Children’s names are usually the first written words that they learn. We can support children’s literacy development by using their interest in this most important word as a springboard for other letter recognition. In the next couple of weeks we are going to QUICKLY review the letters of the alphabet. This would be a good time to get excited about LETTERS with your Kindergartener!! Challenge them to find out what letters are in the names of people they know and love!! Talk about the letters, have them count the letters, have them write the different names on paper to see what letters they may need help in forming. When the letters are attached to something meaningful it will be more motivating for them to engage in practicing!!
We have been talking about HOW WE ARE EACH SPECIAL this week. Today we read and talked about the Story of the Ugly Duckling and how we can learn important lessons from stories like this one. We talked about how the Ugly Duckling is special, that he was always special, even though he and others didn’t think so at first. As we look at each others names, we see that they are all different. The beginning letter is an uppercase letter and the following letters are lowercase, we may even have a different number of letters in our names. They may look different, but they are each special to us!! (We were also able to throw in a little scissor lesson with our Apple Name Puzzles. We talked about how we hold the scissors, where we put our thumb and fingers and to keep our hand in the right position as we open and close the tool. “WHEN WE CUT …. THUMBS UP”). This first week has been ROCKIN‘
