In Preschool 2 at Rising Oaks Early Learning | John Sweeney, the children have shown an interest in letters and recognizing their names. In February, a child brought in a piece of paper with his name on it, he had traced his name several times and was very excited to show his work to his Educators and his peers. This sparked an interest for his peers in the classroom.
Throughout the year we have worked on recognizing the letters of the alphabet with activities or at gathering time. As Preschool 2 friends are preparing for Junior Kindergarten, the Educators are working on the children’s recognition of letters and identifying letters that are in their names. At a table during playtime, an Educator had placed markers and names of all the children. Jayden came to the table and searched for his name and when he found his name, he started to spell his name out loud. He sat down right beside the Educator, opened up the marker and started tracing each letter of his name. As he finished tracing his name, he was so proud of his work! He showed his friends and the other Educators in the classroom as well. Jayden encouraged other friends to try the activity, so his friend Thomas joined at the table, found his name and started to trace his name. As Thomas was tracing his name, Jayden began to motivate and encourage him throughout the activity. When Thomas was finished, he was amazed by the work he had done.
The Preschoolers were interested in doing an activity with loose parts. Maria asked all the children what letter their name started with. With a little help, the children found the first letter of their name and started placing loose parts along it. As the children were working, Natalie said, “N is for Natalie and Nails”, associating common words with the same letter of her name. Rowan said, “R is for Rainbow and Rain.” Maria went around the table and noticed that all of the Preschoolers completed their loose parts activity and began to associate words that are common with different letters of the alphabet.
As a supporting environment, the Educators foster learning with language and development. As we continue, the children learn through play and through daily activities. Books are a great way to expose children to a variety of new words because they often include an unfamiliar vocabulary and they repeat the same word in a variety of sentences throughout the book. This repetitiveness helps the children to recognize the words. Reading books also offers opportunities for children to hear the same words over and over again.
