This week I was able to do my very first read-aloud for my
kindergartners. I read the book, “The Alphabet Tree,” by Leo Lionni. This book
was enjoyable for both the students and myself. The story is about a tree full
of letters, each on their respective leaf. As the story progresses, the letters
discover that the best way to fight the wind from blowing them away is to join
together and become words, and ultimately, sentences. Lionni’s illustrations support the text on
each page, so even young learners like my 5-year-olds are able to make sense of
the story. It was appropriate in length and content, since now we are spending
a great deal of time learning about our letters and how to differentiate them from
numbers, symbols, and shapes. I was surprised to see how few students started school with this knowledge. There are many creative assessments and activities that can be presented alongside the book. For instance, students can create their own alphabet tree in the classroom. As we learn new letters, we will add them to our tree. Throughout the year, as we begin learning simple sight words, we can practice combining the letters and sounds creating a "word wreath" or the like. Students could also each represent a single letter or sound, and link arms to make a word. While our class has many other books about letters, this book does a good job explaining how they come together to form a bigger picture. If I were to read it again, I would be sure to write down key words to expose students to them, even if they cannot necessarily read, because it also provides a good visual to differentiate between sounds, letters, words, sentences, etc. Because it is still so early on in the year, I am considering other activities that would be helpful for my students to learn letters versus numbers. Do you have any suggestions? Singing the ABC's and counting from 1-30 all day is not enough, otherwise students would not need to go to school to learn these essentials. What in your experience and findings has been the most successful method?
Alicia. I haven't heard of that book before but it sounds like a good one to introduce so early in the year since, like you said our students are just beginning to learn and recognize letters. I also really liked your idea of creating an alphabet tree. It is a fun and creative way of displaying letters. Some of the things that I have found to be beneficial for students learning letters are to have the students do tracing activities. Getting the students to recognize the letters and then have to trace over them helps them get familiar with the letter. They could also create the letters with something like play-doh. I have also used trays with sand in them and they can draw the letters in the sand with their fingers to get used to what each letter looks like. I am always looking for new ways of helping students learn the letters because it is so essential to their learning.
ReplyDeleteAlicia, I like the book you picked! I overall think it is great for kindergartners and is wonderful tool for learning letters. I just read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and created some activities about letters! We have made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees on paper and then had a bowl full of letters--the goal was for each child to find the letters in their name and identify them. I also am creating an activity where the children will go on a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter hunt around the school, when they find the letter they will identify the letter and the sound and put the sticker letter on their tree hats. Emilee's idea of tracing letters I think is great as well..this helps with writing and building their confidence to completing something idependently! One other suggestion I have from my senior year internship in Early Childhood was doing fun activities with the class during a carpet meeting time. I had a bag full of letters and dug one out and out say "this mystery letter makes the sound puh puh" the children would identify it then write it down on a mini whiteboard for practice. I have a great Sound Muncher song + activity that you might love, I will share it with you in class! :)...it would be took long to type it out ha :)
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