This is what is happening at Melody Park in the area of Early Childhood Literacy!

Early Literacy is defined as the skills, knowledge and attitudes that come before and lead up to conventional reading and writing.

It includes the young child learning about:

• communication (talking and listening)
• the sounds of a spoken language
• reading and writing
• the world around us.

This learning happens daily in a child's talking, playing, being read to, seeing the written word and gaining phonemic awareness along with learning the code of reading and writing a language. Allowing for children's opportunities in these literacy gateways are part of our goals here.

How does this make my child a reader/writer? What does this look like at Melody Park?

Talking

The size of a child's vocabulary (including both the number and complexity of words a child knows) is a strong predictor of later reading/writing success.

We are talking/listening.

Conversations are a part of our day! We talk with children. We role model listening by listening to them! We discuss with children. We add vocabulary to our curriculum themes, helping the children to gain meaning in new words by discussion and explaining. For oral language experience children tell us stories or retell stories they know, they also learn songs and finger plays.

Playing

Active participation in literacy rich dramatic play, with the play environment offering many examples of literacy is another predictor.

We are playing.

Through play children learn to communicate, to speak and listen with one another. They hear sounds of spoken language; learn about letters and words; learn about the world around them. We encourage book-related dramatic play and support "pretend" reading of books. We provide props for writing during play, such as pads of paper and pencils for lists, clipboards for around the room "writing" and a writing center. We display print in the play environment, books, magazines, cookbooks, telephone books and empty boxes/cans of foods for play in the kitchen area are all examples to the children of the use of the written word.

Reading

The amount of time children spend participating in small group, interactive reading situations is a strong predictor of their language development. When children are read to, they build vocabulary; when they build vocabulary, they understand more about what is read to them.

We are reading.

A rich variety of stories, poems and rhymes are read to children. We use simple picture/story books to guide the children in comprehension -- reading for meaning. We read as recreation...fiction, fairy tales, poems, etc. We read for knowledge...non-fiction resource books for children on particular subjects. We read multicultural literature. We encourage and support their "reading" to us.

Writing

Children's writing supports development skills that are also important predictors of reading ability. These skills include: print awareness, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness and the development of oral language.

We are writing.

Many classroom activities are preparing the child's hand to hold the pencil with a three-finger grip. Play dough and puzzle play, cutting, creative art and drawing all are for the small muscle development of the hand. Then children begin a developmental process of writing. From squiggles and scribbles to circles and on to primitive letters the child comes to writing. They will make signs, "draw" words, make lists...and sometimes expect you to "read" these!

Learning the Code

With letter knowledge and phonological awareness we can predict a child's later reading success.

We are learning the code.

Phonemic awareness begins...the child hears separate words, recognizes rhyming words, and becomes aware of sounds beginning or ending words. All through play with language! Print awareness also begins...the child recognizes signs and print in the environment (and the world!), "reading like" behaviors are seen, supported and encouraged. We offer exposure to letter names and alphabet thus guiding letter recognition -- again through play and games.

If you would like to know what you can do at home to ensure my child's success in reading and writing I will be happy to mail you the booklet, "Raising a Reader, Raising a Writer" from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the International Reading Association. This is an excellent resource for families in guiding their children to literacy. It is full of simple ideas to bring your child along on the path to reading and writing successfully.