Teaching Literacy Hands On

by Vonda
(Texas)

I teach 3 and 4 year olds and I believe in teaching hands on.

The children love coming into a learning environment that is theirs.

I have a writing center with a variety of materials available to them to pick and choose from. There may be paper, pencils, markers, dry erase board, map colors, a ruler, stencils, erasers, and more.

During Valentine's I had Valentine cards and envelopes. It's their place to write and to feel comfortable doing it. The children also enjoy tracing on top of the Wall Word word's with a dry erase marker.

In the library center I have large pillows for them to sit and relax on. They have an assortment of books in the book rack to look at.

The pocket chart rhyme is at the children's eye level in the library center. They enjoy having it at their level so that they can see the words and pictures.

They also have the puppets and puppet stage to enjoy.

I also have the letter wall and the circle time wall. I bought some cheap little wands with stars on the end and told the children that they are pointers. So the children go to the letter wall and point out the letters of the alphabet with the pointers.

They also go to the Circle Time area and point out everything we have covered for the day with the pointers. The day of the week, season, weather,the letter, the color,etc.

It makes my heart happy to watch them! :)

Here is the link to my blog:

http://www.aboutaschool.blogspot.com/