It's about what we do every day at Encompass—we support each child's ability to communicate. Learning to read and write begins at birth and builds on the children's basic ability to communicate. We know that children acquire literacy by speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We also know that children learn best when what they are learning is tied to something they know—a toddler might talk about a book you are reading while he or she is snuggled up to a parent or trusted caregiver. A preschooler may want to represent some experience by drawing symbols and using written words. Children do this because they see us doing it all the time, and they want to be like us. It is what we do every day.
We make reading a part of the daily routine. We read to children, and we encourage their parents to read to them. We explore sounds and language by having fun through singing and chanting and rhyming and matching words. We provide lots of writing materials—just right for their level; crayons, markers, brushes, pencils, pens, chalk, etc. and all kinds of paper. And, we start early. Toddlers and preschoolers have a written symbol that they begin to associate with their name, and preschoolers like to print their names and the names of things all around the room. We are teaching children how to read—from the very first day they come to an Encompass center!
Developing Literacy through Encompass Early Education and Care Summer Explorers Program Activities
Teacher Planning List
- Visit every library
- Write a script for a newscast
- Read-a-Loud from "Chicken Soup" each day
- Track how many books are read
- Have each child write a "thank you" after a field trip and send all in one big envelope
- Do inter-generational reading with a person at a nearby residential home
- Develop story structures for older children's books
- Have older children read to younger children
- Have children tape record readings to be used later
- Write a story about their favorite field trip
- Make a field trip "book" in stories and pictures for each child to take home
- Back at the center, spend time reading the books that children have checked out on their library trips
- Make a story chart (in words and pictures of what we did today)
- Make a chart to contrast "What do you think you will see today on the field trip?" to "What did you see on the field trip?"
- Act out favorite stories with costumes and props
- Act out favorite stories with puppets
- Write and act out stories we have written
- Write and draw posters, invitations, etc. for events at a program (carnival, circus, bake sale)
- Read chapter books each day
- Set goals for individual reading
- Write in journals
- Have pen pals (between two Encompass Centers)
