[Nicole Hunt]

One essential element of early literacy I use on a regular basis is reading aloud. I usually read a book when I am doing group. I pick out a book that I think will keep my children interested but also talk a little bit and ask questions sometimes after reading the book. If its a book that the children love and know by heart, I usually let them do the motions or if there are parts they can say with me, let them do that. For example, when I read Caps For Sale, the children know the part of the books with the monkeys, so I will let them say that part with me, or when the peddler stamps his feet, I let the children do that movement. In circle time, I do several things that support language and literacy development. I have done sharing in groups, and have the children tell his/her friends where they got this sharing, and then ask some questions about the sharing so the child can tell his/her friends more details about it.

[Ciera]

One of the ways I help with literary skills is everything in my room is labeled shells as well as cabinets and for circle time I always have my kids “help” me read by having them repeat what I said for having them follow with their finger

[Jenghoa Lee]

I often use alphabet card games, rhyming songs, and name card activities. For example, I encourage children to identify the letters that make up their name or compare their names to a friend’s name, saying, “Our names start with the same letter!”

[PARIsa]

I engage children in rich conversation every day. I try to introduce new words and new items to children and encourage them to talk about the that item and share their ideas and stories about that. Every bin in classroom is labeled, books, newspapers and reading and writing materials are accessible to children. We do show and tell during circle time, read books and sing songs.

[Emily]

I use whiteboard activities to help the kids learn their letters. We play different games like copy and repeat and can you name that. We read books at circle time and during meals and we sing our abc while getting ready to go to park.

[Maryfil]

One essential element that I regularly use in my class during circle time is I alternate between singing and reading. I played the guitar as they sing, and I read a book that is related to the lesson of the week and also read a book that a child brings from home. We discuss the story, and they share their ideas/thoughts about the story.

[Carol]

I like to have the children tell a story. I use props: a bear named Stanley and a dog named Nala. I start by saying” Stanley and Nala like to go on adventures”. I get them ready by putting clothes on them and brushing teeth. Then I pass Stanley around the circle, and each child gets to say what adventure they are going on and continue with the story. The kids really like doing this.

[Michael Baxter]

One of the essential elements of literacy I use regularly in my classroom is story time. I absolutely love story time! One of the things that my kiddos enjoy most about my story time is I will often voice the characters. I love doing impressions and silly voices, so I will often do different voices for the characters. When I choose books our story times I like to check out books from the library that are related to our theme for that week. In addition to theme related story times I also like to read random books from our library, or books that we get in rotation from our local library. In our class we have to library areas, one that is a smaller quiet area and one that is set up where we do circle time. Kids can choose to read books in either space, and I make sure the smaller one is available at any time for kids that want to read a book. We do a lot of literacy activities during circle time. We always have a letter of the week and do letter of the week songs, we theme our show and share around the letter of the week most weeks and we do a letter brainstorm where we see how many words we can think of that start with our letter of the week.

[Julia Noble]

We do read alouds across classroom and then we build our entire curriculum around the characters, themes, plot, etc. of that book for a certain amount of time. This allows kids to deeply explore the world and characters of the story in a variety of contexts. We pick a new book every 1-2 months.

[maho]

As part of our daily routine, we say the date and the weather together. We engage in word-collection activities and conduct topic-related interviews.

[Mariel]

One of the ways I help with literary skills in my classroom is asking the students during circle time about the letters that start with the day of the week as well as reading aloud. My students have many opportunities to explore literacy through books and imaginative play.

[Sydney]

Every morning, we sing a song about who is in class today and what letter their name begins with. This is so incredibly helpful, as our 2 year olds can recognize the first letters of their names as well as what sound they make. This activity also celebrates their attendance!

[amy]

i sings songs and have big books i made for the kids i can read and funnel boards and puppets

[Bonnie]

We do a lot of movement songs with & without books, colors in multiple languages, shape sorting with puzzles (each child has a piece and I call a shape & the one that has that shape gets to put it in the puzzle), and they find their name when I pick a letter…

[Necce]

Since my room is a for infants and toddler we expose them all to print around the room through labeled items, art, during free drawing by writting their name them spell their names so they get exposed to letters and start recognizing the first letter of their name.During circle time we read books along felt figurines that go along the book we usually provide different books they can choose from and/or take books that aling with the common insterest of the room at the moment.