Website Archive - August, 2007
Spotlight on the Language and Literacy Development
Children
Here are some websites with online activities promoting early literacy for children to enjoy.
Scholastic.com
Scholastic’s early literacy program for PreK-K, Building Language for Literacy, has three characters that lead children on online language adventures to different places in the community, - a store, home, a restaurant, firehouse. These activities help to develop language skills and also a sense of the world around them. Nina the Naming Newt loves to name things and helps children name different objects, Leo the Letter-Loving Lobster loves to spell and helps children match letters, and Reggie the Rhyming Rhino loves to rhyme and helps children pick out the rhyming words.
Scholastic also has games, riddles and fun on the Kids: I Spy page for ages 5 and up. The many puzzles and riddles are from the I Spy series of books and software, including The Wizard’s Lab (I Spy Fantasy), The Library (I Spy Spooky Mansion), The View for Duck Pond (I Spy Treasure Hunt), Toy Store Window (I Spy Treasure Hunt), and I Spy City (I Spy School Days).
Get Ready to Read
Get Ready to Read, a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc., helps build early literacy skills by integrating emergent literacy screening and learning activities into early childhood practices. There are several online games that can be played with Inky the Octopus and Gus the Bunny from PBS’ Between the Lions. Check out Gus and Inky’s Underwater Adventure, Rhyme Time, and Wild World Round Up.
Parents
Here are some activities to encourage language and literacy development and skills for your preschooler.
READ*WRITE*NOW! Activities for Reading and Writing Fun
Read*Write*Now! is a booklet developed as part of the America Reads Challenge (May 1997) and is a joint project of the U.S. Department of Education, the American Library Association, Pizza Hut, Inc., Scholastic, Inc., and Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. It contains lots of ideas and activities for reading and writing development for birth through third grade.
StoryPlace: The Children’s Digital Library
StoryPlace, an interactive website from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg Counties (PLCMC), NC, and Smart Start of North Carolina, contains a StoryPlace Pre-School Library. This online library experience has wonderful online stories with accompanying online activities, suggested readings, take-home activities, and activities that parents can do at home. The stories and activities are theme-based and include such themes as babies, bath time, pets, monkeys, and shapes. There are also English and Spanish versions of all the stories and activities.
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Street Beginnings: Talk, Read, Write!, developed by Sesame Workshop and funded by Prudential Foundation, is a bilingual multimedia program to improve the four fundamental skills of literacy development: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It provides resource materials to parents and caregivers with lots of ideas, video clips, and a guide to using the information on the website.
Illinois Early Learning Project
The Illinois Early Learning Project has 2 tip sheets for parents dealing with suggestions and activities for language development and early literacy. The Gift of Words: Conversation and Routines has ideas for parents to add to their child’s school readiness by increasing their vocabulary.
And Fun at Home with Preschoolers: Getting Ready to Read! Has ideas to help your child build the knowledge, skills, and habits to learn to read and write.
Teachers
There are so many websites offering resources on the Language and Literacy Development and skills, and we’ve highlighted just a few. So check them out!
Between the Lions: Get Wild about Reading
Between the Lions TV series, produced by WGBH Boston, Sirius Thing, LTD., and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, aims to foster literacy skills in 4 to 7 year olds. The website reinforces the literacy mission of the TV series and is designed to be used by an adult and child together. It contains read-along stories, interactive games, printables, series clips, and songs, as well as a manual for parents and teachers with activities related to the the TV episodes and lots of additional teacher resources.
Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project
The Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project was developed by the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland to integrate technology into the classroom and increase early childhood skills in reading and writing. As part of the project, teachers created and implemented lessons and activities that use technology to support early literacy. In the Literacy Activities and Lessons page, there are lesson plans using Kid Pix and Bailey’s Book House Software, The Gingerbread Man book, and the Enchanted Learning website for lots of nursery rhymes.
Early Literacy Telecollaborative Project
The Early Literacy Project is part of the Telus Learning Connection Project Center (www.2learn.ca) and contains early literacy background information including research and classroom implications. It also includes strategy ideas for parents and teachers, a wealth of early literacy resources with poems, raps, chants, fingerplays, and rhymes, ideas for parents to use at home, and literacy links and books.
Get Ready to Read
Get Ready to Read, a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc., helps build early literacy skills by integrating emergent literacy screening and learning activities into early childhood practices. There is an Educators’ page with a screening tool, activity cards for use with individuals or groups and also in English and Spanish, Literacy Checklists for centers and family child care, and resource pages with a Transitioning to Kindergarten Toolkit, books, printable resources, and early literacy websites.
Illinois Early Learning Project
The Illinois Early Learning Project has an Out and About with Preschoolers: Literacy Activities tip sheet for simple activities to do outside that encourage language and literacy development.
Ready*Set*Read For Caregivers
Ready*Set*Read for Caregivers is an America Reads Challenge (1997) booklet developed by the Corporation for National Service and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education. It contains lots of early childhood language activities that can be used every day with children from birth through age five. It also includes tips, materials to be used, and a suggested book list. A Spanish language version is also available.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, part 4: Continuum of Children’s Development in Early Reading and Writing is a joint position of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It contains a simple list of what children can do, what teachers should do, and what parents and family members can do for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first - third graders to develop early reading and writing skills.
You can also read NAEYC’s Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children Where We Stand Summary and also the full position statement of NAEYC and IRA.
National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
Early Literacy: Policy and Practice in the Preschool Years (PDF) is a preschool policy brief deveolped by Dorothy S. Strickland and Shannon Riley-Ayers for the NIEER. It contains findings from research and recommendations on early literacy.
[Posted on August 1, 2007]
