Beard, Brenda; And Others - ed

ED 292 577

AUTHORTITLEINSTITUTION

SPONS AGENCY

PUB DATECONTRACTNOTE

AVAILABLE FROM

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IDENTIFIERS

DOCUMENT RESUME

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Beard, Brenda; And OthersThe TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook.Appalachia Educational Lab., Charleston, W. Va.;Tennessee Education Association, Nashville.Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),Washington, DC.Oct 86400-86-000199p.; Some rescurce materials contain marginally'.egible print.,palachia Educational Laboratory, Inc., P.O. Box1348, Charleston, WV 25325 ($11.00).Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055)

M701/PC04 Plus Postage.*Auditory Perception; *Cognitive Development;Kindergarten Children; Language Acquisition; LearningActivities; Mathematics Skills; *Motor Development;Parent Education; *Preschool Children; PreschoolEducation; Primary Education; Resource Materials;*Social Development; *Visual Perception*Parents as Teachers

ABSTRACTThe six major sections of this notebook foci's on

developing the abilities of preschool and kindergarten children inthe areas of large and fine motor, social, auditory, visual,language, and mathematics skills. Each section contains severalactivities parents can do at home in brief and enjoyable practiceperiods to assist children's development. The notebook is designed sothat teachers may select one or more activities relating to aparticular child's development, copy the appropriate pages, and sendthem home with a letter to the parents explaining their use.Activities should take no more than 15 to 30 minutes. The notebookalso contains definitions of the six developmental skill areas, achart of behaviors expected from preschool and kindergarten childrenin the skill areas and several curricular areas, and the agenda for ateacher awareness session for explaining the notebook's use toteachers. Selected resource materials for parents concerning at-homelearning activities cover the topics of: (1) writing a finger play;(2) ways in which preschool children learn through play; (3)storytel:ing; (4) visual perêption activities; (5) languagee xperiences; (6) cognitive development; (7) relationships betweenstory reading and learning to read; (8) reading readiness; (9)arithmetic; (10) opportunities to learn which are offered in the homeenvironment; (11) tips for parents; (12) parent-teacher cooperation;and (13) suggestions for over-the-summer learning. (RH)

************************************************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *

* from the original document. *

***********************************************************************

The TEA--AEL

ParentEducationNot& okDeveloped by-- Brenda Beard,

Betsy Hunter,

Betty Lambed, and

Belinda Winters

In collaboration with- -

1i \ Tennessee Education Associationi/ anda.A 4 Appalachia Educational LaboratoryIT 1

AMAIv

I Alk/1-.-4

fi FAkf*S cored by-- 13=R1Office of Educational Research and Improvement

3

I

=1=111kThe TEA AEL Parent Education Notebook

For further information on parent involvement in home learning, early childhoodeducation, or other educational research and development resources, contact:

Appalachia Educational LaboratoryP.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325

Telephone: 800/624-9120 (outside WV)800/344-6646 (in WV)

or 347-0400 (local)

Contact TEA or AEL for additional copies of The TEA AEL Parent Education Notebook.Tennessee Education Association598 James Robertson Parkway

Nashville, TN 37219

October 1986

This publication is based on work sponsored wholly or in part by the Office of EducationalResearch and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract number 400 -86-0001. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of AEL, OERI, the Department, or any

other agency of the U.S. Government.

The Appalachia Educational Laboratory, Inc. is an Affirmative Action/Equal OpportunityEmployer.

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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook

Introduction

The Tennessee Education Association and the Appalachia Educational Laboratory,the regional R & D lab serving Tennessee, cosponsored a study group of kindergartenteachers during 1986. The mission of the group was to examine research-basedarticles and programs and to produce a product of use to teachers in Tennessee andAEL's service Region.

During the group's first meeting, the members identified the need for activitiesparents of early childhood students could use with their children at home to fostertheir development in six skill areas. Members agreed that a wide range of develop-ment exists among kindergarten and transition-first grade students in the followingskills: visual, auditory, social, large and fine motor, and cognitive math and lan-guage abilities.

The development of a collection of activities in these skills keyed to the level of thechild (developmentally delayed, kindergarten appropriate, or advanced/accelerated)was the product identified by the group. The TEA AEL Parent Education Notebook isthe result of much development and selection of activities on the part of the fourgroup members. AEL provided research/resource materials, supplementarymaterials development, evaluation assistance, and editing, layout, and copyingservices. TEA provided the site of the group's first meeting and printed multiplecopies of the Notebook for use by Tennessee teachers.

Major sections of the TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook focus on the sixdevelopmental skill areas. Each contains several activities with which parents mayassist children's development in brief and enjoyable practice periods at home. TheNotebook is designed so that teachers may select one or a few appropriate activitiesrelating to a particular child's development, copy the activities, and mail or sendthem home with the child with a letter to the parents explaining their use. Asexplained in the parent letter, the activities should take no more than 15-30 minutesto complete.

The Notebook also contains definitions of the six developmental skill areas; achart of behaviors expected in these skill areas and in several curricular areas forpreschool and kindergarten children; the agenda for a Teacher Awareness Sessionto aid in explaining the Notebook's use to teachers; a letter to parents to accompanyselected activities; a Parent Orientation Session agenda to aid Notebook users inintroducing the activities to parents; and Selected Resources to Share with Parentsbrief articles on the skill areas.

The study group members, TEA, and AEL appreciate your field testing the Note-book, completing the enclosed evaluation form, and returning the form to AEL or thestudy group member in your district. Your evaluation statements will be used torevise future editions of the Notebook. We hope you find the instructions clear, theParent Orientation Session helpful, and the activities useful in involving parents intheir children's development.

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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook

Acknowledgements

The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook came to fruition due to the efforts andtender loving care of four dedicated kindergarten teachers. AEL awl TEA expressthanks to each of those educators who recognized the need for parent involvement instudent skill development and responded by producing a publication we hope theyand many others find usefuL

Brenda BeardKindergarten TeacherRobertson County, TN

Betsy HunterKindergarten TeacherSumner County, TN

Betty LambertKindergarten TeacherMontgomery County, TN

Belinda WintersKindergarten TeacherCheatham County, TN

AEL staff members who helped in the development of this project were:

Jane HangeDirectorClassroom Instruction Program

Pat CahapeWriter/ArtistSchool Services Center

Shirley KeeneSecretaryClassroom Instruction and School Governanceand Administration Programs

Barbara MerrillWriter/EditorSchool Services Center

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Developmental Skills

Teacher Awareness Session

Communications With Parents

Large and Fine Motor Skills

Social Skills

Auditory Skills

Visual Skills

CognitiveLanquage Skills

CognitiveMath Skills

Selected Resources to Share With Parents

Notebook Evaluation and Suggestions Forms

Page Divider color

iii

iv

3 blue

9 tan

13 red

19 yellow

27 light green

35 blue

43 tan

51 red

59 yellow

67 light green

109 blue


DevelopmentalSkills

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Th6 TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook

Developmental Skill Definitions

We do not 'mow exactly how a child learns to read, but we do know that certainskills make the process of learning to read, write, and perform mathematics taskseasier. These skills have been given various labels, but the ones we have chosen touse in presenting some ways to develop these skills with your child are (1) motorskills (bothlarge and fine motor), (2) social Mils, (3) auditory skills, (4) visual skills,and (5) cognitive ddlls (both math and language).

Although these have been identified separately, there is much overlapping. Thisis appropriate because

hechildren develop skills simultaneously as they

experience learning with the total mind and body.

Motor shills refers to the ability of the child to coordinate the body to performspecific tasks. Large motor shrills refers to the ability of the child to use large musclecoordination in performing such tasks as walldng, running, jumping, skipping, andriding a big wheel, tricycle, and/or bicycle. Fine motor skills refers to the ability touse smaller muscles in the hands and fingers for painting with large brushes;putting together small toys such as Legos, Locblocks, and Unifix Cubes; drawing;coloring; and eventually writing.

Children with good social skills can play and work within a group cooperativelyen.sigh to avoid major confrontations but independently enough for their own goodmental heath.

Auditory skills first includes the ability to locate the source of a sound, to identifyfamiliar sounds, to identify likenesses and differences in sounds, to identify rhymingwords and finally to hear beginning, ending, and medial sounds in words.

Visual skills involves seeing the likenesses and slifferences first in concrete (real)things, then pictured things, and finally in letters and words.

Cognitive skills refers to the way a child is able to process and interpret infor-mation with the brain. Involved in these skills at the four and five year old level arematching, identifying, counting, classifying and categorizing, sequencing, andcomparing and contrasting. Some of these children will also be able to engage insome analyzing and synthesizing activities when presented on their level.

Most children will these skills as they participate in ordinary, everyday,childlike activities, when they are accompanied by verbal interaction withloving adults.

Ifyour child doesn't develop at the same rate as your neighbor's child or a brotheror sister, do not become alarmed. All children develop at different rates, learn different

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skills at different times, and mature at different rates. Your child is an individual.*

The activities presented here are suggested as supplements to already goodparent-child relationships and as introductions to the wonderful world of learningfor par -eats who wish to know some ways to initiate further learning activities withtheir children. The most important thing to remember is to keep it fun! The best giftyou can give your child is a love of learning for a whole lifetime.

References

Durkin, Delores. Getting Reading Started. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1982.

Gainer, William L, Senior FAditor. Observation Guide for the Santa Clara Inventory ofDevelopmental Tasks. Santa Clara, CA Santa Clara United School District,1974.

Kitano, Margie. "Young Gifted Children: Strategies for Preschool Teachers." YoungChildren, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 14-24, May1982, as cited in Parker, Carol P. "TeachingYoung Gifted Children," Dimensions, Vol.14, No. 4, pp. 4-6, July1986

Tinker, Miles A, and McCullough, Constance K Teaching Elementary Reading. NewYork: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968.

Todd, Vivian Edmiston, and Heffernan, Helen. The Years Before School. London:MacMillan Co., 1970.

*"Your Home Is Your Child's First School," brochure adapted from How Can I Help My ChildGet Ready to Read? by Norma Rogers, published by the International Reading Associationand ERIC/CRIER

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Behavior Expected in Preschool ChildrenReprinted with penniationofiloataillon Publishing Companyfrogs TheYeare Before School by Vivian Edmiston

Ibdd and Helot Warta& Copyright 019611by Moengillart Publishing Company.CurriculumArea Expected Behavior

At Three YearsHealth and Judges how far to climb and returnSafety safely

Urinates without help unlessdothing is complex

At Four YearsHandles blunt scissors safelyKnows that blood forms a scab to

protect new skinUnzips, unsnaps, and unbuckles

At Five YearsHandles saw and hammer safelyPuts away toys and closes crpboard

doorsGoes tc bathroom by himself

Physicaldevelopment

Walks a board holding adult's handStops or goes on the slideLikes to swingClimbs &ladderLeer= to jump

Walks along a walking boardbkploree variations on the slideLearns to pump in swingingGoes down Brawn's eoleLearns to hop

Walks a narrow curbSwings by himselfCuts on the lineLearns to skip

Social Enjoys his own birthdayunderstanding Enjoys simple house play and

dressing upLearns to move with the group

activities

Takes turnsEnjoys birthdays and Chest:alasExtends dramatic playdoctor,

store F '1, delivery manExplores k aorfollowerrolein

group ac uvities

Waits for his turnEnjoys birthdays and other holidaysExtends dramatic play furtherEnlarges his feeling of belonging to

the group

Science Knows where he came fromKnows where his food goesNor' se several animalsObserves what is pointed out

K^nws death is part of lifeKnows sounds, nests, ami other

things about animalsMakes his own observations

Knows how he was conceivedKnows what foods different

animals eatReports what he observes

Geography Knows relation &rooms indoorsRecognizes his own home

Uses landmarksCan go around the blockRecognizes his own neighborhood

Draws and uses a simple mapWalks several blocks to school

Mathematics Names a few numbersLives in the presort

Counts a few numbersDeals with the past and the future

Counts to tenThinks °fuses of numbersUses a wider span of time in

planning

Languagedevelopment

larks

Learns sounds used in wordsUses simple sentencesLearns new words

Increases his command of oralsounds

Uses compound sentencesIncreases his vocabulary

Has mastered most word soundsPrints own nameUses adverbial clausesIncreases his vocabulary

Likes short picture stories Likes realistic picture stories (e.g.,Doss short pantomimes with adult about home)

Pantomimes a simple story told byadult

Likes realistic and imaginativestories with little drama and ahappy ending

Dramatizes simple stories

Art Likes easel paintingScribbles with crayonsEnjoys several art media

Likes to use a brush or other tollPaints and draws with some designEnjoys a variety erne& and

several art tools

Music Likes musicDistinguishes "indoors" from

"outdoors" voice

Creates dance movements to musicEnjoys action stories to musicLearns short songs by rote

Makes designs and realisticportrayals

Follows simple dance suggestionsTells high from low, soft from lqud,

fast music from slowLearns songs by roteCreates song phrases

kolatingto others

Plays parallel to others Plays with other. or by himselfDoss dramatic play with othersExpresses sympathyFinds his own emotional outlet

Increases his cooperative playIs more sensitive to the needs of

others

me lEA-AEL Patent Education Notebook

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TeacherAwareness

Session

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The TEA -AEL Parent Education Notebook

Teacher Awareness SessionAgenda

L Objectives of SessionUpon completion of the Awareness Session, participants will be able to:A. Explain the purposes of the Parent Education Notebook.B. Select appropriate activities for parent use in skill areas.C. Use the parent letter or develop a memo to mail/send with any activity to

parents.D. Conduct the Parent Orientation Session acquainting parents with the

activities and the dos and don'ts of their use.II. Background

A. Rationaleneed for parent assistance with child developmentB. Formation of study group and notebook development process

III. Notebook Overview (pass out materials)A. Formatorganization of notebook, section contentsB. Skill Listemphasis on range of age-appropriate developmental levelsC. Sample Activities describe children's behaviors (delayed and accelerated

examples included) and ask participants to select activities; emphasis onmany choices for repeat assistance and matching to parent's skill level

D. Parent LetterE. Research Articles on SkillsF. Reference List

IV. Parent Orientation SessionA. Emphasis on importance to increase parent's motivation to assist and

comfort in using activitiesB. Discussion of sample parent questionsC. Explanation of opportunity to enlist additional parent support or volunteers

V. EvaluationA. Importance to TEA and AEL for notebook improvement and wi'er

disseminationB. Notebook evaluationC. Parent Orientation evaluation

VI. AssistanceA. &ate, regional, and district resource personnel contact informationB. Your name and school phone numberC. AEL's toll-free number (800/624-9120)

VII. Teacher InputA. Importance of each user's evaluation of present activities and addition of

new activities or articlesB. Future use in state and Region (KY, VA, WV)

VIII. Questions11

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The TEA-AEL P01.171 EductlIon Notebook'

14

Dear Parent,

.Children in kindergarten often develop at different rates indifferent areas of learning. For instance, a kindergartenermay have math skills that are common for six-year-olds and atthe same time have motor skills that are at the four-year-oldlevel. Another child may have very advanced language skillsand have the social skills of a younger child. This is notunusual and does not necessarily mean the child is behind orahead of other kindergarten students.

Parents often ask me how they can help their children do wellin school. There are many things parents can do with theirchildren at home that will build on skills being developedduring school hours. The enclosed activity sheet(s) may giveyou some new ideas about how to spend enjoyable time with yourchild each day, and at the same time help your child developsome new skills in important areas of learning. I suggest thatyou select a regular time you and your child can devote to theactivities such as after school, after dinner, or beforebedtime. The activities take 15-30 minutes to complete.

Remember that learning should be fun, that your child reflectsyour attitude toward school, and that each small step isimportant. Praise your child's progress and show your support.

If you have questions about the activities or your child'sskill development, please contact me.

Sincerely,

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Parent Orientation SessionAgenda

L Overview of Kindergarten Program

A. Describe teacher responsibilitiesB. Describe parent responsibilitiesC. Describe student responsibilities

IL Skirt Development

A. Define six skill areasB. Discuss range of developmental levels of kindergarten studentsC. Discuss early warning signs of developmental delaysD. Provide resource personnel contact information

III. Parent Education Notebook

A. Describe development of notebookB. Discuss of actin itiesC. Explain to use activities to work with the child (use example activity)D. Outline cautions in working with childrenE. Explain how parents can contact you for more explanation/assistance or

additional activities

W. Questions

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'Large and Fine

Motor Skills

fie lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Large and Fine Motor Skills

Skill Level:

PrekindergartenKindergarten

"If you were aTell your child you are going to play a pretending game. Pretend to be an

elephant. Talk about how an elephant looks, how it moves, and maybe how it soundswhen it moves. Encourage your child to be creative in figuring out how to be eachanimal or thing.

Examples:snakemouselionkangaroo

clingflower

duckcrabsealfrogtin soldierrag dollrobotmonkey


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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Large and Fine Motor Skills

Skill Level:Prekindergarten

Safe and Free Play1. See that your child has many opportunities for running, climbing, swinging,

seesawing, and otherwise using and developing large body muscles. See that asafe area is available and that safety rules are established.

For running, a grassy area is best, but a dirt area that is free of hazards is alsosatisfactory.

A tree with low branches or the jungle gym at a nearby schoolground or park isexcellent for climbing.

An old tire and a sturdy rope combine to make a good swing.

Encourage the child to jump over safe objects. A ball, box. or toy work nicely. Formotivation, you might chant the little poem:

Chuck (use your child's name) be nimble,Chuck be tall,Chuck jump over the yellow ball!

2. Place eblob" of shaving cream on a tray or flat baking pan. Show your child howto finger paint in the shaving cream. Allow free play the first few times, thenshow the child how to make circles and lines in the lather.

3. Provide play dough for squeezing, pounding, and shaping with the hands andfingers.

Homemade Play Dough

Mix: 1 cup flour1/2 cup salt2 tsp. cream of tartar1 tbsp. cooking oil1 cup cool water(food coloring, if desired)

Mix well, and cook over low heat until the mixture is like thick mashed potatoes.Turn out on waxed paper and knead until smooth and cool.

After each play session, store in a two-cup plastic margarine tub with tight fittinglid.

Betty LambertKindergarten TaacherMontgomery County, '11N

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The lEA-AEL ParentEducation Notebook Large and Fine Motor Skills

Skill Level:

Kindergarten

Coordination and Creativity1. Demonstrate walking heel-toe (tight-rope style) first on a line on the sidewalk, on

a brick wall, on a tire placed on the ground, and finally on a 2" by 4" board.Encourage your child to join in the fun.

2. Provide a set of small building blocks that fit together to make streets, buildings,cars, etc.

and/or

Provide sandbox play including building structures with small sticks and stonea.

The same muscles used to manipulate these small items are getting little fingersready for writing.

3. Provide large easel brushes or felt-tipped markers for your child to draw pictures.Allow much experimentation using large opened up grocery bags or oldnewspapers to paint or draw on. Show the child how to hold writing implementscorrectlythumb and index finger on top of writing implement, middle fingeronbottom.

When your child begins to ask how to draw things, rather than demonstrating,encourage thinking about the shapes of objects. For instance, if the child wantsto draw a cat, ask, "What shape is the cat's head? What shape is its body? tail?ears?"

Always find something nice to say about your child's pictureabout the colors, thedesigns, etc. Don't be concerned if the finished product is not outstanding. Achild is interested in the process more than the product.


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Skill Level:

Prekindergarten

ifs More Fun When You HelprThe following is a list of activities you tun do at home with your child to develop

large muscle coordination. Help your child to:

1. Ride a tricycle or big wheel.

2. Develop balance by walking a concrete wall, curb, or r x 4" board.

3. Jump over objectsStart with a small object such as a shoe and use largerobjects as skill improves. Also, jumping distances will help develop muscles.Start with a short distance and increase distance as needed.

4. Jump rope.

5. Play ballcatching, throwing, rolling, and bouncing. Start with a largeball at first.

6. Hopone foot (make sure to use each foot), both feet

7. Go through an obstacle courseThis can be fun! Setup chairs to crawl under,blocks to jump over, tables to roll under, boxes to climb over, etc.

8. Skate.

9. Play with hula hoops.

10. Play Simon Says.


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Skill Level:

Prekindergarten

BlocksMaterials: blocks (gym have them), cans, bottles, salt boxes, various sizes of boxes,

anything your child can stack

Provide your child with a variety of stacking material& This is a great motor skillactivity. If your child is having trouble, take the time to help. Give ideas for things tobuild, and encourage the child's own ideas.


Paper ChainsThis activity develops fine motor skills. You will need colored paper cut into

1/2" x 4" strips. Demonstrate how to glue the pieces together and at thesame timeinterlock them to make a chain. You are making circles ofpaper.

Make a sequence pattern to follow: a red circle, a blue circle, a yellow circle, a redcircle, a blue circlewhat comes next?

Make a chain to use as a countdown for an important event: birthday,Christmas, Dad coming home, etc. Each day the child would use scissors to cut onemore circle off and then count to find how many more days to go

Skill Level:Kindergarten


Peeling CarrotsUse large carrots and a flat vegetable peeler. Demonstrate how you always peel

away from the body. Let your child peel with the peeler. When finished, serve thecarrots for lunch or dinner. Tell everyone who peeled the carrots.

You may later use the peeler for other vegetables, such as potatoes.



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The lEA-Aa Parent Education Notebook Large and Fine Motor Skills

Skill Level:

KindergartenAdvanced

Writing

If your child shows an interest in writing, demonstrate how to write her firstname, using a capital letter followed by lowercase letters. Write other simple wordsas requested by your child. Use the alphabet below as a model.

Teach the child to hold the pencil or crayo.. correctlybetween the index fingerand thumb while resting on the middle finger. Remember, wrong habits in writingare very difficult to correct.

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l'he TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook

Socia_a_dlls

24

The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Social Skills

Skill Level:

Kindergarten

Getting Along With Others1. Invite Lt compatible friend near the same age as your child over to your house to

play. Give the children as much time as possible without adult intervention towork out their own problems, but be close by to help them think throughproblemsand come up with good solutions on their own.

For instance, if they both want to play with the same toy, make the statement,"You have a problem, don't you? Can you tell me what it is? How many ways canyor think of to solve this problem? Which one is the best way?"

2. Make a game of teaching your child some good old-fashioned manners such assaying "Please," "Thank you," "Excuse me," etc. Hopefullyyou have beenmodeling good manners for the first five years of your child's life. If good habitshave not yet developed, this is the time to begin working on them. You might callthem "Magic Words" because people are happier when they use them. DO NOTDEMAND that the child use these words but instead use gentle guidance into thejoy of their use.

3. As a reward when good manners have begun to take hold, take the child on aspecial outing to a museum or to the fire station. Help him write a thank-you noteto the person in charge and illustrate it witha drawing of his own.


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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Social Skills

Skill Level:


I Can Do It MyselfYour child develops trust and understanding of others by first feeling secure.

Encourage your child to develop self-confidence by doing some of these tasks:

1. Put on a coat

2. Get the mail.

3. Put away toys.

4. Brush teeth.

Day Care and Home Learning ActivitiesPlans, Appalachia Educational Laboratory,Alice M. Spriggs, General Editor, Vol. 2,No. 21-9, Miami, FL: EducationalCommunications, Inc., 1978

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The TEA -AEL Parent Education Notebook Social Skills


Kindergarten

Feelings and BehaviorTake some everyday experiences and discuss with your child how to react to the

situation. Make sure your child expresses appropriate behavior for thecircumstances.

Examples:

Your child is playing with the blocks and another child knocks down hisbuilding.

A girl on the playground falls and skins her knee.

Your child can't find any crayons, but Sherry has a bra-td new box.

Sam has a box of candy in his coat pocket.

The teacher spills a box of felt-tipped markers all over the floor.

In the cafeteria, John starts throwing his peas.


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Skill Level:

Prekindergarten

Responsibility and Sharing1. Encourage your child to take care of personal items. See that there is an

appropriate place to keep clothes, toys, and books. Praise the child each timethings are put away properly. You will need to help at first, making a game of thechore. For instance, "You put away all the trucks and Ill get all the cars." Standback and look at the finished task together talking about how good it makes onefeel to do ajob well.

2. Emphasize the importance of sharing and taking turns. The young child isnaturally self-centered, but by four or five should be eble to begin to think abouttreating friends as he would like to be treated.

3. Talk about feelings with your child:

"How do you feel when a friend has an apple and you have none?"

"How do you feel when your friend shares with you?"

"How do you feel if Jay is riding his big wheel but yours is broken?'

"How do you feel when Jay gives you a turn riding on his?"

Forcing a child to share and take turns is not recommended. Your goal is to usefriendly persuasion to show the good feeling that comes with sharing and takingturns.


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Kindergarten

Rules

Set rules at home for behavior and responsibilities. Make sure you follow throughconsistently. Also, praise your child for success in meeting responsibilities orfollowing your rules.

Examples:

Make up your bed every morning. (Remember, it won't be perfect.)

Brush your teeth after meals.

Keep your toys put away in the proper place.

Put your clothes away.



Kindergarten

Following RulesMaterials: cards, games such as Candy Land, Shutes and Ladders, or Sorry

Play games with your child. Before beginning, make sure your childunderstands the rules. Do not allow making up rules in the middle of the game.Always encourage the child to finish the game whether she is winning or losing. Letyour child make up her own games, but help her understand that once she makes arule, it must stand until the game is completed. This can be a creative experiencewhile learning fairness and self-control.

Betsy HunterKindergarten TeacherSumner Ce^ty, TN

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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Auditory Skills


Comparing Sounds1. Listen for and talk about loud sounds, soft sounds. Some examples are:

Loud Softcombine sewing machineradio lullabysiren water drippingbaby crying baby cooingdog's bark kitten's purr

2. Talk about sounds that are alike and different:

Alike Differentwater dripping/rain siren/trainradio/tape player duck's quack/dog's barktruck brakes/bus brakes chickens cluck/rooster's crow

Advanced

3. Using the beginning sound of your child's first name, see how many things hecan find that begin with that sound (i.e., Samsoap, sandwich, salt, soda, etc.).Repeat on another day with names of brothers, sisters, parents.

Write the words with a pen or felt-tipped marker. Write them in a list as followsso that your child can see that they all look alike at the beginning. He may evennotice that his name is spelled with a "big letter" and the other words begin with asmall one.

Samsoapsandwichsaltsoda


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The lEA-AEL Parent Educdion Notebook Auditory Skills



Repeating

Say, "We are going to play a game called 'copy cat' I will say a sentence, and youare to be the copy cat and repeat exactly what I say." Then you should say thefollowing sentences one at a time and let your child repeat each sentence. Thesentence should be repeated exactly as you say it, allowing for speech problems. Ifyour child has problems with a certain sentence length, stop and practice moresentences of that length. When you feel the child is ready, move on to more difficultsentences.

You can also use the number sequences following the same pattern.

4 wordsSally likes to swing.

5 wordsCan you see the dog?

6 wordsRobert went to the grocery store.

7 wordsGo get the red and blue cup.

8 wordsDebbie has a green bicycle with yellow handles.

9 wordsPlease put the flower pot on the red box.

10 wordsAt the circus we saw monkeys, downs, and big elephants.

Number sequences

2 - 34 - 3 - 85 - 9 - 6 - 26 - 2 - 1 - 9 - 83 - 8 - 4 - 5 - 1 - 7


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Identification of Familiar Sounds

Auditory Skills


Home materials: Collect a few simple items that can be used to make noises, such assheets of paper, scissors, keys, pencils, ball, pitcher, and water.

Stand behind a piece of furniture so that the child cannot see you make the noise.Make these sounds, and ask your child to tell you what they are:

(1) knocking on a door (just knock on the wall) or floor

(2) rattling keys

(3) clapping hands

(4) tapping a pencil on the wall

(5) stamping feet

(6) cutting or tearing paper

(7) bouncing a ball

(8) snapping fingers

(9) jingling two spoons together

(10) shaking connected measuring spoons

(11) pouring water

It is also important for the child to be able to tell whether a sound is loud or soft.Ask your child to make sounds. Some examples to use are:

(1) the sound of a big bell, then the sound of a small bell

(2) the sound of a big dog, then the round of a puppy

(3) the sound of a big duck, then the sound of a baby duck

Children love to make animal sounds. You can play this game using otheranimals if your child enjoys the activity.

Day Care and Home Learning ActivitiesPlans, Appalachia EducationalLaboratory, Alice M. Spriggs: GeneralEditor, Vol. 1, No. 6-5, MilM1, FL:Educational Communications, Inc., 1978.

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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Auditory Skills


Kindergarten

Memory

This activity needs to be done on an everyday basis. Give your child a task to do,stating clearly what you expect in two steps at first. Use directions such as: "Takethe trash can in the kitchen and put the trash in the trash can outside," or "Go to thebathroom and brush your teeth, or "Go to your bedroom and bringme the dirtyclothes." Always make sure you watch closely to see if directions are followed inorder and that the task is finished. Adding steps once your child has mastered twosteps will extend this activity.

Belay HunterKindergarten TeacherSumner County, TN



Repeats Stories

Reading to your child is an activity that should be done daily! Encourage yourchild to ask questions as you read and make speculations about what will happennext. When you are finished with a story, have your child retell the story. Ifyourchild has trouble retelling the story in proper order, look at the pictures for clues. Dothis daily, using a variety of stories until your child can retell them without dues.Once your child can retell the stories, continue reading and encouraging your child'sinterest in books and words.

Betsy Hunter


AdvancedThe Mistake Game

Explain this game to your child. Say, "Fm going to do something wrong. Youare to watch me and tell me what I am doing wrong."

You can do a number of things, putting in a wrong action or step. For example:Read a familiar story such as Little Red Hen. Each time you come to the word hen,make a "mistake" and say rooster. Your child will love to correct you.

Day Care and Home Learning Activities Plans, Appalachia EducationalLaboratory, Alice M. Spriggs, General Editor, Volume II, No. 34-4, Miami,FL: Educational Communications, Inc., 1978.

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Secret Noises

Auditory Skills


Home materials: transistor radio, tape player, kitchen timer, or ticking alarm clock

Have your child leave the room. Turn on the transistor radio and hide itin adrawer, under a box, behind a curtain, in a kitchen cabinet, in a closet, under thecouch.When your child comes in, ask, "Where is the noise?" You can participateby letting your child hide the radio while you hunt for it.

Day Care and Home Learning Activities Plans, Appalachia EducationalLaboratory, Alice M. Spriggs, General Editor, Vol I, No. 6-14, Miami,FL: Educational Communications, Inc., 1978.


Echo GamePosition yourself across a room from your child. Tap, snap, or clap, etc. four or

five times. Now ask your child to echo back the same sequence of tapeor sounds.

As your child develops, the sequences can be lengthened, thus increasing thelevel of difficulty.



Thumbs Up!

Say two words to your child. Example: man, mud. If the words begin with thesame sound, your child gives you a "Thumbs Up" sign. If the two words do not beginwith the same sound, the child gives you an'humbs Down" sign.

This can be played almost anytime, anywhere. To make it more challenging, usethree or more words.

Adapted from Teacher's Edition of Animal Crackers of the Ginn ReadingProgram by Theodore Clymer and others, 0 Copyright, 1982, Silver,Burdett & Ginn, Inc. Used with permission.

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The 1F.A-AEL Posed EccdionNotebook

43 36

The TEA -AE/ Parent Education Notebook Visual Skills


"Same" and "Different"1. Using canned goods from the cupboard, encourageyour child to put all the ones

together that are the same color. Repeat with spools of thread, rocks, shells, orother appropriate items.

2. Take your child when you go grocery shopping. Talk about all the red things onthe produce shelf all the green things, all the yellow things, brown things,etc.

3. Place two rocks and a shell on the table. Show the child how the rocks are thesame but the shell is different Repeat with two ears of corn that have beenshucked, and one that has the shucks still on it Show how t e first two are thesame and the third is different

4. Place two nails and a screw on the table. Ask the child to tell you which are thesame and which one is different.


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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Visual Skills


KindergartenOutline Matching

Collect a variety of small objects such as scissors, paper clip, key, clothes pin, etc.Trace around each object on paper. Ask your child to match the object to the correctoutline.



Real Objects with OutlinesMaterials: drawing paper, pencils or crayons, small objects to trace such as

spoons, a fork, keys, scissors, popsicle stick, paper clips, a penny, etc

Begin by drawing or tracing the outline of each object on paper. Let your childhelp you do this. While you are doing this, talk about what you are Say, "Helpme draw a picture of the penny. I'll draw around the edge while you hol the penny.There, I'm all finished. What doyou think is under the penny? Let's look and see."Talk about each object as you trace it. Discuss how each object is different, and helpyour child think of as many descriptive worts as possible for each object.

When you finish all the objects, make a game out of matching the objectwith its outline.

Adapted from: Day Care and HomeLearning Activities Plans, AppalachiaEducational Laboratory, Alice M. Spriggs,General Editor, Vol. 3, No. 51-1, Miami, FL:Educational Communications, Inc., 1978.46

The 1EA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Visual Skills


Matching Letters andName Recognition of Letters

Materials: sheets of paper, crayons, magazines, newspapers, glue, scissors,magnet for refrigerator

Starting with the letter Aa, print a large capital A and a small a on one of thesheets of paper. Have your child cut out both capital A's and small a's frommagazines and newspapers.* Then glue all the A's on the Aa paper. This may takemore than one day to finish. About 15 minutes at one time is all you should spend onthis project. Your child can always work on it again the next day. When the lettersheet is finished, attach it to the refrigerator. Talk about the new letter for severaldays, then continue to letter Bb, etc. Save all the letter sheets to use as flash cards orto practice putting in alphabetical order when the whole alphabet is completed.

*Alternate suggestions: Have your child write the letter all over the sheet, cut outpictures of objects that start with the letter (consonants only), or use sandpaperletters so your child can practice feeling the shape of the letter.


,N,0810 Es47

39

Th6 lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Visual Skills



Visual MemoryMaterials: up to 10 &miner objects (clothespins, pencil, penny, crayon, fork,

barrette, toy figures, bar of soap. rabberband, etc.)

Begin with two objects. Let your child view the objects for 5-10 seconds, then coverand ask her to name the objects. After doing this 2-3 times using different objectseach time, place two objects on table. Let your child view these objects, and then haveher cover her eyes while you remove one object. Show the object thatyou did notremove, and ask your child to tell you what is missing.

Play this game until you feel your child is ready to go to three objects. Follow theabove instructions. Some children may be able to continue to four or five objects.


Skill LevelKindergarten

Advanced

Visual MemoryMaterials: up to 10 familiar objects

Begin by laying three objects on the table in a specific order. Letyour child viewfor 5-10 seconds (longer if necessary). Cover the objects and have child name theobjects in order. Do this several times using different objects. Once your child hasmastered three objects, then add one more. Continue this procedure by adding onemore object each time the task becomes easy.

You can extend this activity by removing one of the objects while your child hashis back to the table. Have him turn around and name the missing object.


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The TEA -AEL Parent Education Notebook Visual Skills


Kinderge 'nAdvanced

"Look, What Comes Next?"Assemble a large variety of small objects (bottle caps, pennies, buttons,acorns,

small blocks, rings, etc.). Lay out a sequence pattern such as:

button, button, acorn, block, button, button, acorn,

Ask your child, "What comes next?" Continue with various patterns of differentdegrees of sequence difficulty.

You may also use beads of various colors and shapes.


"I Spy"



Find or plant an object or objects in your child's room and then F .13, "We are goingto play a ;:rame, a game with our eyes. I will give you a clue (hint) and you guesswhat I am ilking about. I spy with my little eye something red."

If child does not guess correctly, give another due. "I spy 1 /Rh my little eyesomething red and round." Continue until your child names the object. Now, givethe child a turn.


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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive--Language Skills,


Kindergarten

First, Last and MiddleMaterials: 5 pieces of food such as pieces of cereal, marshmallows, carrot sticks; 5buttons, pebbles, or sticks; 5 different colored squares of contructionpaper: red, blue,yellow, orange, and green

Forma row of the 5 buttons, pebbles, or sticks. Say to your child, "Hand me thefirst button, the last button, and the one in the middle." (Put the button back eachtime.)

Now, place 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 orange, and 1 green square in a horizontal(side by side) row and tell your child, "Give me the first red square. Give me the lastgreen square. Give me the yellow square in the middle." (Let your child put bacx thesquare after each time.)

Now place the same 5 squares vertically (up and down) and ask your child thesame questions.

Place the squares in a pile. Ask your child to find the redsquare and place it first.Then get a blue square and put it next, then the yellow square next to the blue, placethe orange one next, and the green square last.

Place the five pieces of food in a row. Ask your child to eat the piece in the middle,then the first piece, and then the last piece.

Discuss other examples of thi.. concept that happen around the home. Ask:"Who gets up first every day?" "Who comes home last?" "Who sits in the middle ofour car?"

Day Care and Home Learning ActivitiesPlans, Appalachia Educational Laboratory,Alice M. Spriggs, General Editor, Vol. 1,No. 9-7, IvUmi, FL: EducationalCommunications, Inc., 1978.

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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive -- Language Skills



Thinking ActivitiesObserving:

1. Show a picture of something occurring. Ask your chile to tell what ishappening.

2. Give your child opportunities to touch various textures, taste and smelldifferent foods, and smell different odors. Have your child describe eachexperience.

Comparing:1. Have your child compare two animals or two people in a story read by you.2. Have your child compare different types of work.

Classifying1. Have your child classify an assortment of blocks, buttons, etc.2. You group a number of items and then ask your child to determine how those

items were grouped. (By color? shape? size? etc.)

Summarizing:1. Ask your child to summarize the funniest, saddest, most exciting part ofa

story.2. Ask your child to suggest captions, titles, endings for pictures or stories.

le for I.ssumptions:Show your child two differently-shaped containers each holdinga quantity ofwater. Alt which contains more water. (Help the child to understand thatthe only accurate way to determine which container holds more water is tomeasure it.)

2. Ask your child to look at the sky and to predict the wePther. Help the child tounderstand ?,mat these are guesses. Perhaps a discussion about qualifyingwords would help to clarify here. There's a difference between saying, "It'sgoing to rain," and "It looks as if it might rain!"

Criticizing:1. Ask, "What did you like best in school today? Why?"2. After reading a story, ask, "How did you like that story?"

Decisionmaking:1. Ask your child, "What people in stories, movies, TV, etc would you like to

invite to a party?"2. Ask your child, "What would you do if you were the teacher?"

Imagining:1. Ask your child, "What would you do if you had 100 blocks?"2. Ask your child, "What would you do if you were lost in the woods?"

Adapted, by permission of the publisher, from Raths et Ed. Teaching forThinkingTheory, Strategies, and Activities for the Classroom, new edition (NewYork: Teachers College Press 01986 by Teachers College, Columbia University. Allrights reserved.)

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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook CognitiveLanguage Skills

Skin Level:Prekindergarten


Make Use of Everyday Activities!1. When walking or riding down the street, point to words, letters, and numbers

on traffic signs.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, ask your child to find things for you.

3. When you get home from the store, have your child help you put things away.

4. Talk with your child while doing things together: folding laundry, driving inthe car, cooking, working in the yard.

5. Ask your child to sequence the events of the day at dinner or bedtime.

6. Discuss what you have seen on TV or read together. Ask questions: "Whowas your favorite character? Why? What would you have done? What do youthink will happen next?"

7. Sing songs.

8. Repeat favorite nursery rhymes and stories.

9. Encourage questions from your child and try to answer them.

10. Point out interesting things that are happening: a house beingconstructed, a road being paved.

11. Discuss and explain different ways to group objects: color, shape, size,weight, texture.

12. Give your child responsibilities at home.

13. Encourage your child to make predictions about events and about conse-quences of those events.

14. Show your child that you enjoy reading!

15. Read to your childevery day!

Adapted from "A Briefing for Parents:Reading at School and at Home" byMadelyn Stover, copyright 1981 (Stock No.0871-5-00). Reprinted with permission fromthe NEA, Washington, D.C.

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The lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook ,;nitive--LanguadllsSkill Level:


Body Parts1. Play this touch game with your child. Can you touch your:

1. nose to knee? 5.2. chin to chest? 6.3. elbows to hips? 7.4. toes to nose? 8.

elbow to leg?chin to wrist?elbow to waist?wrist to ankle?

2. Ask your child to make these movements:

stamp your fees.to your chestrub your chintouch yourelbows together

1. dose your eyes 5.2. clap your hands 6.3. wiggle your nose 7.4. bend yourknees 8.

3. Teach your child this fmgerplay:

9. ankle to knee?10. wrist to waist?11. knee to chest?12. wrist to hip?

9. bend your ankle10. grab your waist11. slap your hips12. twist your wrist

Eye Winker

Eye Winker (point to eye), Ear Hearer (point to ear),Nose Smeller(point to nose), Mouth Eater (point to mouth),Chin Chopper (tap chin),Chin Chopper,Chin Chopper, Chin Chopper, Chin.

4. Materials: Cardboard, scissors, glue, 13 paper fasteners, movable figure

With your child's help, make a cardboard person. Put it together with paperfasteners so that the head, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, andankles are movable. Have your child move a part of the person and name the partthat is moved.

5. Play "Simon Says." Ask your child to touch the parts of the body named above.You should touch the parts on yourself as a model, if necessary. Perhaps yourchild would like to be "Simon" and name parts for you to touch.

Day Care and Home Learning ActivitiesPlans, Appalachia Educational Laboratory,Alice M. Spriggs, General Editor, Vol. HI,No. 50-1, Miami, FL: EducationalCommunications, Inc., 1978.

564 6

I

The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive -- Language Skills

Skill Level:Prekindergart

Kindergarten

SequencingMaterials: peanut butter, crackers, knife

Tell your child that you are going to make peanut butter and crackers, and shemust tell you how to do it. Explain that you are going to do exactly what she aays todo. Sometime children do not dearly see the steps that events must take. Followyour child's instructions to the letter, giving clues when things don't go properly(such rag putting the ut butter on the cracker with your fingers because no onetold you to use a ). This can be a fun learning experience for you and your child.Laugh and have a good time and help your child better understand that most eventstake place in an ordered sequence.

You can do other activities in this same way, such as making pudding, makingyour bed, brushing your teeth, etc.



Kindergarten

What Happened Next?1. Have your child retell a favorite story.

2. Tell the first part of a familiar story and let your child finish it.

3. Make picture cards of scenes from a story or a familiar activity. Sometimes comicstrips can be cut up. Have your child arrange them in proper sequence.


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The TEA -AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive- -Math Skills


Counting

Counting is an activity you can do every day with your d ld. Count out loud thesteps on the stairs, count ice cubes as you put them into a glass, count apples you putinto the bag at the stare, and any other activity where you have to count. You can usenumbers when speaking to your child: "Bring me four forks," "Put on two shoes,""We need three eggs for the recipe," "Put these two letters in the mailbox," etc. Helpyour child use numbers by making counting an everyday activity.



MemorizingMemorizing the numbers 1-10 gives your child the language skills to further

explore numbers.

1. Read beginning counting books to your child.

2. Make up a tune or verse to count the first ten numbers.

3. Watch "Sesame Street" on TVthey always have fun with numbers.

4. Buy a set of wooden or plastic numbers at the store and make up games withthem.

5. Play the card game "War" and have your child say which wins, the 5 card orthe 7 card.

6. Practice using ordinalsfirst, second, third, etc. Put this shirt in your thirddrawer, turn to the second page, etc.

Memorizing and Sorting Activities, p.161in What Did You Learn in School Today? byBruce Baron, Christine Baron, and BonnieMacDonald. Reprinted with permission.

61

The 1EA-AEL Parent Education tkorbook Cognitive- -Math Skills



Numerals 1-10Here are some numeral poems we use at school to help the children learn to write

the numerals 1-10. You can use these at home with your child to help reinforce whatis taught !it school. Say the poem with yorr child as you write the numerals. NOTE:All the numerals start at the top.

1. A straight line one is fun.

2. Up, around, slant down and back on the track, two, two.

3. Around the tree and around the free, that', a three.

4. Down and across and down once more, that's a four.

5. Fat old five goes down and around, put a flag on top and what have you found?

6. A line and a loop, six rolls a hoop.

7. Across the sky and down from heaven, that's a seven.

8. Make an S and then don't wait, go right back up and you will have an eight.

9. A loop and a line, that's a nine.

10. A one and a zero, we have ten fingers you know.


5o

The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive- -Math Skills


Kindergarten

Match Numerals 1 to 101. Materials: 10 cards (3" x 5" or bigger) with the numerals 1 to 10 printed one to a

card, small objects such as pennies, rocks, marbles, nails, bottle tops,etc.

Place all 10 numeral cards on the table face up. Place a number of objects in frontof your child. Have your child find the numeral card that tells how many objectsyou have placed in front of her. Do this activity until your child is able to do iteasily. This is an activity that can be done anytime. Do not spend more than 15minutes on this activity unless your child is really enjoying it. If she needs morepractice, continue the game another day.

To extend this activity, have your child choose a card and count out objects thatmatch the ritimeral.

'7.

2. Materials: two sets of numeral cards with 1 to 10 printed on them.

Lay both sets of cards face down on the table in mixed-up order, one set on the leftand one set on the right. Have your child pick a card from each set. If they matchand your child can name the numeral, he may keep the cards. If not, turn thecards back over and you take a turn. Continue until all matches have been found.Once your child easily knows 1 to 10, add numerals up to 25.


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fis lEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook Cognitive - -Math Skills


Kindergarten

"Touchable Counting Poster

Collect some interesting small objects that are alike. Some suggested objects are:buttons, small bandages, cotton balls, stamps, paper clips, dried beans, smallpebbles, colored paper shapes, etc. You will need ten of one object, suchas buttons,nine of another object such as paper clips, and so on. On a large sheet of poster boardor cardboard, draw ten evenly spaced lines about two inches apart across the page.Neatly draw the numeral 1 on the first line and glue one object on that line to go withit Cnntintie writing numerals and gluing objects until you reach the numera110.Your child could help you make the poster. Touching the objects will aid incounting. The poster will also help your child see at a glance the fact that eight ismore than two.

From Power Pak, IPD #259, p. 170, by Claudette Gronaki and Judith Meeker.Copyright ©1984 by Incentive Publications, Inc., Nashville, TN 37215. Used bypermission.

h A cC2D.2.

106 ,

?3,0013i04 0 0 0s A

6.......,ii7

90V VC9c,011ene1519111

=8 * 4. * It * * 'tau *'..41 060 eget/L.4:i,10 0000000000

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The TEA-AEL Parent Education Notebook CognitiveMath Skills


Kindergarten

One to One CorrespondenceMaterials: small objects such as buttons, bottle tops, poker chips, nails, pennies,

screws, rocks, clothespins, etc.

Tell your child you are going to play a matching game. Place one object on thetable. Ask your child to make a set with the same number of members** as yourset. The child does not have to use the same kind of object you used, but must havethe same number of objects (in this case, one object) rIontinue this game usingdifferent numbers of members in your set each tim' t your child make the set andyou make an identical set. Make a mistake and see u ;our child can find themistake. Always be positive with your child even during times of difficulty.

*Seta group of objects that go together in some manner.**Memberone object of the set.

O


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the lEA-AEL Patent Education Notebook

I.

1

SelectedResources to

Share with

Parents

a54

Motor Skills

How to writea finger play

By Carol Ann Piggins

Finger plays are a great help inteaching concepts to preschool-ers but sometimes it's impossibleto find the exact play that geacross a concept you want toteach. You search the library,comb the magazines and solicit allyour colleagues until you're readyto give up Don't You can writeyour own finger plays more easilythan you think

Begin by identifying your con-cept and then follow these simpleguidelines

Keep it simple A complicatedfinger play is confusing to children8nd difficult for you to remember

Keep the iines short, aboutthree to six words each, keep thenumber of lines to a minimum.say, four, six. or eight

Trie author s Executive Director of CreativeEducation Associates Racine wi

Use rhyme when possibleitmakes the finger play easier toremember and provides practicein rhyming for the children.

Use repetition when possibleRepeating words, phrases, pat-terns or effects can serve as amemory aid for you and the chil-dren

Relate the content of thefinger play to something withwhich the children are familiar. Afinger play about a mouse willhave much more impact than oneabout a microprocessor.

Kee' the movements simpleIf the m ,^ns are too complex, thechildr.- will worry more about the"doing" than the meaning of thewords

Tech only one or two con-cepts at a time Don't try to teachcolors, numbers, directions andbeginning sounds all in the samelinger play

Make sure to have a naturalclosure, don't let you, finger playjust "dribble" off 'Tile listenershould know the play has endedUse the completion of a pattern, a

final action, action of departure orfinal-sounding words such asdone, none, or away to achieveclosure

Now let's put all these guide-lines to the test Imagine youwanted to write a finger play deal-ing with the concepts of over andunder. Following the guidelines.you might come up with a fingerplay like this

Line 1: Here is a bed To makethe "bed," hold your left arm, bentat a 45 degree angle at the elbow.parallel to the ground, palm facingdown.

Line 2. Here com..s a mouseShow the mouse creeping withtwo of the fingers of your oppositehand.

Line 3 Over he goes "Jump"two of your fingers over the Oed

Line 4 And under he goesMove two of your fingers in acrawling motion under the bed

Line 5 Then he runs home tohis house "Run" two of yourfingers back tc' the house

You're going to be a fingerplaywright in no time

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years, Inc.,Westport, CT 06880. From the March 1981 issue of Early Years.

55

Social Skills

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher,Early Years, Inc., Westport, CT 06880. Fromthe August-September 1983 issue of Early Years.

Behavioral IndicatorsOf Self- Esteem

By Dr. Susan Rae Miller

FOR LEVELS PREK THROUGH 4

What could be as important to chil-dren as having a healthy self-con-

cept/ Not too many other things Just asteachers test for developmental skills.it's also possible to learn more abouthow children view themselves With theseinsights a teacher and parent can takethe vital steps necessary to .mprcve afaltering self-image which, if unchecked.could profoundly affect a child's develop-ment

Self-Awareness Somewhere betweenthe ages of three and five, children's senseof self begins to affect virtually every ac-tion They try Jut new skills, attempt tomaster their environment and, in general,start to establish their autonomy Throughtheir successes and positive feedbackfrom people who are important to them,they adopt a good self-image Further-more, they begin to differentiate their self-feelings into separate developmentalareas Or domainsphysical, cognitive.social, and emotional sell In other words.they begin to develop self-esteem regard-ing their performance in physical skillareas: their ability to solve problems: tneirsuccess at interacting with peers: andtheir confidence in expressing emotionsto others.

It's at this stage of development thatadults can observe the emergence of VIIP

44

C>PASS ONTO PARENTS

Erin Searle and Karly Bache( hid a owlet place to restThese fouryear-olds are in the OreschoOl program at theUniversity of Sr Thomas School tor Young ChildrenHouston Teas

tous forms of child behavior, and begin tonotice patterns in young children whichmay indicate how they feel about their dif-ferent "calves This expression of sor-eAwn often appears in common. every-day behaviors such as eagerness or re-luctance to engage in new activities

A Checklist Through the use of a simple.Observational checklist. preschool teach-ers and parents can collect meaningfuldata concerning a child's self-esteem Al-though standardized and more directmeasures of self-esteem are available.most of these assessment instruments in-volve open-ended verbal or written re-sponses which are not appropriate for thepreschooler The instrument which followswas designed to be used as an initialscreening device for preschool teachers.daycare personnel, and parents who wishto gather informal data regarding howSelf-esteem is manifested fn Children'sbehaviors

In addition, the checklist correlates be-haviors with one or more developmentaldomains Teachers can then have moreSpecific information on which aspects ofa child's self-esteem are especially posi-tive. and which areas seem to need im-provement. If the behavioral instrumentseems to indicate that a child has ex-cessively negative or low self-esteem inone or more areas, further tibservationand testing of a more specific nature

5I)

could be conducted by a child psycholo-gist or school counselor

Building Self-Esteem With some chil-dren. teachers may feel further testing isnot necessary. but that it would be ap-propriate to begin some form of immedi-ate remediation to enhance the child'sself-esteem in one or more areas For ex-ample. children' books or films, open-ended art project role-playing and largegroup discussions during circle time allencourage self-expression and positiveattitudes in young children Suggestionsfor specific activities to improve sell-esteem in each developmental area canbe found in a variety of sources Two es-pecially helpful books for teachers areEnhancing Self Concept in Early Childhood. by Shirley C Samuels (HumanScience Press, Inc , 72 Fifth Ave NewYork, NY 10011, 1977). and 100 Ways toEnhance SelfConcept in the Classroom.A Handbook for Teachers and Parentsby Jack Canfield and Harold C Wells(P mice -Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs. NJ07632. 1976)

When preschool teachers have administered the checklist, developed class-room activities for remediation, andreferred selected students for furthertesting, they 1.4n be confident the firststeps have been taken to MO their stu-dents develop that al! important feeling ofpositive self-esteem.

EMLY vtanSiaueuS711E,70AIEN titre

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Behavioral IndicatorsOf Self-Esteem

In Young ChildrenCorrelation withDevelopmentalDomains

tiits;b1st=1_1

IFit

g s BEHAVIORSa

Ea

A .

Often says. "I can do that "Rarely speaks in large group or circle time

_Volunteers to answer teacher's questions dur-ing circle time

.

Maintains direct eye contact when speakingwith othersAvoids looking at others; looks down towardsfloor when speaking.-..--,Takes care of school property; returns materialsto proper placeDestroys classroom materials

IEnjoys playing different roles in the housekeep-ing or dramatic play center

I Often asks other children to join in playactivities

IPrefers to play aloneHas good posture; stands and walks uprightSucks thumbBites nails or fingersCries excessively for no apparent reasonClearly and eagerly expresses feelings whenexcited or upset

IWhines rather than expresses needs Or feelingsin words

I

=--I-I

Always lees leacher" about another child'smisbehaviorWorks out peer problems with peers. ratherthan always telling the teacher

I

-I

Ha s poor posture; slumps when standing andwalking

- Is willing to share materials with others

ITears up papers and "starts over" if one erroris made

I Often verbalizes negative feelings about others(e.g.. "He's dumb')

I

IMfamilyakes positive verbal comments about friends,

7 Helps other children when they need assistance

ISuggests alternative, innovative methods andnew ideas for completing projectsIs reluctant about trying new activities

Mt Offers suggestions for solving problemsParticipates eagerly in outdoor play activities

IWill not

gaengage in gross motor play or outdoor

group mes. Upon &revel at sCh001, always waits to be told

what to do. Seldom laughs or smiles

WILY vEAhemutiUSTIMEMIER

Using the Chart1. Instructions: Read the following list ofbehaviors. If the behavior is part of thechild's pattern, make a check mark in thebox to the left of the description. (To helpidentify behavioral patterns within the de-velopmental domains. each behavior hasbeen coded(*) to one or more areas of de-velopment.)

2. After completing the checklist, add thenumber of checks in the two columns Ifthere is a considerable difference betweenthe two numbers and the largest total is inthe column of positive behavioral indicators.the child is probably feeling good abouthimseif/herself and hence has high self-esteem. If the totals are equal or thelargest number is in the column of nega-tive behavioral indicators, the child may behaving self-doubts and therefore low self-esteem Additionally. if the negative be-havioral indicators appear to be clusteredin one or two developmental domains. it ispossible that the child is experiencing lowself-esteem concerning those areas onlyand may not have poor self-esteem in allrespects (for example. negative behavioralindicators might appear In the social andemotional areas while the child had highself-esteem about physical skills)

Susan Rae Miller is Assistant Professor and DirectorOf Early Childhood Programs University 01 StThomas Houston TX

57 45

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Motor and Auditory Skills

Robert L. Carl

From Living with Preschoolers, April-June 19So.0 1980 The Sunday School Board of the SouthernBaptist Convention. All rights reserved. Usedby permission.

Preach,. Al----itet---- oue Pk,L arty, can't you play with your toys? Mother has to

prepare dinner now." Throughout the country,manymothers experience at least once each day the familiarproblem of directing their children's interests.

Perhaps Larry doesn't enjoy his toys. Many preschool-ers do not find pleasure in their toys. Often parents do notunderstand the importance of play and toys. They maywish expert advice in the supervision of play or guidancein choosing the right plaything.

When you arz. toy shopping, ask yourself whether thetoy you are considering for your preschooler will affordhim opportunity to develop manual or bodily skills. Willit stimulate artistic and emotional expression? A it suitablefor a child his age? Is it so complicated that your young-ster will easily become discouraged in trying to use it? Isit sturdy enough to last as long as the child is interestedin it?

A vital factor related to choosing a toy is the amountof time a child is expected to play alone. And there is alsothe question of how to train him to be willing to play byhimself However, forcing a child to play alone for longperiods of time may hamper him in developing emceional-ly and socially. Also, you will want to keep in mina thatthe attention of preschoolers is limited.

The right kind of toy helps a child learn how to use hismind and body. It teaches him to share and to get alongwith others. Choose a toy in relation to the physical abili-ties of a child, whatever his age may be. Before his schoolyears begin, he must learn to use his large muscles. He isnot ready to handle materials requiring the coordinationof fine muscles. Those skills are developed during child-hood and improved throughout adolescence.

During the child's toddler stage, the family's furniturewill probably be in for a beating. Why not provide thechild with a small, but sturdy, chair that he can pusharound? This activity will aid him in developing the mus-cles he needs for walking and running. A small wheelbar-row will provide him enjoyment and will allow him toexercise also.

Picture books, especially the ones which contain famil-iar objects, fill a real need for the preschooler. Youngpreschoolers par.icularly prefer trains, automobiles, anaanimals to the fanciful and the faraway, which have noimmediate meaning in their lives.

April, May. kw 19110

By using the captions and simple texts in picture books,you can begin early to read aloud to the preschooler. Readslowly, allowing plenty of time for comments.

An important factor often overlooked is the cultivationof the preschooler's sense of touch. Sand and water rz:exciting. Even the feel of grain under tiny bare feet isenjoyable. Soap bubbles, soft dolls and animals, clay,finger paints, and mud pies allow the preschooler to devel-op his sense of touch. Mention to the child how soft thewoolly bear is or bow firm the modeling clay is. This willhelp him to associate words with the sense of touch.

Recordings fascinate children at an early age. But yourtwo-year-old will be interested only in simple music. As hegrows older, you will want tc provide more elaboratecompositions. If music is a normal sound around thehome, the child may derive pleasure from it without yourbeing aware of his interest. But as he develops enough tomove around under his own power, note his reaction tomusic at this stage!

Choose music with clear, incisive rhythms, smart paces,and simple melodies. Happy folk :songs and marches areideal. A joyous movement from a Mozart serenade ant. thesturdy, foursquare momentum ofa Bach composition willappeal to a youngster. Vary spirited music with calm,soothing melodies that will be restful to the child's ner-vous system.

If a child's life is full of opportunities for getting smutand exploring his home and if he has materials and toysin his room for creative experiences, he may to a largeextent be left free to express himself %is he wishes. How-ever, toys may be meaningless unless they are supplement-ed by life's experiences. Toys should be viewed asmaterials by which the child will learn about the world belives in.

You will want to remain alert to opportunities to pla)spontaneously with your child. Plan activities that willhelp him develop in body, mind, and spirit. Help him tolearn unselfishness and thoughtfulness and considerationtoward others. Teach him to become self-reliant, coura-geous, and honest. And, remember, toys can be used effec-tively in your child's development, but only if balancedwith meaningful interaction with persons. o

Robert L Carl is a free-lance writer from Santa Ana, California.

6811

Auditory Skills

Parents,yo- r too are dreamweavers

By Carol Hurst

FOR LEVELS PREK THROUGH 12

StorytellingTell me a storyTake me there!To Camelot and Arthur's knightsAnd lovely GuinevereTell me about OlympusAnd the gods that ruled the air

Tell me a storySet me free!In the land of thorn-walled castlesAnd the magic number threeThree bears, three pigs, three billy goatsAnd wishesalways three.

Tell me your storyMake me know!What you did and what you likedAnd where you used to goWhat made you cry rid laug and loveSo many years ago

Tell me my storyLet me see!The laughing tiny baby thatI used to beTe" me why I'm special and ofThe love you have for me

And when you've told those storiesTell me more!The world is full of stories once weOpen up the door.

Carol Ohs Hurst

finv world as a child was full of stor-ies. Sometimes my father would

tell stories before we went to bed. Afterclosing up the gas station, he'd clean up,then pick up the youngest child and rockwhile we all listened to the stories of pir-ates and knights. Sometimes he'd singstory-songs of Clemente,* and &veetBetsy from Pike in a voice that was won-derful, though always off-key.

My older sisters told stories from thethick fairy tale books of Grimm, Ander-sen and Lang that they brought home

Storytelling's not a lost art (we all hold stories inside us, someold, some new) it's just your technique needs a little brushingupmaster storyteller Carol Hurst tells how

from the library. Sometimes two of themwould have a "telIng bee"just onetale after another, each trying to best theotherwhile I reaped all the benefits.

Grandma Clark had her stories to tellas well We'd all sit on the cushionedrockers on her front porch and she'd telltales of a young boy and girl from feudingfamilies who fell in love, of murder in EScottish castle, of an old man cruellyturned out by selfish daughters. Occa-sionally, she'd include a kind of poetry inher stories Often. I couldn't quite under-stand the poems, but I loved their music.Those stores paid extra dividendsnotonly did they keep me wide-eyed on thefront porch. but high school Shakespearenever threw me, for I recognized thecharacters and their soliloquies. I oftenwonder if Gram planned rt that way

Grandpa Ohs was also a storytellerHis were stories of growing up in the hillsof Western Massachusetts, of the anticsof hired men and town characters and ofthe tricks played on city slickers Some ofhis family had gone west to homestead inMontana, while others searched for goldin California. Their stories came to usthrough Gramp and, without ever havingmet most of them, we knew all aboutthem and their adventures.

School held stories, too, for in sixthgrade I found Miss Grout. She'd been toevery national park in her '36 PackardThrough her I saw and felt every wonderin Yellowstone I even touched the veryhp of my finger, for an instant, in the boil-ing water of Morning Glory Pool andwound up with a blister. I haven't been toYellowstone since then. I'm afraid theymight have changed it since Miss Groutand I were there.

Ducting Off A Lost Art I'm sure theStorytellers in my youth were not uniqueand you probably had your owl. but howmany storytellers are in your children's

hes? Are TV and movies their onlysources of stories? If they are, your chil-dren have no chance to visuz hze. Alltheir stories are fantasized, acted outand recorded for them These stories areonly absorbed pit.sively while your chil-dren stare at the screen; kids' imagina-tions don't get a chance to exercisethemselves that way

These days, many credien probablyhave little chance to hear family stories.Grandparent, and other extended familymembers used to tell stories, but nowthey seldom live in the same house andholiday visits are usually too frantic topromote much storytelling

And, it's sad but true, most schoolsdon't offer many story-hearing expen-ences either. although the best teachersare usually crackerjack storytellersSomehow, we've let audio-visual mater-ials take over that role in most class-rooms

But be of stout heart! All is not lost!You can come to the rescue for yourhead is full of stories First of all, if any-one ever told you a story, you haven'treally forgotten it It lingers somewherein the attic of your mind. Dust rt off Oh,sure, some of its edges are a little wornand it's crackad in a few places, but a lit-tle Imagination and inventiveness can fixit up in no tirne.

Continued on page 50

EARLY YEARS/DECEMBER teat .27

59

DREAMWEAVERSContinued from pogo 27

Al a story needs to succeed is a beginning, middle and end. You've got tomow what Is about and what the prob-lem or conflict is and than you've pc' toremoter how the characters solvedthe problem or were defeated by it. Thenpave got to wrap k up with a"heppeyewer after" or its equivalent. My detailsyou remerrber vaIN also he in makingthe story more vivid, the charactersmore fully drawn.

You know other stories, too. from thebooks you've read and movies you'veseen. Do your children know Tom Saw-yer and Huckleberry Finr, Have theymet Long John Silver? Long beforethey are old enough to sit through areading of many of the classics, yourchildren can be fascinated by hearingsome of their episodes. If you knowsome plots, try them out on your kids;you may whet their appetites for more.

Then of course, there are your familystories These stories he your childrengain some sense of who they are. Theyalso he them gain some perspective onyou as well. Tell them about you whenyou were growing up. Don't gild the lilytoo muchit's good to tell them aboutsome stupid or naughty things you did aswell as about the tines you acted bravelyand altruistically.

Tell them stories of your ancestors.too. if you know them Why die your %firily come to this part of the world) Whatwas Me like in the country they left') Yousay you don't know? Find out together

and then tell thew stories beach other.a special relieve is about lo col

brats a Whiny or anniversary, or for athey outelending Christine@ present forpandparents. you can help a child give avaindedul and unforgettsble gift. Havethe child, a gavot children. or own thewhole tan* learn the Ito story of theperson to be honored. This recitetion illperanteed to bring down the house andit won't cost a cent. Furthermore, it justfright bring about a mutual respect thatwas not steep in evidence before. Thematerial for the story Isn't herd to comeby. It's there for the asking.

&course it's herd to start telling stor-ies If your children are used to only hewand.now conversations with you, theycertainty we/ be taken aback when yousuddenly turn off their favorite IV program and launch into your own renditionof The Prince and the Pauper. So, givepurse!f a chance for success. Don7choose such a trine for your debut. Wasuntil you're on a long car trip and havewheusted :2 of the word games wheoeven arguing has lost its venom. if longtrips aren't in the offing, there's always achance of a blackout when you're allstaring at a candle. Mealtimes makegood launching times. too. except thestoryteller always ends up with a colddinner

Minato Communication. Whatevertime you choose to tell a story, don'tmake a big deal out of rt. Just tell yourstory simply (there are seldom talentscouts in the audience) and your kids willlove rt. They've probably raver seen that

side of you beta:. You don't need manystories to be in greet demand as a story.teller, either. I started with Beer Rabbitstories for my awl kids and I'm still get.ling mileage rut of them. Your kids willask for the gems ones over and over.wvul see.

After all the are you still thinking "Whybother'?" Storytelling via help your kidsget to know you better. They'll see whatmakes you lough or cry or cringe withhoax. Your very choice of story will tellWhen, a whole lot about you. There's anklimecy about shoring a story that'shard to duplicate, its a way of communi-cating without lecturing. scolding or nag-

ging.You'll get to know your children better.

too. Look Straight at them as you tell astory. 'We don't took at one anotherenough.) That way, you can watch asmile begin tentatively and then eruf;' inID a guffaw. You'll also spy a tear as itsides down a cheek or watch mouths lit-erally drop open as a story takes hold

You'll probably uncover other story-teem as well. Don't be surprised if an-other family member takes courage fromyour success and tries to get into the actSoon you'll have a host of stories andstorytellers. You may even start to givethe TV set a run for its money Storieshave a way of taking over and a familywith a fund of stories in common just hasto be closer Man a family without OneCome on now and try it! Once Lire. ATime.... 4,CerolHorslislexerolowtheAsoevPrkuovnay School. Westfield Stow College westheloMe and a eorenDuling Nieto, to Er

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years, Inc., Westport, CT06880. From the December 1981 issue of Early Years.

6Th

Visual SkillsReprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years,Inc., Westport, CT 06880. From the December 1981 issueof Early Years.

Visual perception activitiesfor parents

By Dr. Peggy Glazzard

FOR LEVELS PRE-K THROUGH 1

Many of the activities children workon in the primary grades require

them to gain mastery of skills such ascoloring. cutting, discrimination andmatching. Students with poor perceptualmotor skits will have difficulty followingdirections requiring these skills. Writingletters and numbers requires even moreeyeend coordination, a skill that can bepracticed at home, under the supervisionof parents. As a metier of fact, parentscan be vary effective in this area and thepractice very helpful for their youngsters.

Shape discrimination is a precursor todiscriminating between letters and num-bers. Matching likenesses and differ-ences leads to later line discriminationbetween similar words such as readandsaid or can and cat. Many educators be-lieve that children can't be trained in per-ception skills. However. I believe thateye-hand coordination practice is bens-ficiel for young children; mastery of cut-ting and coloring gives kids more confi-dence to try new readiness activities atschool. That's a big plus.

Drawing attention to details such asword endings or medial sounds helps in

44

EY Contributing Editor Peggy Glazzard provides parents withthe ways and means to help children develop in visualperception

focusing the perception skills childrenalready have. Doing extra practice athome with activities that are fun can bevery beneficial for children. And parentsare excellent tutors when given a pro-gram of skills that are in conceit withthose used by the teacher in the class-room. Just remember, if one is concern-ed about reading skills or spelling, oneshould work on those skills. If one is con-cerned about writing skills, work on writ-ing skills with letters and not with isolatedmazes or randomly selected dot-to-dotactivities that may not build on skills achild already has. As a general rulethough, parent-child practice sessionsshould be non-threatening and should bekept brief.

Teachersfeel free to duplicate andsend home the following activities withyour students.

On paper, draw straight, curved andspiral lines rith a uroatipped left pen

Ask your child to cut along the lines withscissors.

Find several large, relatively simplepictures in old magazines or newspapersand outline thorn with a broad-tipped feltpen. Invite your child to cut them out.Later on, progress to smeller, more de-tailed pictures.

Give your child plenty of chances tomanipulate objects with his hands en-courage your child to descrbe the like-nesses and differences between all kindsof objects. After you've gone groceryshopping. for instance. have your childstack the canned goods in the cupboardaccording to contentsall the beans to-gether. all the corn together. all the pearstogether. etc. Younger children can sortthe silverware kilo the silverware trayknives together. forks together. 1st

E1

spoons together, tablespoons togetherCopy simple illustrations such as

these on paper and invite your child tosupply the missing elements a tree with-out a portion of the trunk; an elephantwithout a trunk; a car without a wheel. aface without a nose, eye, mouth, etc

Children love connectthe-dot pic-tures and they're easy to make at homeStart out with drawings of simple objectsexpressed with large dots, then go on tomore complicated drawings usingsmaller dots Here are two examples-

Copy simple geometric shapes onpaper (rectangles, squares, triangles. cir-cles) including several of each kindShow your child the paper and ask him totell you which shapes are the same andwhich are different. Then, if you like. askyour child to copy a shape you point toon the sheet or to cut out a shape youpoint to.

Fold a sheet of paper several timesAsk your child to first trace over the foldswith his finger and then to draw along thefolds with a cra"on.

Have your child trace (follow thelines with his finger) comic strip charac-ters from the newspaper. While hetraces, or afterwards, have him describewhat he traced what body part or arti-cle of clothing for example.

Theft NOM Were developed by the Seem' Wu.cation Intenteciparory Team or Me University orKansas Medical Censer. Kenos City. Ks Dr Glusent m scat Macaw Coordinator with theChildren's IISMONNOtion UMW fAF. university ofKansas Medical Center.

EARLY YEARS/DECEMA 11111

Visual, Cognitive Language, Motor Skills

PARENTSIt KIDS

--"IrVI

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ALK, TALK,

By Drs. Gary and MaryAnn Manning

parents are powerful allies inthe reading curriculum for

they can provide a multitude oflanguage experiences for theirchildren. There we just so manycommunication activities to befound in daily home life; teacherscon be a great and welcome aid inhelping parents provide these ei-periences. Teich*. have a storeof suggestions that they can sharewith parents-either through aparent newsletter, during parentmeetings or perhaps even in aninformal meeting with individualparents.

The following activities are justperfect for parents to use at homewith their children. Not only arethey designed to help those pre-and early readers. but just se im-portantly, they provide learning ex-periences that both parent andchild can share in together.

Speaking. Children need to beable to express themselves verballybefore they begin reading activi-

The oaten fuel of thOPonNy CollopofWool of Idwolon. Dol. of Boweryono foVCoOd000SEAlooSonollboUnlow-

as My otAltisawaal IMmIlnelum.

How parents conprovide a widerange of kin -guage experienceactivities for theirchildren

ties. The home is where the childlearns to talk and so parents shouldbe encouraged to increase theirviolist interaction with their chil-dren.Parents cox

Talkebadevaryday sightsanciequiriences with their child and'moorage him to talk with them.

litsmind their child ofenjoyableoccasions such w trips, visits torelatives, birthday parties, excur-sions to the zoo, etc. They shouldtalk frequently with their cnildabout these experiences.

Use verbal and visual experi-ences-oral reeding, the child'sart, a televised children's story, arecorded story -as stasis for con-versation. They can ask their childquestions about the experience tostimulate discussion.

Visual lapremiett. Painting,drawing. sculpting and other artactivities are important ways in%Mich children communities theiris.Parents can:

Provide diffenint art inebriatefor the child; pints. =War*. Chsik.and clay are inexpensive melt

Set up an art space at home-any small space will do. In goodweather they might bring the artoutdoors on the lawn or sidewalk.

Have play dough evadable fortheir child. They can either buy thissculpting material or make it (mixone part salt, one part flour and onepart water then stir over lowheat ION thickened). (Teachers:Almoet any object can be madefrom salt/flour dough, but for somestarter ideas, me the article "TMTwelve Gifts of Christmas" in theDecember 'SO issue of EarlyYews. )

Create a display area for theirchild's artwork. The refrigeratordoor, or any door, a shelf or wallare poesitiNties. They can print thechild's name in large letters onpaper or card hoard and post it inthe disPlsY will.

&mem Dramatics. Childrengrow through opportunities to actout their fantasies. Help parentsrealize what a great source theyare for stimulating their child'simmilirilillfmParents can:

SW uo A dress-up area in their

TILK IT UPchild's room or in the family orrecreation room. There, they canplace old clothes, party dresses,work clothes, coats, hats and jew-elry and monis can encouragetheir chid to invite friends to playwith the c'Athes.

kelp their children exercise',heir imaginations. When childrenoffer pretend candy, for instance,parents can thank them and tellthem how much they like the flavor.Responding positively to imaginarypets and friends is important . . .

these fantasies are natural growingexperiences for children.

Engage in creative dramaticswith their child by pretending tohave telephone conversations orby actirg out different characters,re-enacting scenes from televisionprograms, guessing the actions ofanimals, etc.

Encourage all creative en-deavors.

Singing. Children (and parents)usually enjoy singingan outlet forself-expression that should be en-couraged.Parents can:

Sing familiar songs to theirchild. Children enjoy listening totheir parents sing and it encour-ages them to explore their ownvoices.

Look in their library's collec-tion of records or in a music storefor collections of children's songsfor the home. Bookstores too, oftenhave collections of appropriatesongs. One suggestion is the re-cording Mockingbird Flight, avail-able fromThe Economy Company,1901 North Walnut, P.O. Box25308, Oklahoma City, Ok. 73125.

Encourage their child to createnew melodies, adding originallyrics or nonsense syllables to theInvented tunes. They might even trysome spontaneous compositionwith their child and create melodiesfor familiar nursery rhymes.

Movement and Rhythmic Adiel-dee. Let parents know that formal

demo instruction is not the onlyway to encourage self-expressionthrough dance. Children can learnto explore their life spaces by mov-ing in new ways in the informality oftheir own homes.Parents can:

Help their child imffate animalsby asking them to walk like an ale-

6 6 Helpparentsbecomeaware ofthe valueof every-day ex-periencesin thehomeand com-munity" 9

phant, kangaroo or bear or movelike a caterpillar, snake, fish, etc.Parents can move with their childas he or she acts out trees movingin the wind, a kite flying in thebreeze, a bee searching for honey,etc.

Move to a rhythm with theirchild. They can make rhythm in-struments from cardboard boxes,broomsticks, plastic or metal food

containers. They can just turn onthe radio and move to differentkinds of music.

Help their child create dancesto music. Children can begin byImitating dancers on television orby creating original dances. Usinglong scarves or lengths of soft,floaty materials for props also helpsmothrate creative dance.

Reading. Many parents read aloudto their children and the impor-tance of this practice cannot beMet -emphasized. The home is themajor source of motivation forreading.Parents can:

Have as many books in thehome as they can afford. Booksneed not be costly to be useful.They can glean a wide selection of'titles from discount stores orgerage sales.

Read aloud for as many. min-utes each day as their schedulepermits and read some of thebooks over and over again in re-sponse to their child's requests.

Read their own books, papers,or magazines in front of their childfor children need to see that adultsenjoy reading.

Retell stories they've heard orhave told to their child. Parents cantell these stories over and overagain to their child if interest isshown. They might even ask otherfamily members sue` as grand-parents or uncles and aunts to telltheir child stories they know.

Writing. Children can learn muchabout our written language throughseeing adults write. Many commonwriting activities that occur daily inthe home help children understandthat writing is actually talk writtendown.Parents can:

Let their child see them writeand draw attention to the way theymake shopping lists, write letters,make out chicks, etc.

Print family members' firstContinued on moo 84 27

FJ

TALK, TALK

Continued from pap 27

names on pacer for their child tosee and attach the names to therefrigerator door or in some otherprominent place.

Record what their child says.For example, after a trip to thesupermarket or department storeor other activity such as a trip to thecircus or zoo, parents can ask theirchild to tell spout the activity andthen write what he says. Parentscan then display their stories.

"Expodenes" Womb. Having allkinds of experiences helps in-crease a child's vocabulary. Helpparents become aware of the valueof these everyday experiences inthe home and community.Parents can:

Take their child to the placesthey usually frequent in their com-munity. They can le": about thethings and occurrences commonlyseen at the hardware store, super-market, city hall, etc.

Go on as many farnly outingsas possible to places like the park,zoo, library, museum, circus. etc..and then talk about these experi-ences and discuss them for as longat the child shows interest.

The activities we've listed areonly a few of the ways parents canpromote communication growthyou might also want to look into aBrest book on this topic written byClaryce and Roach Van Allen titled.Language Experience Activities(Houghton Mifflin, 2 Park Street,Boston, Ma. 02107).

Parents will be sure to welcomethese suggestions and everyoneparent, teacher and childwillshare in the positive results. +

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years, Inc., Westport,CT 06880. From tho January 1981 issue of Early Years.

64

From Preschool Leadership, October 1978. © 1978 The Sunday School Board of the

Southern Baptist Convention. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

V

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11111'.

z*"410b744Charles Deleene

CognitiveDevelopment:What 161.?Sybil Waldrop

A b, c, d, e, f, g ," sings five-year-old Eric, asPt, he waits his turn to go down the slide. And this

is not all he can do. He can count to one hundred, identifycolors, and point to a pink spot on the globe and say: "Thisis Texas. My grandmother lives here."

To the unknowing observer, it appears that Eric ismaturing early in the area of cognitive development. WhatEric demonstrates through his repertoire of verbal skillsis not his superior cognit I level. Rather, he demonstratesthe fact that his language ability far exceeds his cognitiveability.

Cognitive development is often confused with learningspecific skills and isolated pieces of information whichEric's behavior exemplifies. Cognitive development is notreduced, on the one hand, to leaning the three R's; noris it equated with the growth that occurs during a child'sspontaneous play.

34

CognitiveLanaguage Skills

Cognitive development, much more broad and compre-hensive than either o: these views, refers to intellectualcapacity. It can be defined as growth in the ability tomanipulate and process the information which one ac-quires.

Significantly more important than the ability to quotefacts is the ability to think and solve problems. An oldsaying expresses this with great prency: "Give me a fish,and I at fur a day. Teach me to fish, and I at for alifetime."'

Dr. Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago, aftersummarizing voluminous research, has amazed us withthe fact that the child develops approximately half of hisintellectuality [cognitive "wth] by the age of four. By thetime the child is six, he has ueveloped about two-thirds ofthe intelligence which he will have as an adult. Bloom'sevidence supports the conclusion that the environment

65

Living with Preschoolers

has maximum impact on a characteristic during the pe-riod of its Mat rapid growth.'

In view of this startling information, what do parentsand teachers need to know about how thinking develops?

The work of the Swiss psychologist, Piaget, provides thebest source for the answer to this question. After years ofreputable research, Piaget aas discovered that there arefour stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor (birthuntil about eighteen months), preoperational thinking(eighteen months through seven years), concrete opera-tional (seven through eleven years), and formal operations(eleven years on). The ages are merely suggestive. Eachperson progresses through the stages in the order given,each at his own rate. A stage cannot be skipped.

The sensorimotor period is foundational to later devel-opment. The major tasks of this period are as the nameimpliesto gain control over the physical body (motordevelopment) and to enrich the mental structures withnumerous and meaningful sights, sounds, textures, fla-vors, and fragrances (sensory development). Throughmany experiences with real objects and people, the childlearns that objects exist even when they are removed fromsight. The child who cries when his mother leaves himillustrates this milestone in development. This means thatthe child has a mental representation of an object. Theonset of object permanence and the increased use of lan-guage signal the transition to the preoperational stage

During this second stage in which most kindergartnersare classified, thinking is limited and illogical and unlikeadult thinking.

Remember five-year-old Eric who was singing the al-phabet? Let's take a look as he performs : typical thinkingtask.

Mr. Wall makes two rows of five pennies each, one rightunder the other. Eric understands that each of the tworows has five pennies.

As Eric watches, Mr. Wall spreads the pennies in thebottom row. Then he inquires, "Now, do the two rowshave the same number of pennies or does one row havemore than the other?"

Eric readily responds as he points to the bottom row."This row has more because it is longer."

This reply classifies his thinking as preoperational. Hecan count the five pennies in each row. He can match apenny in one row with a penny ir. the othera skill whichwe label as one-to-one correspondence. But Eric does nothave the concept of numbers. When the row looks longer,Eric thinks that there are more pennies in it.

Correcting his incorrect answer will only confuse him.He is bound by what he sees. Seeing is believing. Hecenters his thinking, on what at the time is the most out-standing variablethe length of the rows.

A teacher might force him to verbalize a right answerto this particular task, but cannot change his thinking.Thinking grows with many experiences and through trialand error, not through logic. Thinking cannot be rushed.

The child in this stage is egocentric; that is, his behavior

April, May, low 13110

and his thinking are from his own point of view. Thismeans that the child is self-centered, not selfish. He simplycannot at this level of thinking put himself in the place ofanother.

Rhonda knows her right hand and her left hand Standher in front of another child face-to-face and ask, "Showuse Carla's right hand." Rhonda will reach with her righthand and touch the hand immediately in front of it (theleft hand of the other person). She cannot mentally putherself in the other person's position. In her own thinking,she has given the right response. To correct her wouldmerely cause her to distrust her thinking.

During group time when Korey stands up in front ofothers so that he can see better, he is totally unaware thathe is pr venting others from seeing. Korey will graduallylearn to put himself in comeone's place as he experienceswhat happens when someone stands in front of him andas his teacher patiently and persistently says such thingsas: "Korey, you can sit here and see. Chris can't see whenyou stand in front of him."

Such behavior on the part of the child, sometimes mis-taken for moral badness, is simply a reflection of his imma-ture thinking.

To expect a child to abide by the Golden Rule whichrequires thinking from another's point of view and re-sponding accordingly would be unreasonable at this stageof cogniti.- "-pment.

Tin ..nild can deal with abstractions only asthey a. _.... al, physical terms. Consider all the abstrac-tions which teachers unjustly impose on young children.Note the abstract words in the Pledge of Allegiance. Oneof the abstractions does have a physical symbol, but tryexplaining/tag to a preschooler. The child puts the onlymeaning he knows into unknown words. Listen as chil-dren say the Pledge of Allegiance. Instead of the childscying, "liberty and justice for all," you might hear himsay, "liver and juice for all."

TI,e preschooler is literal minded. Just think of themental pictures he has when he hears: "You are going tocatch a cold." "Follow the Golden Rule." "Get on theball."

Through many and varied encounters with people,things, and events, the child adds to his thinking power.A child can only take in information which is similar towhat he already knows and understands. As he adaptswhat he knows to make room for the new information, heincreases his cognitive ability. Respect these facts of learn-ing. "Teach him to fish. . . . " 0

'Layne lad Joseph Sap. Lainung sod Grosso: (Pminceliall Inc . Endlcriood Cliffs.Nee Jerte3. 1970. p 12

'Mays Pthes.11noleston is Lamm, (Harper lk Roo. Publishers. new York. 1%7). p 32

Thee mule w reprinted from Preschool Leadership. October 1978 Copyipht 1975.The Snaky School board of the Southern Sophia Convention All rthhts reserved

Mrx Waldrop is supervisor of the Preschool Curriculum Section.Sunday School Department. The Sunday School 'wed, Nash.pille. Tennessee.

66 35

Children as Active Learners Cognitive Language Skills

Developing the Writingof Preschoolers

YETTA M. GOODMAN

In Educational Horizons

LAS teachers and researchers ofthe very young, we have assumedthat learning to read and write areactivities that take place in schooland have to be directly taught. Thebeginnings of the human infant'sdiscovery of the writing systemhave been destroyed, belittled, orignored. Those who believe thatchildren actively control their ownlearning, that preschool play is sig-nificant to the conceptual and lin-guistic development of children,and that children wonder about andsolve the puzzles that are par oftheir daily lives should have real-ized that children are also activelyinvolved in learning to read andwrite.

I place the principles of the writ-ing system that children discover,develop, and learn to control intothree categories:

1. Functional principles developas children solve the problem ofhow writing is used and the pur-poses and significance that writingserves for themselves and others.The development of the functionalprinciples will be influenced by thevalues connected to writing in theireveryday lives as well as the child'sneeds for written language.

2. Linguistic principles develop

APRIL 1986

as children solve the problem ofhow written language is organizedin order to have shared meanings inthe culture. This.includes the ex-ploration of the ort hographic, graph-°phonic, syntactic, and pragmaticrules of written language

3. Relational principles developas children solve the problem ofwhat written language comes tomean. Children come to understandhow written language representsthe ideas and concepts peoele have,the objects in the real world, andoral languages in the culture

These principles develop in con-cert with each other. Children learnthese principles as they activelyparticipate in daily literacy events.As they make these discoveries,children test out many hypothesesand discard earlier conclusions. It istheir active participation in thecomplex interrelationships betweencontext and language that makeslearning to read and write easy.

Yetta M. Goodman is Professor ofEducation and Co-Director, Pro-gram in Language and Literacy,University of Arizona, Tucson.Condensed from Educational Hori-

zons, LX1V (Fall 1985), 17-21.

6 7

PRESCHOOLERS' WRITING

These interrelationships providesupportive and rich cues fromwhich learners select the mostmeaningful.

As children are immersed in writ-ing and reading experience, theyexplore functional principles ofwriting development by askingthemselves why people write andwhat purposes writing serves.

Jill, age four, knows that by put-ting a signMNSRS DNJROSK F PE A WT ("MonstersDanger-ousKeep Out on her bedroomdoor, she is able to get back at herolder sisters who never let her playwith them when they have friendsover. Five-year-old Geoff drew apicture of a truck including the let-ters AP on its side: "That tells youdon't go near that truck 'causethere's a monster in there. He'sgoing to eat you."

Both children, aware that writ-ten language serves to control thebehavior of others, found ways torepresent such functions by postingsigns to tell people what to do. Atthe same time, they displayed thelinguistic principles they are explor-ing. Jill, knowing the alphabeticprinciples of English and whichconsonants represent which so '5,has developed knowledge about theuse of some r nwels and understandsthe concept of word boundariesthrough conventional spacing be-tween words. Geoff knew that hecould assign meaning to a particu-lar form in his picture. ChildrenIarn, also, that written language isused when face-to-face communica-tion is not possible.

45

. As children develop independ-ence in their reading and writing,their productions often look lessconventional than they were whenteachers or parents helped them(by dictating letters with correctspelling for the children to writedown, for example). However,these productions reflect importantmoments in writing development.Development does not always resultin a better product. It is related tothe ability to generate a messagethat shows that the writer is in con-trol and is exploring ways of ex-pressing meaning.

Writing and Drawing

Some two-year-olds develop waysto identify their pictures and theirpossessions (four vertical strokesmay represent a child's name, forexample). By age four, some chil-dren learn that they can write theirown true or imagined narratives, orthose they have had told or read tothem. Often, these stories will beaccompanied by drawings. Early inthe development of this function,the writing may not be visible butmay be buried under pictures. Thechild may write something andthen move to drawing, incorporat-ing the writing into the picture.

Children often write captions toexplain their drawings. Holly haswritten the word zno under her pic-ture of a lion in a cage. On the nextline, she writes the letter L. Shethan says out loud to no one in par-ticular, "How do you write 'I?"(making the sound of I as in lion).Andrea replies, "Apple . . . A"

APRIL 1988

Reprinted by permission of Yetta M. Goodmanand Educational Horizons. 6 8

46 THE EDUCATION DIGcST

(naming the letter), and Holly re-sponds, -Andrea ... A" (also nam-ing the letter), and writes N next tothe L, to represent lion. This talkabout language is evidence of bothgirls' linguistic knowledge. Al-though some researchers are recom-mending that such linguistic knowl-edge be explicitly taught, carefulobservation reveals that all chil-dren discuss their reading and writ-ing in the context in which itoccurs, especially when they havereason to explore issues, as thesekindergartners were doing. Chil-dren also learn that written lan-guage can be used so that some-thing won't be forgotten: Theyleave their parents a note whenthey go outside or write themselvesa note to reme:nber importantthings.

Exploring Conventions

As children learn about the func-tions of writing, they also begin twonder about how written languatis organized in order to communcafe. They learn that written lan-guage takes certain forms, goes in aparticular direction, has spellingand punctuation conventions, andhas syntactic, semantic, and prag-matic rules that in some contextsmay be similar to the rules of orallanguage but in others are different.Children's early attempts at writingresemble adult cursive forms(though their letters closely resem-ble capitals), and their control overthe horizen'al direction is almostuniversal. t .1:14ren who grow upwith other forms of writing pro-

APRIL 1966

duce letterlike forms that resemblethe orthographic system in theirculture, and they write in the direc-tion most conventional for their cul-ture.

The more that children use writ-ten language that makes use ofpunctuation for purposes that makesense to them, the grer- r theircontrol over punctuation ..ecomes.Provided with a supportive envi-ronment, children will explore andinvent punctuation. Evidence sug-gests that children develop ortho-graphic principles as much throughreading as through writing.

The syntactic and semantic prin-ciples children lear., also depend ontheir participator. :n functions ofwriting. Many syntactic features ofwritten English do not occur in orallanguge. Early in their writing, chil-dren begin to show control over theprinciple that some morphemicendings (such as -ed on verbs) a-ekept the same regardless of thephonological composition. As chil-dren develop their principles aboutwritten language, they also developthe notion that in particular set-tines some principles are more sig-nificant than others. Use of phono-logical cues in English spelling hasto move toward an awareness ofspelling patterns much more com-plex than simple sound-letter cor-respondence.

It has been suggested that chil-dren move from viewing larguageas logographic, where printed sym-bols are idea units, to thinkinpabout language as if it were syllabic,before they consider the alphabetic

PRESCHOOLERS' WRITING

principle I believe that the influen-ces from the visual aspects of theorthogi aphic system may developpricr to the emergence of the rela-tionship between oral and writtenlanguage. I have studied childrenwho look at the box of raisin branand say, "That says 'cereal. Whenasked, "Can you show me where itsays 'cereal, they point to each lineof prominent print on the box andhold onto the word cereal orallyuntil they have finished pointing.

As children explore the syllabicnature of written language, theybegin to show awareness of Englishas an alphabetic system. This isreflected in their invented spellings.

Applications

For teachers, curriculum, andschools, this information meansthat:

It is important f-- ill concernedwith literacy di tent to be-come observan .1a: -hildrenknow about written language.

It is necessary to respect chiI-dren's capacity to learn written lan-guage and to cbserve developmen-tal signposts, which often includenonconventional forms, as evidenceof continuous development.

Intuitions about the develop-ment of programs such as languageexperience, individualized reading,literature-based programs, integrat-ed curriculum, shared book expe-riences, and whole-language pro-grams have been based on theoriesthat are now supported by research.

Children develop language asthey use it, in at least three ways:

47

I. Language learning. Wheneverchildren use reading and writing,their opportunities for continuousgrowth and flexibility in readingand writing are expanded. Readingprovides interesting ai.d new waysto express different ideas. Writingprovides opportunities to discoverits impact and powerways to usewriting to influence others.

2. Learning throne, langsrage.Language is not an end in itself. It isused to read about important issuesin the world and to respond to themby writing and exploring personalopinions. Reading and writingabout math, science, art, and musicallow students to wonder about themysteries of the world and explorethe principles of different subjectareas. Reading provides opportuni-ties to travel to far "laces and todistant times. Wrt.ing providesways todiagram problems, to recordevents, to suggest ways todo things,to label and categorize objects andevents important to the learner.

3. Learners!: oboist language. Aschildren read and write, they beginto ask questions and think aboutlanguage itself. They inquire intolanguage as an object of study.

Organizing classrooms, schools,and curriculum so that studentshave many opportunities to readand write for real and personalpurposes, to solve personal andsocial problems, to ask questionsand find ways to seek the answers,to enjoy and explore the world ofliterature allows them :o use lan-guage to allow the three kinds oflearning to take place. 0

APRIL 1966

Cognitive Language Skills

Judith A. Schickedanz

"Please Read That Story Again!"Exploring Relationships Between Story Reading

and Learning to Read

If a child has ever asked you to reread a favorite story, then you ,nay findyourself rereading this articleit's just foryou!

In searching for explanations for whysome children learn to read without appar-ent difficulty early in elementary schoolwhile others do not, reading researchershave looked at children's expenences athome, prior to school entrance. A commonfinding in this research has been that chil-dren who learn to read easily in school arethe same children whose parents have readto them at home (Durkin 1966; Sakamoto1977; Sheldon and Carrillo 1952; Sutton1964). Because the evidence from this re-search is correlational, we cannot be certainwhether it is the story reading itself or somediner associame. factor that helps these chil-dren learn to read. Ìt vertheless, readingto young children is oi:en recommendedas a critical experience, and parents andteachers alike are encouraged to read tochildren as often as they can (Departmentof Education and Science 1975; Durkin1970).

Surprisusgry though, parents and teach-ers rarely ask why they should read to chil-dren. Perhaps the question never arisesbecause it makes such good sense thatreading to children should be related tolater reading ability. It is important, how-ever, to know why reading to childrenmakes a difference because unless we cananswer this question, we have little toguide us in determining ;.ow best to read

48

to young children, or in &Ailing what ad-ditional experiences we might provide tohelp children learn to read.

In this article, some of the common ex-planations for the effects of story readingwill be discussed, and an alternative expla-nation, along v, mplications for class-loom practices, will be presented.

Common Theoretical Explanations

Several theoretical explanations for theobserved relationship between extensivestory reading at home and later readingachievement can be found, including:

Identification and social-learningmodeling: Children are thought to adoptbehaviors of the parent because they wishto become like the parent. If parents readin tte presence of their children, their chil-dren are likely to try to read, too (Elkind1974; Gordon 1976).

Direct reinforcement: Children arethought toeceive many reinforcements in

Judith A. Schickedanz, Ph.D., is AssistantProfessor, Early Childhood Education, De-partme.it of Childhood and Curriculum,Boston University, Bostnr., Massachusetts.She is a former teacher of preschool chil-dren.

YOUNG CHILDREN

Jul71978, National Association forthe Education of Young Children

the reading situation (e.g., attention, phys-ical contact, verbal praise). Because of thispositive reinforcement children arethought to approach reading situations asa way to maintain reinforcement obtainedthere. In time, the reading situation itselfwould become reinforcing. Helping chil-dren learn to "love" books or to developan "enjoyment" of books as preparationfor later reading instruction seems to bebased in part on this explanation (Durkin1970; Flood 1977).

Emotional security and confidence:The warmth of the story reading situation,as well as the generally positive affectiveclimate created by parents when they readto their children, is thought to support thechild's emotional well-being, an 'la buildhis or her confidence. Tnerefore, childrenapproach the reading situation becausethey have developed good feelings aboutreading and are not afraid of it (Departmentof Education and Science 1975).

Language development: The readingprocess is viewed here as basically a lan-guage-prediction process. The languagelearned from the stories themselves, as wellas from discussions of the stories with par-ents, is assumed to make it easier for chil-dren to learn to read (Durkin 1970; Flood1977; Smith 1977; Olson 1977).

Book knowledge and knowledge ofreading: Children are thought to gain basicunderstandings such as "books have be-ginnings and endings," "print is read fromleft to right," "when one reads, one sayswhat is printed in the book," etc. (Durkin1970).

Inadequacy of Common Explanations

Most of the common explanations forwhy reading to children should be benefi-cial are based on, or are at least consistentwith, a learning theory nradel of learning.Specifically, the first three explanationsstress the importance of motivation and re-inforcement derived eternally from thelearning act itself. In addition, they assume

JULY 1978

that story reading serves as preparation forinstruction in reading that is to occur atsome later time, not that it is itself a situa-tion in which actual instruction can anddoes occur.

This "readiness" view of story reading iscansister.t with a learning theory model:Learning is viewed as linear or additive,accruing slowly, bit by bit through the es-tablishment of "associations" or "bonds."In a learning theory model, the story read-ing situation would probably not even besuspected as a possible source of actualreading skills, because it would be viewedas too complex, disorganized, and unstruc-tured for such learning to occur. It is notsurprising, therefore, that benefits from theexperience have been assumed by many tobe ones that render the child r vptive toand motivated for actual reading instruc-tion that will take place later in school.

The language explanation assumes thatreading is primarily a language process.While there 41 wide support for Las view,even its most ardent advocates do not saylanguage is all there is to reading. Good-man and Goodman (1977), for example,suggest that readers use three systems:grammatical, semantic, and graphophonic.While the language explanation does as-sume that children learn something aboutthe reading process itself from being readto, it stresses only the contributions to thegrammatical and semantic systems. Be-cause there is evidence that children canalso learn letter-sound associations primar-ily from story reading experiences (Forester1977), the language explanation is incom-plete.

The book knowledge and knowledge ofreading explanation, like the language ex-planation, is different from the others inthat it suggests that eaildren learn some-thing about reading from the story readingsituation itself. This explanation, however,is rarely extensively developed. Authorsonly mention it, and then stress the affec-tive effects of story reading through com-ments, such as, "Reading to children isi. ima:ily for enjoyment, and anything that

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49

detracts from that goal should be by-passed" (Durkin 1970, p. 84). Yet, it is pre-cisely this last, less well-developed expla-nation that may be particularly interestingand fruitful to explore, because it is :onsis-tent with cognitive theory.

A Cognitive Explanation for theEffects of Story Reading

A cognitive explanation focuses on thestory reading situation itself as a source ofdata from which children construct ':nowl-edge about rules that govern the readingprocess. In a cognitive theory of learning,the learner is viewed as active, both interms of motivation and construction ofknowledge. Learning is conceived struc-turally as schemes or representations of ex-periences that become reorganized andmore highly differentiated as learningprogresses (Piaget 1963). Access to complexraw data, or what teachers call "real expe-riences," is necessary for a learner to de-velop schemes.

Reinforcement in the cognitive model isthought to be "inherent in the act of infor-metion-processing itself" (Hunt 1965). Thechile engages in activities not for the pur-pose c f gaining external reinforcement(e.g., pram: attention, affrciion) but be-cause he or she hnob me activities interest-ing.

What data about reading are made avail-able in tl--.. story reading situation? Whatschemes might children construct? Howmight early schemes become reorganizedinto more complex schemes?

With respect to the development ofknowledge about letter-sound associa-tions, for example, schemes might developas follows:

Scheme I: Memorized Story Line

In the story reading situation, the readermakes the story line accessible to the child.When the same story is repeated manytimes (which usually happens), children

50

learn it "by heart." Learning stories "byheart" when they are read can be viewed asa f.ognitive scheme. The scheme is not thestory line of an individual story but thegeneral idea that story lines can beremembered, and general strategies fordoing this. Children would then apply thisscheme to several, or even many, books thatthey could learn "by heart."

Scheme U: Locating Print In Books

The story reading situation also helpschildren locate print in books. Sometimesparents point out words to their children asthey read them stories. Even if they do not,children can probably learn which wordsappear on particular pages throughobserving when the parent says certainwords. In addition, children's "by heart"versions of the story line include not onlythe words b it the phrasing of the story,which they may be able to associate with theturning of pages. These associations wouldhelp them "line up" their "by heart"rendition of the stciy with the wordsp:inted in the bock. Children probably alsoassociate pictures with certain words thathave been read. They know that when theparents say a certain line, a certain pictureappears on the page. The picture can thenbe used to locate the page where a ?art ofthe story line that the child knows isprinted.

In all of these ways, children probably candetermine what the printed words in a booksay, and they can then become familiar withhow the words look. "Reading" at this pointmight be "by sight," while earlier it wouldhave been "by heart."

Scheme III: Matching Letters and Sounds

Once the child knows the story "byheart," and also knows the same printedwords "by sight," he or she can observeletter-sound correspondence. A thirdscheme, consisting of the general idea thatthere is a rattem or some regularity in thecorrespondence between letters and soundsmight possibly develop as a consequence.When a certain degree of learning of thiskind has taken place, "reading" usingphonics rules can occur.

It should be noted that Scheme IIIinvolves a unique interaction between thechild and a book, and does not involve astory reader. Scheme HI, however, is aproduct of two earlier schemes that aredependent on the story reader.

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YOUNG CHILDREN

Each of the above schemes could be ex-pected to take considerable time and ex-perience to develop. The reader need onlyconsider the fact that it takes an infantabout two years to develop a complete con-cept of the object (Piaget 1963) and aboutsix years to develop cor.cepts of conserva-tion, classification, and seriation (Inheiderand Piaget 1964; Piaget 1965) to appreciatehow long it might take a child to developan understanding of letter-sound associa-tions.

Implications of the Cognitive Model forClassroom Practice

If knowledge of letter-sound associationscan be constructed by children in a fashionsimilar to :hat proposed above, then someways of reading to children should be moreeffective than others. Suggestions for pos-sible effective techniques follow.

Story reading, to b.. most effective,should take place in a situation that allowsthe child to see the print in the book. Read-ing stories to large groups of children, oreven to relatively small groups (six to eightchildren), may not give the access to printneeded to learn words "by sight."

Turning the pages of the book mayhelp children learn the phrasing of thestory, which may, in turn, help them matchtheir "by heart" story line with the printedwords in the book. This may iv one strat-egy children use to learn words "by sight."Again, individual or very small group storyreading situations would be necessary.

The same story should be read to chil-dren many times because repetition is re-quired for construction of the story line.The amount of repetition necessary for in-dividual children to construct the storylines of a particular book would be expectedto vary. The "match" between the linguis-tic abilities of a child and the language inthe book may determine in part how muchrepetition is required. The experiences achild brings to the book would surely alsoinfluence the child's comprehension of

jULY 1978

what it says, and this, too, would probablyplay a part in determining the amount ofrepetition necessary for a child to constructthe story line "by heart."

It would be important, then, to pay par-ticularly dose attention to children's pleasto hear a particular story and to read itagain. It is impossible to exhibit this kindof responsiveness when reading to a groupof 'children, because children are different;the book one child wants and needs to hearmay net be at all suitable for the others.Aw hen, reading to individual andany ups of children would seem to besr ,.i. usore effective.

Adults should point out, at least oc-casionally, where in the book words that"say" what they are reading appear.Adults should probably also pose ques-tions to the child, such as, "Where do youthink it says, 'MEEOW!' on this page?" or"Where do you think it says, 'Will youplease come to my birthday party, Peter?'on, this page?" Obviously, children wouldneed to be very dose to the book to becomeinvolved in answering such questions.

Listening posts may -le used most ef-fectively when children lave individualbooks of the stories they hear to followalong in.

Children would need free access tobooks that are read to them at times inaddition to the story reading time itself.Such access would be critical for childrento practice matching their "by heart" storylines with printed words, and for integrat-ing their "by heart" and "by sight" ver-sions to abstract rules about letter-soundassociations. Mere access to books thathave not been read may not be particularlyuseful, and no access to books that havebeen read would limit learning terribly.

Observation lists us, d to keep recordsof children's progress should include itemssuch as the following:Child chooses frequently to look at

storybooks during a free-choice activityperiod.

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51

Child asks adult to reread stories often.Child pretends to read familiar stories to

him- or herself, to other children, or tostuffed animals and dolls.

Child corrects the adult when he or shealters the story line of a familiar story.

Childturns pages for adult reader on thebasis of phrasing clues only.Child asks what the words in a favoritestorybook say.

Teachers should encourage childrento compose stories that the teacher canwrite down. These experience storieswould be easy for childrer to read "byheart" because they composed them.Stories of individual children, rather thantotal-group experience charts, are likely tobe more effective in promoting the devel-opment of schemes described above.

Summary and Conclusions

If the view presented describes withreasonable acr racy what indeed does oc-cur, then it is dear that the how of storyreading is critically important. Even pro-grams in which story reading occurs on adaily basis may not be very effective if thestories are always read to the entire groupor if the samt. books are not frequently re-peated or if children do not have access tobooks that are read.

The effects of story reading at home maybe quite strong, while the effects of evenfrequent story reading at school may notbe. At home, the child is usually on thereader's lap where he or she can see theprint and turn the pages of the book; in theclassroom children often are seated farfrom the book in grcups of twenty or more,a situation that limits both physical anvisual contact with the book. , .ome, thechild usually chooses the books to be read,thus ensuring repeated access to tne samebooks; in the classroom children often donot select the books that are read to them.At home, a child has easy access to his orher storybooks at other times than when

52

the parent is reading; unfortunately, atschool there is often only a short time whenchildren have access to books. In far too=rig classrooms, DOORS are kept high onshelves or on the teacher's desk, out of thechildren's. reach.

The issue of whether or not young chil-dren should be taught "reading skills" alsoemerges out of this discussion. The realissue is not whether children do or do notneed to learn reading skills, but rather, howchildren come to know the skills that in-deed are necessary if they are to learn howto read. In a learning theory model, theteacher teaches the skills directly, in oneway or another. In a cognitive approach,teachers provide experiences that makeknowledge about the reading process ac-cessible to children who are thought liter-ally to construct the skills for themselves.While skills are not directly taught, teach-ers must pay close attention to the kindsof experiences that are provided.

The cognitive model also suggests pos-s,ble remedial procedures for children whoencounte, difficulty in the elementaryschool. A direct skill-teaching situationmay be successful with children who havehad all the necessary experiential back-ground, such as Irving been read to athome by their parents, before they aretaught to read in the school situation. Theyprobably already know, at least on an in-tuitive level, the very skills that they arebeing "taught," and have learned to useothers as well. Thus, they master the pho-nics training quickly. Because these chil-dren are often the best readers, teachersbelieve erroneously that it is the phonicstraining that is responsible.

Children without this background, how-ever, may become terribly lost, not know-ing the source of these rules. For thesechildren, the cognitive model would pre-did that no amount cf phonics drill or train-ing would be effective, not because it is too"hard" or "advanced," but because the in-formation is too simple, i.e., data-starved.It is isolated from the data-rich context ofreal reading materials.

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YOUNG CHILDREN

Children experiencing this difficulty mayprofit from the procedure found to be ef-fective by Chomsky (1975). She was ableto help four third graders who were havinggreat difficulty learning to read, despitehours of phonics drill, by having themmemorize storybooks! Although she attrib-uted her success to the confidence gainedby the children in their ability to read, itmight also have been due to the knowledgeof the reading process itself obtained in thestory reading situation described above.

Some possible directions for research arealso suggested. We need answers to thequestion: "What does reading look like be-fore we recognize it as 'rear reading" Weknow what behavim.i are typical of youngchildren on tasks of conservation and clas-sification, for example, and we know howthese behaviors change qualitatively overtime. But we do not have comparable de-scriptions of behavior for early reading.

Instead, we have knowledge about chil-dren's ability to recognize or manipulateisolated elements thought to be related to thereading process (e.g., alphabet recogni-tion, recognition of rhyming words, etc.).This is very different from knowing howthey understand the process of reading asa whole. To use mathematics as an exam-ple, it is the difference between knowingthat a child can recognize the numerals onethrough nine and knowing the child stillconfuses space with number (says there aremore cubes in a row when they are spreadout than when they are dose together).These two pieces of information are likelyto lead us to different conclusions if we aretrying to determine if such a child is"ready" for instruction in operations onnumber, e.g., addition, subtraction, etc.They become critical in determining howwe might attempt to help such a child cometo understand addition.

The few researchers who have suggestedthat cognitive skills are involved in learningto read (Dimitrovsky and Almy 1975; El-kind 1974) have assumed that these consistof the logico-mathematical concepts of co 1-servation and classification. What I am sug-

54

gesting is that structures unique to readingmight also develop. The schemes outlinedabove might possibly be examples of chil-dren's early understandings of the readingprocess. Of course, any theoretically-basedhypotheses such as those suggested aboveneed rigorous empirical confirmation.

Finally, the discussion presented hereprovides an interesting basis for specula-tion about the relationship between affectand cognition. If the story reading experi-ence is to result in the cognitive 'earningsoutlined above, a dosriess between theadult reader and the child is required. Inother words, a story reading situation thatis loaded with positive affect (e.g., individ-ual attention, physical contact, verbalpraise, etc.) is the same situation that isloaded with information for the child. Partof the "loading" no doubt results becausethe adult is in a situation where he or shecan be responsive to an individual child'sbehavior. The adult can be directed by thechild to back up or to go forward, to repeat,to answer questions, and so on.

It may be that a child's affective tie to anadult is influenced by the adult's respon-siveness to the child's cognitive needs. Ithas been well-documented in relation toinfants, for example, that they like bestthose adults who are most responsive, i.e.,who play with them, etc. (Rheingold 1956;Schaffer and Emerson 1964). It has beensuggested by others that infants may likethese adults best because they know thatwith them around they can get interestingthings to happen (Schickedanz and Gold-stein 1977).

Affect and cognition, then, may truly in-teract with each other. If this conception isat all accurate, ideas such as "we shouldlimit goals of the preschool to emotionaldevelopment and leave cognitive devel-opment to the elementary school" need tobe reconsiderece VI....

Preparation of this article was supported in partby Grant No. G007-605-403 from the U.S. Officeof Education to the Boston University Pre-Ele-mentary Reading Improvement Collaborative.

76

YOUNG CHILLREN

References

Chomsky, C. "After Decoding, What?" Elemen-tary English 52, no. 6 (March 1975): 288-2%,314.

Department of Education and Science. A Lan-guage for Life. London: Her Majesty's Statio-nery Office, 1975.

Dimitrovsky, L., and Almy, M. "Early Conser-vation as a Predictor of Later Reading." Jour-nal of Psychology 90 (1975):11 -18.

Durkin, D. Children Who Read Early. New York:Teachers College Press, 1966.

Durkin, D. Teaching Them to Read. Boston: Allyn& Bacon, 1970.

Elkind, D. "Cognitive Development and Read-ing." Claremont Reading Conference Yearbook 38(1974): 10-20.

Flood, J. "Parental Styles in Reading Episodeswith Young Children." The Reading Teacher 35(May 1977): 864-867.

Forester, A. "What Teachers Can Learn from'Natural Readers.'" The Reading Teacher 31(November 1977): 160-166.

Goodman, K. S., and Goodman, Y. "Learningabout Psycholingubtic Processes by Analyz-ing Oral Reading "Harvard Educational Review47 (August 1977): 317-333.

Goodman, K. S., and Goodman, Y. 'The Psy-cholinguistic Nature of the Reuling Process."In The Psycholinguishc Nature of the ReadingProcess, ed. K. S. Goodman. Detroit: WayneState University Press, 1968.

Gordon, I. "Parenting, Teaching, and ChildDevelopment." Young Children 3], no 3(March 1976): 173-183.

Guinagh, B., and Jester, R. "How Parents Readto Children." Theory into Practice 11 (June1972): 171-177.

Hunt, J. McV. "Intrinsic Motivation and It' Rolein Psychological Development." NebraskaSymposium on Motivation 13 (1965): 189-282.

Inhelder, B., and Piaget, J. The Early Growth ofLogic in the Child. New York: Norton, 1964.

Olson, D. "From Utterance to Text: The Bias ofLanguage in Speech and Writing." HarvardEducational Review 47 (August 1977): 257 -28].

Piaget, J. The Child's Conception of Number. NewYork: Norton, 1965.

Piaget, J. The Origins of Intelligence in Children.New York: Norton, 1963.

Rheingold, H. "The Modification of Social Re-sponsiveness in Institutional Babies." Mono-graphs of the Society for Research in ChildDevelopment 2, no. 63 (1956).

Sakamoto, T. "Beginning Reading in Japan."Paper presented at the International ReadingAssociation annual meeting, May 1977, Mi-ami, Fla.

Schaffer, H. R., and Emerson, P. E. "The De-velopment of Social Attachments in Infancy."Monographs of the Society for Research in ChildDevelopment 29, no. 94 (1964).

Schickedanz, D., and Goldstein, G. "The Re-laiionship Between Moderate Novelty andEffectance Motivation in Determining Chil-dren's Visual Attention and Instrumental Be-havior." Paper presented at the EasternPsychological Association annual meeting,April 1977, Boston, Mass.

Sheldon, W., and Carrillo, L. "Relation of Par-ents, Home, and Certain DevelopmentalCharacteristics to Children's Reading Abil-ity." Elementary School Journal 52 (January1952): 262-270.

Smith, F. "Making Sense of Readingand ofReading Instruction." Harvard Educational Re-view 47 (August 1977): 386-395.

Sutton, M. "Readiness for Reading at the Kin-dergarten Level." The Reading Teacher 22 (Jan-uary 1964): 234-239.

JULY 1978 55

77

Cognitive Language Skills

Reading ReadinessAspects Overlooked in Structured ReadinessPrograms and WorkboolLs

Nancy K. Carver

During the 1960s a concern for the causes ofschool fail. prornptee an emphasis on the for-mal teact:,ng. A letters. phonics. numbers andother skills and knowledge thought to be im-portant to success in reading (Rudolph andCohen. l98 if. With this turn toward academ-ics. many kindergarten teachers began to relyon structured commercial workbooks as themair.stay of their reading readiness pr c.r.ims.

Liss (191i4. rr. SI I-IS) anpropnatelv pointsout that.

.s retinae,: to res.onesy programs In" be..anc LSI' ts..n NOM Iiciesisry ft1 net in rrad-

me Phoneme seem:mm*1n. rnymt kientivicacson.anti .hardy compirtum are three skills round in must=oinks% tiftiCrAMS %nit h tw inincuir for somerresotcysers Left-MM. these Allis are unnecessarytut Altlfitt1111: A rents taro`: sting 1Iliaittalarc and re.:for :look, It iinport.ra 1 different.ate a.41n.itii 4 i.r91 duet, 'acqueen iw.es.arc tor read-ing and those required for SIN.CtiS in lorrn.a readingpro tams It such differences arc sienincanr. a maanimation of current school rnerhodi is warranted.

Endless workbook pages and drills on gra-pheme-phoneme correspondence. rhymingwords. sequencing, tracing, copying andmatching do not provide prereaders with a faun-diem% list understanding and ensiying the read-ing process. When structured programs andworkbooks are used at any level. it often meansthat reading becomes a series of segmentedskills lessons rather than a thinking activityinvolving meaningful language and associa-tions. It is imperative that teachers provide spe-cific experiences. knowledge and envisonmentalfactors that wiU ensure success in reading. Al-though the main focus here is directed toward

2S6

prereacling. the following compilatani is oftenoverluoked not only at the n..achness level but atall ocher levels of many structured commercialreading programs.

I. Surround chikiren with many forms ofprint and a variety of devices fir creating it.The kindergarten classroom must :.attain manyLinks to be changed on a regular basis. ()bustsin the room can be labeled and children'srated and illustrated stories r an he hone in spe-cial places. Provide good children's magazinesto ponder over and old magazine and

all sorts rat cut apart Mampulatnes sucnmagnetic letters of rubber punch-dui fetters.small chalkboards. easels. and a variety of f141pers and writing instruments should be avail-able to children at ail times. Letter stencils notypewriter:. are also advantageous to the .111-dren and offer great opportunity for experimen-tation.

2. Use good literature.When children are read to cimststenth. tncsbegin to realize mat print has a communicativepurpose. The class should Ix read to as a wholeand in small groups Children should be ableto hold the book and make now of the print andillustrations as it is read. Questions should :leasked that encourage thinking such as. "Whatwould you have done" "Why do you think. . "What do you think will happen nextEntourage children to demonstrate their under-

Nain K. Carver is a Licensed Roadies Cautliantaid Orrriodam Plana*, Evakiatioa mad Reami-ng .firootiostat Welt CrRtral EdIrastatisal Cap:r-oma Sorsa Unit. Ina; fisik. Mi11.85Ild.

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Reprinted with permission of the Association for Childhood EducationInternational, 11141 Georgia Avenue, Suite 200, Wheaton, MD.0 1986 by the Association.

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stAnchni: nt stories. characters and teclingsrnr.., n 4:.:c...:.,..t. Ia. Pron kim ii.olkb rts.it rho.umn t.:p.: *u ctindren .x1 near stone, moretrequentle. liachets . an prepare taped bookswith background music and sounds or use someut the :lone sets available commercially An ex-cellent -. i ut taped hookb is the !wraps 14.1.1eriby Hill Martin %published in. Holt. KII11:11.111and %V inborn,.

; Provide real experiences to enhance chil-dren s experiences with prim.Wheat...yr tumble connect actuat experiencesto the bunks that are read. Offer children a WWI:range a direct experiences that may provide alink to story topics. characters. settings. teel-ly.c or activities Itakground cart-times andknutektIge are the ...!. les of listening cumprr-hensiun in kindergarten or reading comprehen-aim Liter.

4. Develop oral language ability.Children must be competent users of oral lan-guage in order to learn to read (Gilkt and Tem-ple. 1982). -A child's language is the raw ma-terial lot reading. It contains the meaning thechild knows and forms the base fur the necessary

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1947-, Riu..111.11 ILLS t Ontinlild II: IA kll IL. ..positne rciationship hetuten lanewee cieceiopnient and rcadine achievement iNtautier.1980. L stun. NI) ;8. A teat her s role must beto exrxtis: hildr.n s 1.ingua.:e in, entours::::is:them to mist uss their experiences. Jest rine I b-MIS arkl situations. and answer uuesraons AI,-rrorrate models of language should be avaii.eolechime experiencesin retordincs. hlms ..ikistories. Opportunities must IA. rtovid..: ::rchildren to experiment and play itn lAngu.8.:e.

5. Establish the relationship between spo-ken and written language.f-hddren must understand that wr-it ;, :..ii....a:be written down. The ability to match speechand print units is a basic prereading skill thatmust not he overlooked dSmstn. 19'9: Gulletand Temple. 1982). The relationship tan flelearned when stories are repeated to the childand a hand or marker is moved under the printas the words are voiced. When children dictatestories. as with the language a:permute ap-proach to reading: the speech-topnre match

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soon becomes evident. The basic premise of thisapproach is that what can be thought can bespoken. what can be spoken can be written andwhat can be written can be read. Dictated sto-ries may be initiated through experiences andwritten individually or as a group. Childrenfolk* their own language as the teacher rereadsand points out the aunts. enabling tbe speech-to-print connection.

6. Foam an understanding of the conven-tions of print anti books.Before children can learn CO read, it is necessarythat they understand:O the concept of word as a meaningful com-bination of letters bound by white spaces (Mor-ris. 198(1: for a specific procedure to assess achild's concept of word. set Morris awl Hen-derson. 1981).O one reads from kft CO rightO the idea of cop and bottom of a page andwhen to turn itO a book has a beginning and an end

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D print is meaningful and relates to things inthe world.

Besides exhibiting an understanding of theconventions mentioned above. Children often in-dicate their initial interest in print with ques-tions like "What dues this say?" or "Wheredoes it say . . .r.7. Stimulate thinking.Furth (1970 .Yin support of Piaget, recom-mends that when working with children of kin-dergarten age. time is best spent on activitiesthat directly promote cognitive developmentSensory experienics. many concrete 'manipula-tives and discovery learning are all emphasized(Cannella, 1982). Froebel. the originator ofkindergarten education, claimed that play is thework of children (Rudolf and Cohen. 19841.Play is the most natural way to stimulate think-ing that will promote cognitive growth. "Re-cent expansion of research in the area of playand its effects on karning firmly supports thenotion that concrete objects and experiences

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411k146

manipulated by children at play are the prereq-uisites to successful acquisition of more abstractskills as learning to read" (Gentile and Hoot.1983, p. 436).

8. Provide opportunities to gain a sense ofstory structures.Children use their knowledge of story structuresto understand and remember' narratives as lis-teners and later as rankers. Awareness of ele-ments such as setting, characters, theme andplot can be developed by hearing stories wadmany times. acting out stories. dictating per-sonal itorics and other activities. (For more spe-cific activities that fetus on these elements, seeMcGee et al.. 1982).

9. Encourage use of prediction.All efficient readers predict what the text islikely to say in the next few words or sentencesby using grammatical and meaning cues andthe structure of the text (611k1 and Temple.1982). Smith (1979) says that comprehensiondepends on ,--edktion. After predicting. thereader then reads on to confirm hypothesesThis ability can be initiated by using predict-able booksthose having repetitive languagepatterns or repeated or CUMUlat it e snip' eventsKindergarten children can prat tier nredictingand confirming as they listen to these storiesbeing read aloud (For more spl:CItit act It trieswith predictable books. see Tompkins and Va.beer. 198i. For bibliographies of predictablebooks. see Khudes. 1981: Bridge. Winogradand Hal y. 19N i; Allen and Allen. 1976 1., .

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10. Provide essential support and feed-back.As children make and test their predictionsabout print and reading. adult support andfeedback are essential. The reacher must be apatient and tolerant resource person, ready roanswer endkss questions and nurture positive

feelings about reading and books.It is vital to remember that reading is a com-

plex and enjoyable thinking process. Manystructured readiness programs, workbook pagesand drills do not provide an adequate basis herbeginning reading instruction. The experi-ences, knowledge and environmental factors dis-cussed above will provide prereaders with afoundation for an understanding of the processand for later success in reading.

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Omaha, Nebraska .April 30-Ma, 3. 1987

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Cognitive Math Skills

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years, Inc., Westport, CT06880. From the March 1981 issue of Early Years.

70

On the wayto arithmetic

By Dr. John Wick and Dr. Richard Lash

Various pm-arithmetic con-cepts are logical pm-requi-

sites to an understanding of arith-metic concepts. Pre-arithmeticconcepts are an understanding of

the numbers zero through 12 andsome pre-addition and pre-sub-traction concepts. Here's a simpleassessment based on pre-arithme-tic which is actually a continuationof Anne Marie Fitzmaurice's 1S-

00

pies. The child needs to under-stand and translate all these com-ponents of the concept sevon. Buthow does the teacher measure formastery or to determine if a prob-lem exists?

The six questions that follow theillustration below will help youassess mastery of number con-cepts; the illustration shows in whatways the questions or tasks are

wordsCord)

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item assessment for developmentallevels (see her article elsewhere inthis section). The following NW of

procedures can help you diagnoseand remedial. serious delays.

Sets, Symbols and WordsAdults are so thoroughly familiarwith early number concepts thatis often d cult for them to imag-ine what it is Nke for children whenthese idess we first toning. Forinstance, what doss the conceptseven mean? The child hears theteacher say the word seven, seesthe numeral or symbol for 7 andsees a representation of the set ofseven, i.e., a picture of seven pup-

Or. John is i s Pmesssor at Moan InDo Mirmi al Fohnsion. Mormonism UMorally. Envision. I Or. Illehird limn 4 ihomoils Derm lot 'Mignon Ossslopionl. alsoin Nallsosslon's lit-Nool at Edunnon.

82

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related to sets, symbols and words.

(This is really a two-part assess-ment. First, ask the questions usingonly the numbers one to five, then,after mastery of these numberconcepts is shown, move on to thenumbers one to 12. Many pre-schoolers can recognize a set ofone to five objects without count-ing, however, when more than fiveobjects are involved, immediatere..3gnition is more difficult.)

1) Spread out a number of pen-nies or counters and ask, "Howmany are there?" If the childcounts, see if he organizes the ma-teriel in some way or if some ob-jects are Pûnted more than onceor we skipped altogether.

2) Give the child 12 pennies and

say, "Give me eight," or "Gin mefair." Mc.

3) Write the numbers onethrough 12 on index cards. Put thecards in a row. out of order and askthe child to "Point lo the eight."

4) We the cords from the taskabove. ',raw -1:d at random,present It to th. oalid and say,"What n .4%W does this standfor?"

5) Dive the did 12 pennies.Thin wiles a number from one to 12

. ut index card and say. "Givene this many pennies."

6) Lay out a set of - 10 12pennies. MC, an array with thenumeral index ads. Point to a rowof numbers and say. "Point to thecard that tees how many pennies."

OrderingMoldering the number words, setsand numerals that go with numbeosis one thing for a child; the childmust also understand that 2/hvo/:belongs. conceptuelly, right before3/three /: . First the child must beable to order within each aspect(words, minerals. sets) and thenamong aN three. This atonementcan show you where most childrenstand on these skills.

1) Werth, the words. Most pm-schoolem begin early ordering thewords for numbers, that is, count-ing out loud. When the child cancount from one to 12. an countbackwards from 10 and can countstarting in the middle ("Stan locount with four."). you can feel acertain mastery has been attained.

2, Ordering sets. Give a sturentdot cede (list card has one dot,second has two. etc.) and ask dieChild to put Merl in order. As be-fors, start with Ms eels one ID01wand move on to the sea one to 12.

3) Ordering numerals. Ws the

Usk in (2) substituting the cardsshowing numerals.

4) Words to sets. Have the childwelch as you lay the dotards beedown. In order, from one to 12.Mk, 'Which one shows three?" upto "Which one shows seven?" MNyou see mastery.

5) Mods to numerals. This is th.iFame as task (4) but substitutingnumeral cards.

6) Numerals to sets. Lay out theset cards face down and in order.Pull a mineral card at random andask. "Miich card has this manydots?" The child chooses theproper card from the face downcards.

7) Numerals to words. Lay outthe numeral cards face down andin order. Point ID one card and ask,"Which number is on this card?"

8) Sets to numerals. Reverse thetask in (6).

9) Sets to words. Same as (7)using dot cards.

10) Using order. For r. ceilingwords, say a number from one to12 and ask. 'Which comes next?"For symbols, show a card wdh anumeral on It. For suss, show arandomly selected dot card.

11)Using order. Use the processIn (10) and say instead. "Whichcard comes right before?"

12) Using order. choose twowords Pc seven), symbols (5,7),er sets ( ) ( ) andask the child. "Which card(s)comes between?"

Matching Sets WithOther Sets

Initial understanding of additionand subtraction concepts wall de-pend a lot on the child's orfor-mem, In matching sets. For most

children, these set reletionshipscome naturally. Try these threebrief teeks/asemernents to deter-mine the level of matching skills.

1) Draw any number of penny-eize circles (nine, for instance) onone side of a piece of paper. Askthe child to choose that many pen-nies (out of the Wive or so you'vegiven him) and arrange them on theother side of the piece ol paper. AJed who gets the wrong is proba-bly helping some difficulty concen-trating on smell details.

2) Draw eight circles (or somed',18 number) on one side of apiece of paper and an equalnumber on the other. Do not usethe some design on both sides. Askthe child if the some number isshown on each side of the paper.Here, you're trying to find 'Ali if thechild is focusing on numb.- st ail.or just overall pattern.

3) Repeat task (2) this time usingdifferent colored pencils orcrayons on the two sides to makethe two sides even less alike.

A child who experiences diffi-culty with inese three tasks mayJust need some drill on concentrat-ing on details. If this doesn't help, amore intense diagnosis may becaked for.

Addition By Comtaiing SetsA Non-mathematical Error

The simplest task in addition iswhen the child is given two setsand asked, "How many alto-gether?' But If the Mild has iliffi-cully with this trek it may nest be alack of addition sells at all. HlrfeS alist of tasks and what they repre-sent-

Task k Two cocker spaniels areshown on the left, three morecosier spaniels are shown on theright. The question is, "How manydogs"

Task B: Now on. cocker spa lei 71

and one Ds Imation are on the lerand on the right are three dogs, allof different sizes and breeds. Thequestion is the same as in Task A.

Task C: Now one cocker spanieland a rabbit are shown on the left; aNon, bear and tiger are shown onthe right. The question is, "Howmany animals altogether?'

Task D: Three dolls are shown onthe left and four baseball bats weshown on the right. The question is,"How many toys?"

if you assume that the chile, inksthe picture of a cocker spaniel tothe spoken word "dol. ,," .?menTask A is an arithmetic Usk. Task Brequires the understanding thatMere are nuoy shapes associatedwith the concept "cbge; " this is .concept most sme: children have.Task C is far mor, difficult for tworeasons: the chri must know thatall five pictures stand for "ani-mals:" the child m 1st ortome therealization that, if be animals werereally placed "altogether," theones on the right would eat theones on the left. The problem withthe last tar* is obvioussome chil-dren simply may not considerbaseball bats to be 'keys."

The child simply may not havehad any experience with thesekinds of "combining sets" ques-tions. What you're trying to Identifyin the child when you 'ply thesetaws is the concept of "two andthree together make five." Re-member that mastering this SIMI-motic concept depends on thosenon-arithmetic understandingsmentioned earlier. Children readyfor addition and subtraction haveNate trouble treating unlike objectsas equivalent units which can beadded together They have noproblem with the ambiguities In owlanguage as In the case of "kwmuch" and "how many." Youngchildren we not often mend bysize differences or dissimiledliesamong the objects. But these fac-tors can be troublesome to we-echoolers and Idndergartenws and

72 may be the source of the problem

when cider children try, and can-na, master beginning arithmetic.

Some Pre-Addition SkillsThere are three common types asiltation' or question s that can beused to develop pm-addition edits.

1) Counting all (both Ns Oven).Place Ave round cre.ckers orcounters on one plats on a table.Then put four square crackers orcounters on a second piste. Placethis second plate at least three Netaway from the first one so sell thecrackers or counters await bncounted in one uninterruptedcounting sequence. Ask the child,"How many crackers altogether?'

2) Counting on (with only thesecond set given). Put six objectsin a bag as the child watches. Putthree more of the same object nextto the bag. Say, 'There are six inhere; how many altogetherl"

3) Counting on with keepinghack (only the Mt set Is given).Place five marshmallows on thetable. Writs the number fax on aslip of paper and ask the child (asyou show the paper), "How manywill there be if I put out this manymore?" (This lest problem is muchharder for many children to solve.The child may correctly startcountkp after live but must usesome second system such as"turning down" four fingers tokeep track of !Pr four additionalnumbers used.)

Some Pre-Subtraction Sidle"rive children walk into a houseand two walk out, how many areell in the howler These "Meaway" problems are common inwahine*. Time is Involved here,that is, one set is given and Wen asubset is Men guy.

Pang out such "We away" sit-uations is easy, but they are dill-cua to portray in a text Romani-ing different limes or time peeingin a picture is cumbersome as is

84

representing actions. Similarly, It'sdifficult to picture a set and its sub-set in one picture. Confused chil-dren might have little trouble withyour questions when they involvereal objects, but may have troubleunderstanding the illustrations in amath text.

These three questions gentilethe addition questions given ear-lier.

1)Say, "i'm going to put come ofthese (any smell object) in this bag.Then I'm going to We some ofthem out. You tell me how many areleft." Put the objects in one at ailme re the child can count. Re-nee a subset in the same manner.

2) Put nine objects in a by with-out the child watching and write abig numeral nine on the side of thebag. After showing the beg and thenumeral nine on the side, ask thechild "Now many marshmallowswe insider' Assuming this is an-swered correctly, remove threefrom the bag, one at a time, as thechild watches. Now ask, "Howmany are still in the bag?'

3) Place seven pennies on atable. Write the number three on apiece of paper and ask the child,"How many pennies will be here if IWee away this many (show the supof paper)?"

This article has presented awhole series of assessment proce-dures that could help you monitorthe performance of children MOM-Ing along in a "regular" manner.These measures can aid you in&grating points of confusion withe mit chlidrem who we having aherder time alt than their cohorts,or establishing just how far an olderchild with serious problems hasMamma

You can administer these snailWes yourself, they'll be under yourconed, they'll tell you a lot aboutyour Orden* and your own mathProgram- 4,

Cognitive Language, Math, Auditory Skills

WAHL is1E

-:r

There are really few thingsmore satisfying than helping

a child learn and expand his hori-zons. As parents, you can morethan share this thrill with yourchild's teacher, the thrill of seeinga child progress in knowledgeand competency And, as in aclassroom, the teaching aids areright there at your fingertips ffyou're reading this at home, lustlook about youlearning oppor-tunities are springing up every-whereupstairs, downstairs, allaround the house. What's more.with these activities you'll behelping you: child practice skillsand learn concepts while youborn have fun together. Try out afew of these activities, they'resimple to do and you're sure toenjoy you few and widening roleas your child's primary teacher.

The kitchen, for instance, isfull of educational activities.

PHEAEA0ma we laA0M0

Among the most importantpre- ding skills to be devel-ops' se concept formation andfang, skills.

1 nave your child help ritewith your routine cooking andcleaning tasks. As you wont to-gether, name and discuss each

WY ILIHUM8 TIM

Dr Sucher re Paine, of ErhCation atIngtan Young Unwitting In 1110100. UtahMr Sevin a a doctoral NOW at Brortam

Pro %tong

As your child's first andforemost teacher, you canmake every room in yourhouse a learning lab withthis collection of parent-child at-home activities

By Dr. Floyd Sucher and Steven Smith

item you use. Your child shouldexperience each item with asmany senses as pcss.ale For ex-ample, have your child see,smell, feel, and taste cinnamonand hear its name as it is takenfresh from the container in pre-paring rolls or a pee. Show yourchild how it is used in cooking.Let your child smell, taste, andsee the product again when thecooking's done. Talk about thecinnamon. Did cooking changeit?

2. Frorr: time to time, gor!irough a kitchen cupboard nam-ing each product, discussing itsuse and where it comes from

3. Your child can practicesorting and classifying in thekitchen. With a quantity of cans,have him name each item andthen sort ea cans into groups.He can sort by food type (vege-table or fruit), by can size orcolor, or for beginning readers,by company name.

4. Help your child discover allof the different forms of a com-mon product. Show your child allthe different forms corn takes:fret, on the cob, frozen, cannedwhole corn, creamed-style, ashominy and cornmeal, in driedand popped forms, as cornflakes. in corn syrup, cornstarch,corn oil and corn oil margarine, incornmeal muffins, tacos end corn(hips. Talk about each fOrm of

85

corn and let your chid experi-ment by tasting, touching andsmelling Can he descnbe for youthe differences among the formsby saying for example, "Ttis oneis crunchy and this one issweet"?

5. Many nursery rhymes ;elateto food items and eating (hotcross buns, curds 'n whey. plumpie). Your child will memorizesome rhymes if you read themfrequently Try acting out nurseryrhymes without talkingcan yourchild guess the rhymes? Havehim act out one for you. Why notinvolve the whole family in nurs-ery rhyme charades after dinner?Morn or Dad can start it off withHumpty Dumpty for example;whoeejr guesses correctly goesnext. Ask the children who theythink should produce and directthe show.

A second essential pre-readingskill area is listening and auditoryperception. You can even teachthese skills through example bymaking eye contact with yourchild when he so( 4ks to you andalways Responding to his inquiriesand requests. The kitchen is agood place to develop listeningskills

1. Have your child listen tohow sounds are sometimes alike,sometimes different. Put smallwhouhrs of different dry foods

Earle Yeers/Perent 110-'81

such as rice, salt. beans, etc , inopaque plastic containers Haveyour child shake each container,listen for differences or sim-ilarities, talk about the sounds.and guess what's inside the con-tainers

2 Have your child listen t',simple one-step, two-step andthree-step directions and followthem Can he clean up after eat-ing? Tell him to "Put the dish inthe sink (Pause) "Throw awayyour napkin (Pause) ) "Slide inyour chair (Pause) ) By the way.you should always praise yourchild when he s successful at anytask

With your child, make cup-cakes or jell-0 or other foods inwhich steps rn...st be followed.Read the directions step by stepand have him carry them outThis 's gcv.id practice in listeningand following oral directions

3 There are all kinds ofsound-producers in the kitchen(spoons. pots, whistling tea ket-tles) Fill a series of soda bottltswit) waterwith a little practice.and by varying water levels youcan produce a series of notes byblowing gently onto the lips of thebottles or by striking them

4 Learning lc, identify the be-ginning sc_nds in words is es-sential to initial success I)reaarng

Spend a week on just onesound. find all the items in thekitchen that begin with thatsound

Make a series of "soundboxes- (empty ice cream con-tainers or plastic bowls workwell) Attach two or three differentpictures representing the samesound, to the containers Have) Xi child cohost small objectsfrom all parts of the house. oreven magazine pictures, that be-gin with the same sound as thepictures on the containers Youcm ado a few "gooier' objectsthat don't begin with the sameSound. Place all the objects and

Early Yaws/Parent '80-81

the footers on the table and havethe Child return to the containerthe items that begin with the ap-propriate sound. After severalsounds have been learned, mix aseries of objects on the table andhave the child sort them bysound into the correct soundboxes

Make letter-sound playingcards Coll .ict four pictures offood and other items whosenames represent beginning con-sonant sounds Glue these toseparate IndeA cards to make adeck of playing cards (four cardsfor each of 10 sounds makes agood deck) Do not put letters orwords or the cards since werestill working on pie-reading skillsPlay the games Concentration,Old Maid, Fish or Rummy withyour cardsall games involveyour child in makev; matcheswith sounds Make cards for longand short vowel sounds. too

Help yrur i..hrid identify lettersthese k tchen activities ask yourchild to loantify toe letters in coo-1al and lob 'ercase forms

1 Letters on food packagesSelect one letter, identify II andshow your child the ways inwhich it appears on various fcodpackages If possible, have yourchild name the letter and circle itwith a crayon each time it ap-pears on a package

2 Large supermsrket ads aregood for use in letter identifica-tion From time to time. gothrough newspaper supermarketads with your child inviting him tocircle, for example, all the A's orB s he sees there After yourchild is familiar with a few letters,record these at top of a new su-permarket ad. each in a differentColor crayon or felt-tip markerNow have your child circle theseletters with a matching colorcrayon each time they appear.

3 Prepare a deck of indexcards showing the capital andlowercase letters and play match-

AIIMIIll

mg games Prepare two cards 'oreach capital letter and two foreach lowercase letter Draw aline under each letter This willprevent your child s confusing theletters b. d. p, q, and w if turnedupside-down Mix together thesecards with the letter-sound cardsyou already have for phon.zspractice Now ask your child tomatch letters and beginningsounds of pictures A deck with10 matching letters and soundscan also be used m games ofConcentration. Rummy, etc

4. Invite your child to help youform refrigerated cookie doughinto letters, or cut letters fromJell-O or toast

IEGINNING READINGAND FuNCIIINAL READING

Labeling1 If your child has started to

read, help him along by labelingobjects around the house Youcan use single words or sen-tences This is a refrigerator. Thisis a stove. This is a hale door.This door Is big

2 Have your child read thebrand names and contents fromdifferent packages He can bringspecific products you ask for tothe work area while you preparefoods togetherthis is oiacticaland good reading plastic I If youask your child to "Please get thevanilla extract from the cornercupboard" you re asking him tofollovr directions and read the la-bel to get the right product

3 Make dinner place cardsfor family members and givethem to your childat mealtimeshe can place them on the tablewhere he'd like each person toSt These place cards can thenbecome special gifts your childpresents to a family memberwhen he succeeds in consistentlyrecognizing that family member sname

4 Make cards containing thinames of familiar housenold ob-jects and use them to label these P15

8h

1

1

r

ri 13 0

n n iziobjects. Remove them and haveyour child reattach them to theproper objects.

5. Reading and following reci-pes shows your child that read-ing can help him do things(functional reading). and theseactivities usually have a nice re-sult The statement ".. pour thebatter into a 9"x9' parr takes onreal meaning when b...kingbrownies

For ws%s to keep learning goingin the kitchen (and in otherPlaces) see A Parents' Guide toEarly Chi.dhood Education in theSupermariel by Sucher. Manning& Mannint (Learning Develop-ment Systems. Provo. Utah84601)

MATH

Rational counting and one-to-onecorrespondence

1 Invite your child to set thetable Can he make sure there isa glass, plate and the rightamount of cutlery at each place?

2 your child can count thecans on a shelf, apples m a bag,potatces in a pan. While in thekitchen, have him fetch a specificamount of a certain food Helphim check his countingComparative terminology

1. Ask your child to bring youthe largest apple. the smallesto:iion, the longest carrot, theshortest cucumber With groupsof food items, have the childpoint out the largest. smallest.nearest, farthest Ask him to putthe items m a row from largest tosmallest

2. Can your child locate anitem in a cupboard if you tell himit's next to, in front of, over orbehind another item?

3. Ask your child to sfrav youhow to put an item under. Over,in. on and beside a small potGeometry

1. Look for circles, squares.triangles ane. ovals in the Achen

Pre (cake pan;. cookie sheets, etc ).

2. Compare shapes of differ-ent sizes Which pan s largest?smallest? Your child can use aruler to determir J that the sidesof a square are equal in lengthand that two sides of a rectangleare longer.

3 Lay differeni shapedcrackers in a row to create a pat-tern and have your child try toreproduce the pattern Do thesame with boxes or fruits.

4. Your child can help youwith the dishes, stacking ser.:sfrom largest to smallest as hedries them.Measurement

1 Using a scale, your childcan compare the weights of sev-eral hoods or objects Have himestimate weights first and thencheck his estimate with the scale.Children can also learn to readthe weights on various packagesand verify them. Have your childhelp you weigh out ingredientsfor a recipe

2 Lei your Child measure outa teaspoon. tablespoon. cup.quart and gallon of water: he cancompare quantities by pouringfrom one measuring device intoanother How many teaspoonsmake a tablespoon? How manycups in a quart? (Place two panson a counter with lots of news-papers under them and aroundtne chair on which the Child isstanding or sitting to prevent aclean-up mess ) Have older chil-dren estimate the amount of aproduct in a container thenmeasure to verify. For example,can they estimate how muchwater is in a partially-filled quartjar?

3. Introduce your child toinches. feet, yards. meters andcentimeters by measuring pans.floor tiles, room sizes. etc OlderChildren can estimate lengthsand then measure to verify theirestimates Record your child'sheight on a long piece of papertaped to the inside of a closetdoor Every three months, have

87

the child stand next to the paper,mark his height and record theinches and date.

4 Have your child help keeptrack of the number of minutes Ittakes to hard-boil an egg. bakecupcakes or set some pudding

Make a clock face using apaper plate and two hands cutfrom cardboard Have your childshow the times you name or, po-sition the hands yourself andhave the child tell the time

Together. make or use acalendar on which you list thingsto be done or important eventsthat have occurred or will occurThe refrigerator door is a handyplace to display it. The calendarwill be fun to review at the end ofthe year and helps familiarizeyour child with the days of theweek and the months of the yearYou may also want to record theweather for ech day

Computation1 Using fruit, nuts, cookies.

etc . make up word problems forwhich the child needs to sub-tract. add, multiply, and divideFor example, "I have ght eggsand we use two eggs to make acake How many will be left?"""How much of the pie will you getif we divide It equally among thewhole familyr

%WIRING

There are many ways childreneven beginning readers and wnt-erscan practice writing andreading in the kitchen.

I Prepare a shmoing list andpost it in a visible place

2. Obtain a small bulletinboard and designate a sectioh ofit for each family member Leavespecial messages for your childOlen (write some messages thatrequire written answers). Somefamilies even mark off the re-frigerator door in sections anduse a grease pencil to write mes-sagesthis makes a built -inmessage center

3- Your child can start a per-

Each; YeersiParew 10-81

sonal recipe box by copying reci-pes he enjoys.

4. After an enjoyable cookingexperience. have your child writeabout the experience and illus-trate.it. Post this story and picturewhere others can read and seethem.

5. Have your child make la-bels for kitchen objects.

6. The book Any Child CanWrite by Harvey S. Wiener(McGraw-Hill Book Co.. 1221Avenue of the Americas. NewYork. N.Y. 10020) contains hun-dreds of ideas for home writingexperiences with children

ACTwrin N WHIM ROMSMany of the kitchen activitieswe've alreaoy given you can beeasily altered for use li the livingroom. bedroom. garage. laundryroom or sewing area.

1. In the garage. shop or sew-ing area. have your child sortbuttons. nails. screws or washersin an empty ew, carton. This de-velops classifying and organize-bon skills Your child can sort bysize. shape. -110f etc. In thisway the thiii ig and sortingprocess can be repeated severaltimes. The egg carton can beused in adding. subtraction anddivision activities as wellOrganizing bureau drawers is an-other exercise in classification.

2. Can your cued measure thelength and width of a piece ofcloth or lace? The length of ascrew. bolt or board?

3 Okee: children enjoy read-ing about how th construct thingsusing "how to anti patternbookswncourage Mir ;ammo

4. The semospheie .0;1 a livingfoam or tedroom ccremoules toan enjoyable reading experience.

Paw:de for book Noce* inthe living :loom and each bed-room (near the cods). Show yourchild Clow to care for books andmagazines and help him organ-ize books on the shelves bycolor, height. etc

Early Wars/Fame *0-,1

Books and magazine sub-scriptions make excellent, lastingbirthday and holiday gifts.

Se a good model. let yourchild see you enjoying readingoften. Read to your child reg-ularly at all ages and have him sitnear youthis warm, physicalcontact is important.

When reading storybooks toyour child. he will memorize cer-tain ones. Read a familiar storyand have your child fill in thewords you leave out. I-Jint to theprinted word as he says it. Hellsoon recognize the word out ofcontext

Set aside a quiet time eachday to enjoy colorful picturebooks with your child. but don'tjust turn the pages in silencetalk about the pictures and thestory. Lots of verbal interactionshould take place between par-ent and child. Older childrenshould be encouraged to reao tothemselves

Check books out of the li-brary. Most libraries have sched-uled story hours so take auvan-sage of your library's facilitiesThe library opens up a world ofpleasure and adventure for chil-dren of all ages.

LarEteNG AND Skti.OfvELOMEN *MIMES

1. Oral scavenger hunts arefun and require that your childlie eri carefully Ask him. for in-stance. to find the objects in thekitchen that begin with a specificsoundF-fork. fish, fan. food Or.ask your child to find things fromall over the house that are madeof wood. These games help de-s:op your child's skills atorganizing and classifying. If yourchit names an *ern that doesnot reiate to the classificbtionyou've given, discuss why theUm doesn't qualify. Help yourchild make distinctions.

2. Have your child listen to acommercial on TV. then have himgive his ova. interpr ition of

au a

what the commercial said Taprecord his interpretation.

3. Tell your child short stonesand have him describe for youthe main characters and thetheme of the story. If he's listenedcarefully he should be able to tellthe story in his own words

4. Read simple comic strips toyour child and repeat the storyseveral times. Cut comic stripsinto sections and have the childput them in the proper sequenceHave him repeat the story as hedoes this.

5. Play memory games Showyour child a tray containing sev-eral toys. Tel him you are goingto take one away without his look-ing At first. remove somethingthat would be easy for your childto remember. Then have himguess what is missing Try itagain, but this time have yourchild remove the item so you canguess what's missing

6. Once the child is ac-quainted with the letter namesand some of their sounds. playgames of association Place co-outs of two letters next to an ob-ject in the house. For instance.place the letters "T" and "1:1" on abed and see if your child candecide which letter representsthe beginning sound for the word"bed Do the same with otherobjects in the house

Your child is a beginningleaner and has far to go Makethis journey with hon, hand inhand; it will make it an easier andhappier trip and the rewards forboth will be beyond measure +

8S 1,17

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, Early Years, tnc.Westport, CT 06880. F-om the December 1980 issue of Years.

Parent Tips

A Parents'Alphabet

Ais for Arms, arms that holdand arms that support and

arras that push v-ien they haveto.

Ms for Books, which shouldSO abound in s ery horns; andfor Boredom, which can't staylong if books are there.

Cis for the Children. and theCaring and the Crying

which sometimes come togetherall at once.

Dis for Doors, which yousometimes have to help

them open and through whichthey have to go someday neverto return unchanged; and for Dis-cipline and Dignity, which youowe every child.

Eis for Everything you hopefor them; for the Easier you

hope it will be for them; and forEducation, which takes place atleast as much at home as inschool.

Fis for Foolish mistakes youmake with your kids; and for

the Freedom they must have tomake their own.

Gis for Grandparents, whocan add tradition and

wisdom to children's eves: andfor Growth, which parents andkids can experience together.

His for Home, which is onlysometimes a house where

a child feels wanted and loved.

(;mat 1100 i Lerwee 0 We ate* esegtatereeey knee. Moran ekes Camp.Womille. Me. Ms. Mum e see re 0 Ereamelbeee Moe.

By Carol Hurst

Iis for Ignorance, which darkensme world and is sometimes

mistaken for Innocence.

is for Jealousy, which creepsinto so many relationships;

and for Joy, which can push itout.

le is for Kickball. and tag andI Shide-and-seek end at thoseother adult-less games kids needto play; and for Kissing. and hug-ging, which nobody does enoughof

Lis for Love, of course.

Mis for the Memory all par-ents have of what Child-

hood was like for them; and forMoney, which can never sub-rtihste for love no matter how lav-ishly given; and for Manners.which make living easier.

im is for Nurturing, the giving ofIS love and care which only

sometimes comes naturally.

Oil

for Occupation, whichtakes so much of your time;

and for the Openness which ex-ists when kids and parents relywork at IL

pis for Presents. which eveeasy to give; and for P.,r-

Once. which is harder; and forParenthood, which is only partly abiological function; and for thePatience is takes to See youthrough It.

CIis for questions, which areso easy to turn off and so

herd to turn beck on.

Rs for Rest, which it seemsnever comes while the kids

are young; and for Reward.which you get when you look intheir faces or het their hands.

Sis for Summer. which seemsendless; and for School,

where you ought to feel welcome.for the Stones you know but sel-dom tell; and for Shoulders.which sometimes are drenchedwith tears.

Tis for Timtr, whi-h therenever seems to be enough

of: and for Teachers who try tounderstand.

um for the Upper hand,which you try so hard to

Mgt; and for the Understandingthat you try so hard to have.

Vis for the Virtue of overcom-ing all those roadblocks life

SWIMS to throw just when every-thing's going well.

wis for the Whys, which candrive you up the wall: and

the Wisdom it takes to answerthem.

Xis for the X ray of the brokenbone you both cried over;

and for the Xtra love it takes tobe parent.

Yis Ito hich helpsonly ternPerer0; and for

being Young which is only partlya matter of years.

zis for the end, the end ofalphabets, the end of child-

hood, but never the end of love.

Reprinted with permission of the Publisher, EarlyYears, Inc., Westport, CT 06880. From the

December 1980 issue of Early Years.

boy vsairPerronlID-11

Reprinted withmission from the

Publisher, Early Years,Inc., Westport, CT06880. From the

February 1983 issue ofany Years.

Teacher Tips

Let Parents KnowThey're VIP'sBy Dr. Anthony D. Fredericks

We all know how important recognition isto a child's develoPmentbath as a Owdent and as an individual. The affectiveenhancement cd youngsters can osishouldto a natural pen of our doily interactionswith pupils. This regard for the emotionscan reap untold benefits academically byhelping children feel good about them-selves and what they are doing

But wrist about parents? How muchtime (or elion) do we devote to the affec-tive concerns of parents? Being a parentrequires much more then simple biologicalfunctions it involves a wide range of tal-ents. skills. ideals and perceptions alllearned through apprenticeship. Untortu-nately. the day-in. derout demands ofparenting receive Nile recognition. Momand Dad don't get an "A" if son Johnnylearns how to hold his fork the correctway. nor do they gel a "Satisfactory"when dsughter Susie masters the art oftying her shoe laces.

Choices are that the accomplishmentsof parenthood seldom. N ever. get no-ticedperticularly by those outside ofthe immediate family. As leacher' wecontinuously Memel with parent* andother mentors of the family one regulartoes. N therefore sierra reason sble toassume fist we can enhance the *umice of our classroom by noidnn parentsfullikidged members of the InstructionalaWn. aid NO tie ihaalinwillt by Wallthem recognition and praise ihmichoutthe school year. f* Ming parents knowtheir efforts are en important part of thefrowlh and development of llok children.you can heft ammo a wry pos... doeIon for our close throughout the year.X% AN fir llo Fewly Make wary effort

WILY YEAllifFECoratav telle

to promo*. inciAduel *Mee and parentsin general Demonstrate that the entirefamily. though not always present in yourcbegoern. is a sigplacent pan col the dos-mom

Set up a "Family ol the Week" bulletinboard for the children to "advertise"their individual families. Tell your classthat females are orgsnized differentlythese clays and some families MI haveboth a mother and a father at horns others,a mother or a father: perhaps a grand'parent Or uncles the surrogate parentEstablish a series of parenViamil work-shops where the mire (Wily can petsci-pale in cresting and desiring learninggames and activities.*Invite parents in to share their hobbies.occupations. or favorite children's story.Establish a "bleglione tree" so thatevery parent in your classroom can keepin touch with every other parent.Encousge parents to visit your class.volunteer a Pertain number of hours aseek. or just observe their chid "in sc-ion."*Get parents involved in establishing longrange projectspkr/s. musical produc-Ions. berretta centers lazing bat/L.01,nelmaterials =netted to your reading ormath series. or even as tutors for variousstudents in the class.

Promoting the family as an essential in

gradient in your class alerts parents tothe fact that their involvement and partici-pation can be rewarding as well as im-potentFdlowsep As a leacher. N isimportant that you let parents know thatihey are valuebb members of Lie in-structional effort. Help than realize thatIN reading stone 'viewing Sash cards.checking horn wt and reinforcing methskills. they are ceoltributing to the poten-tiel success their children operience inschool.

Recognizing parents as an essentialingredient of your day -today irstructonmaws acknowledging them as VIP's. Par-ergs do influence both the cognate, and at-team growth of our milsend :Nouldbe recognized for their pest efforts, as wailas future conMbutions. To peephole thepopular telephore cancers cornmerciel"Reedt ail. reach all and touch someparents." They wIN appreciate our ef-forts to recognize their efforts. They willsee. in action, Its results of true coop-eration batmen horns and ached.

Dr. kivalq D. Footers a ens% lipmeamstar er a Csissama k Wool 011tiet. COMPOa PA.

90

Teacher Tips

Reprinted with permission of thePublisher, Early Years, Inc.,Westport, CT 06880. From theMay 1981 issue of Early Years.

Two types of Drown MrsvonStern's students made

over the summer as a resultof her sane:Mom booklet

"Recipes fora HappySummer." Neer right: KimDachelers calendar/diarywith Illustrationslust meway she created ft for the

monde of Junea lovely diaryof special days. Far rigid:

. icyGanz proudly presentshis Rustrated story of a

family trip

...And a big roundof applause for the parents

They're the ones who've made it allpossible! Here's how to organize a

very special thank you for them anda nice send off for the kids

By Jan vonStein

Well. another wonderfulyears gone by. During that

time many of your children'sparents have given freely and sokindly of their time: assisting duringcooking activities and on field trips;typing language experiencestories: volunteering every 'lingfrom empty milk canons and the sadspools to their expertise and sup-Pefl.

How can you thank them for allthey've given? How can you givetheir children a memorabli sendoff? How can you make this sum-mer a really fruitful one for all ofthem?

One way is to plan a simplelunch, or coffee and dessert gath-ering at which you share withparents some simple, written sug-gestions for over-the-summer-learning (I usually send home theinvitations along with the children sMother's Day presents).

Th following ideas are drawl

Ins sutler wens kinerrosesn sre fatIwo sr Ms Pons Cosa Schoso en Fon Wagdos Fl . Wee she e see Acting Dolor

78 Agnomens

Porn my booklet Some Recipes fora Happy Summer.

Number PunKeep a chart of your child's

growth over the summer.Make a large calendar page

for each summer month. Your childcan fill in the number's as you goalong and note important days,holidays, trips, weather, etc. (Alsosee the day by day summer activi-ties elsewhere in this article.)

Make or buy simple connect-the-dot books.

Let your child practice hisnumbers in shaving .;ream or fingerpaints.

Purchase a flannel board setincluding numbers. Encourageyour child to tell you stories with it.

Obtain a magnetic board setthat includes numbers. Your childcan practice simple addition andsubtraction to 10.

Lingual*Your child has been dictating

and reading language experiencestories all year. Please continuewith this over the summer; just printthe stories in manuscript letters.

91

dUhe1 ' 1 MIN .

1,--'.

...

MO

_ t.....ar ..:1:11- 1r6.7,4

!MOM

I 1 '

Form the stories into a book foryour child to illustrate with draw-ings, post cards, magazine cutoutsOf actual photographs

Your child could tell you abouta trip, an unusual incident, animaginary character, anything ofinterest to him. Have your childread his book of experience storiesto other family members or friends.Include the book or books in yourhome library.

You can make a flannel boardfor your child to tell his favoritestories on. Cover a large piece ofstiff cardboard with flannel. Fromfelt of various colon, cut out char-acters for your child's favorite storyor poem. Make the necessary sce-nery. too. Tell the story together bymoving the characters.

Save each story or Porn and theaccompanying lot characters inseparate file folders. kaki a wholeseries of stories so your child willhave a library of stories to tell visi-tors or entertain himself with. t:&awing is difficult for you. simplytrace figures, cut from a coloringbook, onto felt or orlon.

4,-00

5 6 r75

..,111 IN I "77" 711111,

Tejsprille,

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*111.01

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2__Is

ritee Cooking

Cooking together over thesummer is not only fun, it has somany educational benefits Themath, measurement and sequenc-ing experiences that gc hand inhand with cooking are very worth-while. And knowing simple cookingskills is an excellent asset for anyboy or girl. Why not let your childhelp you plan a dinner menu? Shoptogether, talk about the differentareas of the store and about foodgroups.

PeskyFrom time to Ime, teem a sim-

ple poem together with your cnild.Books of poetry and finger playsare available at your book store orlibrary. Be sure that your choicesare geared to the interests and ma-turity of your child. You and yourchild can always make up your ownhand actions to a favorite poem.

When your child learns a newpoem, you might record it and keepIt in your taps library or give it to aspecial relative or friend as a gift.This is an excellent reading readi-ness activity.

2.011:100

:Orat ter

or ow

GenesGames that require counting or in-clude easy reading are goodchoices for your child. Differentversions of the "memory" game(child is shown a tray of objects;turns his back while you removeone or more objects; child tries toguess which object(s) are nowr *skin) are especially good forthis 89109rouP.

Visit a toy or deprinent storeand check for commercial gamesthat have special benefits for yourchild. In many aree.3, there are

92

WI

1111111111.

school supply stores that carry in-teresting games. Games can bequiet and productive activities forYOU. Or a grandparent, or otherrelative to share with your child.

PullfsesOne of the easiest and most dura-ble types of puppets to construct isthe hand-arm puppet. One yard of72-inch wide felt fabric can Demode into eight 9"x36" puppets.Cut a pupil . pattern from newspa-per making sure it fits the siren ofyour child's hand.

2

0

CORtinued 77

Add a face and other clothing de-tails with buttons or materialscraps. Old socks and empty ce-real boxes can also form interest-ing and creative puppets. An oldbox from the grocery store . . . lov-ingly covered . . . maybe with little

had needed, in their formativeyears, frequent and direct commu-nication with intelligent adults.Parents who served as tutors wereappreciated. Not a single one of theeminent who was tutored by CAS ofhis parents failed to indicate grati-

curtains and simple scent ty willcertainly add a lot to your puppetshows.

Spode, DaysTry. at les..1 once each week to

plan a "special" day with yourchild. All the anticipation and plan-ning only add to the fun and thereare so many interesting and edu-cational places to visit: the fire de-partment, museum, zoo, thebeach, movies, shopping, a farm.Make a list with your child of lava -lie places and set up a timetable sothe precious days of summer don'tslip away!

Be sure to include a weeklytrip to the public library in yourplans. Let your child select booksfor your daily story time. There areexcellent children's programs atmost all libraries so check in yourlocality to see what they haveplanned for your child's sge group.Let your child see and know thatyou ijoy books, too; this type ofparent interest is of utmost impor-tance to your child's future readingability.

Dome Things Is Think AboutA pair of noted researchers found,in their studies of the home lives ofeminent people, that there waspresent an almost universal love oflearning as a lifetime pursuit, a life-time pursuit that was not necessar-ily related to a desire for acquisitionof worldly goods.

These same researchers also75 found that most prominent people

turn for the experience. These re-search findings are published in thebook A Values Approach to Educa-tional Administration by RaymondOsbander and Ray C. Dethy

The Most MeknesGM le Your Time

I'd like to share this poem with youthat I think is important from thestandpoint of parenting.

My hands were busy through the day,I didn't have much erne to playThe NW gams you asked me to

didn't have much time for you.I'd wash your clothes. ro sew and

cook.But when you'd bring your picture

bockAnd ask me please to share your funI'd say. INN later. son."I'd tuck you in all safe at nightAnd near your Prayers. turn out the

Sigtn.Thin t i p t o e s o f t l y to the door . . .

I wish I'd stayed a minuet more.F o r Net is mon, the y e a r s r u s h past . . .

A NM boy grows up so lastHis precious secrets to confideThere are no longer games to PloyNo goodnight kiss, no prayers to

neer . . .

Thal NI belongs to yesteryearMy hands, once busy. now are orThe days are iong and herd so M.wish I could go beck and do

The Nis things you asked me to.

I hope you'll make each and everysummer day count for you and yourchildnot only educationally, butin fun ways, too. Thanks for all yourhelp. I **yid spending this yearwith your child. Have a wondettulMillfrom

June13/The last day of school (fill in theproper date for your school).

14/Count all the leas on the furni-ture in your living room and diningroom.15/Listen to some music and thendraw a picture of what it makes youthink of.14/Make three puppets out of oldSocks and then plan a puppet showfor your fa:nily.17 /Collect some leaves from youryard; cover them with tracing paperand rub OW the paper with a pen-cil or crayon to make a design.10/Write the letters of the alpha-bet, upper- and lowercase.13/Do each of these motions 10times: hop, skip, jump, gallop.20/Write an experience storyabout your favorite day so far thissummer.21 /Take a nature walk with yourparents. How many Woos did yousee? Draw your favorite thing yousaw or found.22/Make your own flannel boardand then have someone help youmake characters for a story23/Make a construction paper col-lage.24/Draw pictures of as many crea-tures you know of that lay eggs21/Write all the vowels on paper.Draw pictures for words that havethe short vowel sounds.23/Make a terrarium. Ask yourparents to help you learn abouthow to are for this mini-environ-ment.27/Write five interesting wordsfrom your social studies books andthen illustrate them.!/Name everything shaped likethis in your backyard:22/Write and illustrate s storyabout tlhat you and a good friendlike to do for fun.30/Find five words in a newspaperor moose* that you can read.Illustrate them.

July1i'Begin a daily diary for July. At

tin end of shit month, tell which day.

vas the most fun.2/See how many sets of two you

can find in yiur house.31Asee a Z./1y calendar and rec-

cid the weather for each day.4/See how many fours you can

find today (set of four, the numeralfour). Use red, white and bluec ayons to make fours.5/Make an animal collage from

cut out pictures.4/Look in the newspaper for ac-

tion words or verbs. Cut out someof the words and illustrate them.7/Plan a trip to the beach to look

for shells. Group your collection ofshells by size, color and shape.11/Make a tambourine Iron, two

paper plates (slip pebbles. beansor rice between the plates and sewtogether around edges). Tie bellson yt ur tambourine with ribbons orstreamers and practice somerhythms.II/Soap up a cookie sheet or tray

and practice writing the alphabet inthe suds.10/Make up a story about a talkinganimal and illustrate it.11/Add some food coloring to asqueeze bottle of white glue. Makea design on paper with the glue.12/Act out five feelings, and letyour fnends guess what they are.Take turns acting out feelings.13/Name five animals whosenames begin with the letter "B".Draw them14/Plan a trip to your local NatureCenter and write a story about it15/Make paper bag masks withtwo friends Act out 3 play.15 /List the seven food groups. Cutout pictures that illustrate each.17iDraw a hopscotch grid on theground or sidewalk. Instead ofnumbers, use letters of the alpha-bet and say the letters as you hop10 /Draw a picture you know willmake someone laugh.19/Make flash cards from oldplaying cards Using your flashcards, play "Hewer' with a friend20/Cut out geometric or irregularshapes from colored constructionpaper. Make a picture with yourshapes.21/Make a beanbag b, teen g aold pot holder with rice and ',itch-ing it closed. Practice tossing yourbeanbag.22/Bury or hide a treasure; make amap so a friend can find it.23/Make a doll from a clothespin.Dress the doll in the native clothingof one of the countries you stuct.edin school.24/Draw a big suitcase on paper.

Cut out pictures of clothing you'dneed for a trip. Paste the picturesinside the suitcase.25/Make a "Me Mobile" usingseveral pictures of you and yourfamily.2$/Tell about a dream you've had.Illustrate the dream "cartoonehfle."27/Make a Word Tree from an oldbranch. Write words you know onconstruction paper rectangles withcrayon. Using thr mid, hang thewords all over the branch.2$ /Draw a design u: the letter"S". Find pictures of objectswhose names end with the letter

29/Count all the sounds you canhear in five minutes. Listen forsome different sounds today.30/List how many things one ofyour hands can hold. beans, shells,straws, marbles. etc.31/Make a crossword puzzle withthe names of animals. Ask yourparents to help.

August1/Find three apples that are dif-

ferent colors Compare the color,shape, size and texture of all threeapples.2/Take a walk and find several

different objects along the wayCompare and discuss the foundobjects.

3/Act out some of the chores youdo every day.4 /Start the day off by tJhng a

poem fir singing a song Act outyour poem or song.5/See how many things you can

draw using these shapes

LIC3C30004/Talk about one news item you

hear on IV c read in the new:.pa-per.7/Try to rear, some words or a

sentence in the newspaper.8/Cut out pictures of things

vou'v dreamed about. Paste thepictures on colored paper.9/Cut up a picture post card in

puzzle pieces. Now put it back to-gether again-19/Make a lit. of the sounds ..e.ihear today. Illustrate some of .lietseSounds.

94

11/Label objects in your room, thekitchen, living room, etc.12/Make a second set of yester-day's labels. Match these wordswith the labels.13/Act out these action words:jump, roll, skip, hop, slide, tiptoe.Act out other action words.14/Place several objects in a gro-cery by or old pillow case. Makeup a riddle about one of the objectsin the bag. Have a friend feel in thebag for the object you describe.Take turns.15/Bounce a ball four dines, sixtimes, 10 times. etc.16/Have someone read a story toyou. Nero act it out.17/Ask one of your parents to helpyou write a letter to a friend orrelative.1111/Cook something together withyour parents. Taste lest your prod-uct. .

10/Listen to some music. As youlisten to the music, draw a picturewith paint or crayons.20/Try a little exercise: Stand onyour left fool and raise your rightknee; lean forward, lean backward,etc.21/Be a clock-watcher todayRecord the time you get up, eatlunch, start to play, begin to work,etc.22/Make a toy from discardeditems around the house.23/Make up your own poem, song,o. both.24:Make finger puppets fromscrap material or other "junk."25/Talk about jobs people doplumber, mail carrier, garbage col-lector, doctor, are some examples26/Collect interesting "litter" fromyour yard, park, beach, etc. Make adisplay with it.27/Prepare a simple meal or snacktogether with your Mother or Fa-ther.2$ /Discuss one of your favoritepeople and tell why he/she is afavorite.2P/List all the toys in your roomthen put the wOrdS in alphabeticalorder.30/Do one thing you've been put-ting off.31/Are you all ready for schocl?Find out your new teacher's nameWhat new things would you like tolearn in school this year? + 79

The lEA-Aa Parent Education Notebook

NotebookEvaluation and

Suggestions

139

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The NA AR. Parent Education Notebook

Name (optional)

Teacher Awareness SessionEvaluation Form

Date(Please include your name if you would like to Districtgive or receive further assistance or materials.) School

A. Pr'wsional Role (check oue)

Teacher (specify grade/subject)Administrator (specify)Other (specify)

B. Session Objectives: Upon completion of the Awareness Session, participantsshould be able to:

1. Explain purposes of the Parent Education Notebook.2. appropriate activities for parent use in skill areas.3. Use the parent letter or develop a memo to accompany activities.4. Conduct the Parent Orientation Session.

Rate the degree to which each objective above was met:3 = fully; 2 = somewhat; 1= not met

Oki. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Obj, 4

Comments:

C. Session Implementation

1. How was the session helpful to you?


2. What should be changed to improve the session?

Additional Comments:

D. Workshop Outcomes

Circle one of the ratings (4 = absolutely, yes, 3 = mostly, yea; 2 = mostly, no;and 1= absolutely, no) which best reflects your assessment of the outcumes/benefits of the workshop.

1. I would use notebook activities with studentsat all levels in my class.

2. I would use notebook activities with studentswith below grade-appropriate skills.

3. I would distribute materials and share what Ihave learned with colleagues.

4. I would conduct the Parent Orientation Session.

5. I would like follow-up assistance from thesession presenter.

6. I have additional activities or articles thatmight be used in future notebook editions.

7. I would cortact AEL for more information orassistance on the topic.

8. I would like information on additional AELservices.

Comments:

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 -,

4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1

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TEA-AEL Parent Education NotebookEvaluation

Name (optional)

(Please include your came if you are requestingor offering assistance or materials.)

DateDistrictSchool

1. How many different Notebook activities have you sent home for parents/guardians to use?

2. Have you used Notebook activities during the school day? How many?

3. Have you used activities from one section more than from others?If so, which?

4. Have the activities been useful? How could they be improved?

5. Are there additional skill areas for which activities should be developed?If so, what are they?

6. What have parents told you about the utility of the activities?

7. Describe any gains you have observed in student development which may berelated to uae of Notebook activities.

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o


8. Have the reference list, research articles, and skill descriptions been useful toyou? Please explain

9. Was the Parent Orientation Session agenda useful? How might it be improved?

10. Describe any additional sections which should be included in the Notebook.

11. Do you know of the use of the Notebook by other than kindergarten teachers(specify grade)? Were the activities helpful? Please explain.

12. How could the Parent Education Notebook be improved?

Thank you for using the Parent Education Notebook and for suggesting improve-ments. If you have additional activities or articles (with sources cited) which mightbe included in the Notebook, please mail these to AEL, P. O. Box 1348, Charleston,WV 25325. If you know of others who would use the revised Parent EducationNotebook, please suggest that they contact the Tennessee Education Association orAEL.

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Documents

Beard, Brenda; And Others - ed