Activity: Shaped Notebooks

Make special shaped notebooks to inspire writing and drawing.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you would get the cool new notepad with the brightly illustrated cover? Mine had rainbows and unicorns on it, but yours may have been different. I was so inspired to write and draw in it! Taking that source of writing inspiration, I have been making special notebooks for Isadora to "write" and draw in. Here is one I did in the shape of a butterfly that we created after re-reading the Fancy Nancy book Bonjour Butterfly. Isadora noticed that one of the main characters has a very fancy notebook in the shape of a butterfly. So with a little bit of typing paper and a neon pink cover, voila! Butterfly notebook. (Notice how I label her drawings underneath. Picture of the left: Fog. Picture to the right: Lincoln is sick.)

TV Show: Between the Lions

Between the Lions is an engaging literacy show that has been positively linked with literacy growth in young children.

I'm not a huge advocate of television, but there are extremes to everything. Watching TV all day will not produce highly literate children, but not watching ANY television at all seems a little silly - especially when there are wonderful shows like Between the Lions out there.
Between the Lions is a 30 minute show on PBS that begins each episode with a family of lion puppets who work in a library. The main story line stems from their interactions and the story that they read at the very beginning, but it is packed full of other fun songs and activities throughout the show. It is Isadora's favorite show to watch and she requests it every time I ask her what she wants to watch.
The impressive thing about Between the Lions is that they have done some studies on it that have actually shown that children who watched the show had higher word recognition and standardized reading test scores than students who didn't watch the show. In addition, teachers have written about how they use the show to promote literacy in their kindergarten classrooms. I call that a win-win situation. My daughter loves it and I love it. :) To find out more, click here for the shows website.

Activity: Valentine's Day Cards

Valentine's Day cards can introduce writing as a means for communication and a trip to the mailbox.
A few days ago Isadora and I put together some Valentine's cards to give out to her good friends. She just sent out a few, but it was fun to see that she is starting to see some of her little preschool buddies as "friends."
I have a box of blank notecards with matching envelopes that I got at Target a while back, and she scribbled crayon and oil pastel over the fronts. Before she gave each card a big sweep of glue and glitter, I asked her what she wanted to write on each card. She told me very solemnly that I should write, "I love you." I obediently did this, sounding out each letter as I wrote down the three words (something that she was mildly interested in, although not that much). The next day when they were dry, I showed her how I was finding addresses for her friends and then wrote those on the envelopes while I gave her a rather confusing explanation of why we have to write addresses on envelopes. She stuck the stamps on and then we took a trip to the mailbox where she pushed them into the slot.
The only caveat in this entire experience was that, while writing down her message of "I love you" to all her friends, I forgot to also write Happy Valentine's Day. I can only hope that her little friends realize that her card is for Valentine's Day and not a proclamation of undying love. Although there is something kind of sweet about it. :)

Activity: Playdoh Letters

Use playdoh to make words and letters.

I just made an amazing batch of playdoh out of the book First Art. It is gooshy and soft and so much better than the commercial playdoh I don't think I'll ever go back. It has inspired Isadora to make all kinds of wonderful towers, people, and tea party treats with it. But when we aren't making all those fun and creative items, I (of course) slip in a few letters.
Making letters with playdoh is fun! And it is actually a great activity for kids to do. It gets them to really see the structure of the letter before those clumsy little hands can handle the likes of a teeny little pencil. I don't know the research behind it, but I know that almost every kindergarten class that I have ever visited had their students doing playdoh letters.
I keep it pretty low key. I just ask Isadora if she want to spell her name, and can she help me make playdoh snakes for the letters. On this particular day she did not want to spell her name, but wanted to spell "pink" in the dough. Go figure.

Activity: Labeled Drawings

Label your child's drawings to demonstrate sounding out words and to show that writing communicates a message.

Isadora has recently really been into drawing - it's a new thing. While they were little scribbles before, there are now heads emerging and occasionally a leg or hand. In any case, I will ask them what they are and she has a quick answer. "Lincoln with crazy hair" or "Fog" or "Wonderland."

(A parental side note: Fog and Wonderland look almost exactly the same by the way...just a lot of crazy circling. I think Fog was probably the most appropriate title.)

I have been taking a pen and writing her titles underneath, sounding the words out methodically as I go along. Occasionally I will stop and ask her for a letter if I think she knows it. Most of the time I just let her watch me as I sound it out.

Almost all kindergarten or first grade classrooms do this exact exercise - the children will draw a picture and the teacher comes around, asks them what the drawing is about, and then writes it down for them or writes it on a post-it note for them to transcribe onto their paper. Since Isadora doesn't have the fine motor control for that, I am just writing them for her.