Since I am new to blogging … I am just learning about the Edublog Awards this year. It is a way for educational bloggers (and those that follow them) to recognize and show their appreciation for the resources and knowledge that these bloggers take the time to share each and every day. I would like to show my appreciation for just a few of the educational bloggers that
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Lots of people have heard of phonics and indeed there has been a heavy focus on them in schools for years, and then not so much of a focus as we looked at whole language approaches, and then back again to a phonics-intensive focus (don’t you just love the education pendulum?). But before phonemic awareness can develop, or at least before it can develop
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I am excited to be participating in a new collaborative blog of preschool educators calledPreK + K Sharing! PreK + K Sharing was created by Debbie Clement from Rainbows Within Reach. It’s wonderful to have so many early childhood professionals sharing their expertise and perspectives! My introductory post focused on some activity ideas that are themed around BOOKS! In future posts, I plan to spotlight other literacy-based
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One of the most important parts of a child’s early literacy experience actually has nothing to do with books or print at all. Instead, it is all about their early language experiences centering around talk – both being talked to (not at!) and later, talking back. Researchers Betty M. Hart and Todd R. Risley focus on this idea in their book “Meaningful Differences in
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Have a fun time promoting literacy at your child care program or school by having a “Storybook Character Parade“. This is a fun opportunity to allow children to come to school in costume, and can be done at any time of the year. Beforehand, talk to the children about some of their favorite books and characters. Ask them why a certain character is a
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This post will be short because I am very much interested in how our blog-followers feel about this topic. It is a subject that came up at our monthly Directors gathering and sparked strong opinions and feelings. In our state of Connecticut, we are struggling with the ability to offer quality preschool programming toALL children. For years and multiple administrations, our state and local governments
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Yesterday I attended a meeting that consisted of Early Childhood Program Directors in our area. Although it is sometimes hard to leave my center to attend these meetings I always feel a sort of jump-start when I return. I’m sure that many of you Directors out there feel as though you are being pulled in a thousand directions most days. If only you had
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We have been “down on the farm” at preschool these past few weeks, and one of the favorite activities for the children was getting to milk a cow! Ok, not a real cow – but a really cool wooden cow! This was a great way to teach the children about cows and where milk comes from. Children learn best by doing … and they
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We received another question from a reader for our Parenting Expert, Bill Corbett. This is an issue that many parents and caregivers deal with during the toddler years … BITING. What is the best way to handle this? Here is the original question: Hi Bill, A close friend of mine is having some issues with her 2 year old biting. I am writing to you
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The following post is from Colleen Brunetti … our Early Literacy Expert. She will be doing a series of posts on early literacy for preschoolers. Since this ties in so nicely with our recent Book Study Blog party of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011), I’ll interject a couple of quotes from the book along the way! –Laura Choosing high quality children’s literature is an important part
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