Dunkin Donuts and Literacy

As Kohavim prepared the new pretend Dunkin Donuts, they agreed they would need a menu. With a teacher's help, the children looked through the Dunkin Donut website and selected different types of drinks and food they would like to sell in their Dunkin Donuts. After printing the images, we realized we would need to label the different items. Lots of the children wanted to help with this job!

While writing labels, the children demonstrated their individual literacy development. Some children used a strategy of copying words seen in the photograph such as "latte" or "coolatta." When children copy print, they are developing an understanding of what words look like and how letters and words are formed.

Some of the children used invented spelling with the help of a teacher segmenting or sounding out the words. When an adult "sounds out" a word, they are stretching the sounds or phonemes to help children identify and represent them with alphabet letters. When a child begins to use conventional alphabet letters to represent sounds they hear in words, they often begin by just writing or representing the initial consonant in a word. For example, if a child was writing "donut" they may just identify and write the "D." They then will move to representing words with the initial and final consonant in the words. For example, they would write "DT" for donut. As their writing continues to develop they continue to add more of the consonant sounds and then begin to add the vowels as well. For example, above ice tea is written "IS-TE" and oatmeal is written "OTMEL."


Creating a menu for our pretend Dunkin Donuts provided the perfect opportunity for the children to display their emerging literacy skills. The children were excited and motivated, asking to make more and more labels. Confirming the children's attempts and strategies for writing helps their confidence as writers. It is so wonderful to see the children's confidence, motivation, and love of learning blossoming!