing and reading skill such as to form basic sentences, putting simple sentences together to create a paragraph, and simple grammar and comprehension. The children are actively engaged in the learning process as the instructors use various ways to make the programme more interesting such as creating fun and practical activities and scenarios, using of pictures and stories. This in turn helps the children to improve on their vocabulary and grammar skills.

This programme relates to the writing Literacy Continuum Learning Progression as children ought to be given constant opportunities to experiment with writing as they attain control numerous features of written language and that require frequent directions in the skills and techniques that will further strengthen their development in this area in order to allow children to enhance their ability to form basic sentences, putting simple sentences together to create a paragraph, and simple grammar and comprehension (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014).

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Wallykazam! is a children on Nickelodeon Jr and revolves around Wally Trollman with his dragon friend, Norville and a magic stick. They have adventures in together that the children will enjoy following. Wally has many other friends that help him when he gets in trouble. Wally creates words and solves problems with the help of his trusty magic stick, he and his friends teach children early reading basics including phonics, letter recognition, and letter-sound association.  Parents can also add more to the experience as Nickelodeon created a companion app on electronic devices.

According to the Nurturing Early Learners Curriculum Framework (NEL)’s Learning Goal 2: Read with understanding and for enjoyment, where one of the key dispositions is for the children to be able to recognise beginning and ending sounds in words and this relates to the Reading and Viewing Literacy Continuum Learning Progression element (MOE, 2013).

Serafini (2012) also states that phonics instructions guide the reader to map sounds onto spellings which then allows readers to decipher words and guides in the development of improvement in words recognition which makes reading easier (Serafini, 2012).

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Australian Curriculum. Australian Curriculum: National Literacy Learning Progression : Speaking and listening. Australiancurriculum.edu.au. Retrieved 14 August 2021, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/national-literacy-and-numeracy-learning-progressions/national-literacy-learning-progression/speaking-and-listening/?subElementId=50872&scaleId=0.

Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2014). Language, literacy and early childhood education (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Fishing For Letters Game. No Time For Flash Cards. Retrieved 15 August 2021, from https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/07/parents-corner-make-this-tonight-2.html.

I Spy With My Little Eye (Car Game) | BREEZY LOVE. (2021). [Video]. Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-FuelqGzkQ&feature=emb_logo.

MacDonald, J., & Stoika, P. (2007). Play to talk. Kiddo Publishing.

MOE, M. (2013). Nurturing Early Learners: A Curriculum for Kindergartens in Singapore: Language and Literacy [Ebook]. Ministry of Education. Retrieved 15 August 2021, from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwixocH5yMTyAhUlhuYKHcawArQQFnoECAMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nel.moe.edu.sg%2Fqql%2Fslot%2Fu143%2FResources%2FDownloadable%2Fpdf%2Fnel-guide%2Fnel-edu-guide-language-literacy.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0qpQQ_nNU_MPfU7LpopebQ.

Nickelodeon. (2014). How to Bathe Your Dragon [Video]. Retrieved 17 August 2021, from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3np81i.

Programme – Life Sparks Learning. Lifesparkslearning.com.sg. (2020). Retrieved 19 August 2021, from https://lifesparkslearning.com.sg/programme/.

Rodriguez, J. (2017). Practice Storytelling With Your Kids at Dinnertime. Scholastic.com. Retrieved 13 August 2021, from https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/practice-storytelling-your-kids-dinnertime.html.

Serafini, F. (2012). Expanding the four resources model: reading visual and multi-modal texts. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480x.2012.656347

State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training). (2016). Victorian early years learning and development framework:For all Children From birth to Eight years [Ebook]. Retrieved 15 August 2021, from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjp2oq4jMTyAhUET30KHdo7DIsQFnoECAMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.vic.gov.au%2FDocuments%2Fchildhood%2Fproviders%2Fedcare%2Fveyldframework.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1-dlSadaaGUmTtOU_QN6vt.

Tunmer, W., & Chapman, J. (2015). Excellence and equity in literacy education. Palgrave Macmillan.