Language and Literacy

This is the description of the second of our four domains:

Language and Literacy

Language in the Catbird classroom is very much an eagerly developing skill. The members of our classroom are moving from language as a way to get their basic needs met, to language as an almost magical force. They are discovering that words allow them to negotiate complicated social interactions, to bring and share thoughts and ideas from one time and place to another, and to find similarities and differences in their lives and experiences and those of their friends. On a daily basis, these are novel experiences for the Catbirds. Their developing language causes them realize, many times a day, that the world looks, tastes, sounds and feels differently to different people. At times, this can be quite a shock. Babies and toddlers, use to the attention of caretaking adults, fully expect their needs to be central and that others will work hard to interpret the meaning of their emotional sound effects. In the world of interacting with peers and new adults, what was once resolved with a cry or two word demand, now requires a more subtle vocabulary. In the realm of language, we also require the Catbirds to use what they know, and a little bit more. Developmentally, this may mean moving from grabbing to asking for a desired toy on one end, to realizing the need to put the punchline of a joke at the end, to putting a story that they are telling in context.

At the same time that verbal language is developing, so is an awareness and appreciation of the written word. Friends are beginning to make connections between marks on a page and spoken words. The single most important thing that we do to foster literacy in our classroom is to read aloud. We read books to the Catbirds every day, many times a day. We do this because we love books. We also do it because research study after research study shows that this is the single best way to promote future academic success. Not just literacy. It helps that the Catbirds can’t get enough books. You may have noticed that our bookshelves are frequently overcrowded and often in a state of disarray. This is because the Catbirds have found out where we store the extra books, and they just keep taking them out. Then, there are our trips to the library. Although we have a scheduled library time, friends have come to realize that, anytime we want to know something, we can walk across the hall to the library and find more books.

The Catbirds’ literacy skills are growing every day, in ways that are integrated into everything we do and that are driven by their own desires to learn. They write their own names, because signing in is part of knowing who is here. We have signs and words around the room, that  they are learning to decode, so that they know what we are doing that day and what their choices are. We write down their words and questions because they are important and so that we can remember and refer to their ideas. The Catbirds know that, if you write down a song, you can sing it again and again. If you write down instructions for how to build a special building or make flubber, you can replicate it or teach someone else how to do it. If you write down a question, you can take it with you to ask different people, and write down their different answers. The Catbirds are not “learning to read,” they are readers. They are not “learning to write,” they are writers.

Today:

We had Spanish!

We had Art!

We worked on building houses with clay.

On building houses with clay:

“It's goopy!

It feels like it's hard.  

It feels like it's not hard.

I think it's squishy.

I made a spaceship.

It feels like wetness.

It's cold.

I did a circle and then I smushed it down.

That's a house of stones.”

Snack outside.

Morning Meeting.

Choice Time: Memory Game with Heidi.

Flubber.

Pretend Puppy Play.

Building.

Library Story Time.

Two books about Puppies!

Painting with watercolors.

A birthday celebration!