Playing with our rock alphabet

With the Rock Alphabet ready to roll, the children were ready to play! Some children began making strings of letters and asking the teachers to read them. As the teacher sounded out the long string of letters, the children giggled. Some children decided to use the rock alphabet to spell their names and the names of the children in the classroom. Some children even decided to spell their parents names! Our Rock Alphabet has inspired so much letter identification, matching of alphabet letters, spelling, and sounding out. And what a wonderful way to connect nature and literacy! 

Rock Alphabet

A few weeks ago, the children in lunch bunch began collecting small stones. We washed and painted the small rocks. This week, we began writing the alphabet letters on our freshly painted stones. As we were writing the letter, the children noticed we did not have enough stones.  They also noticed that some children would need the same alphabet letters for their names. They concluded we would need more stones! Elias, Emme, Jolie, and Ben decided to go outside and collect some more stones.

We set up a station to wash the rocks, dry the stones, and then paint them. Many children in Kohavim helped to paint the stones. We let the stones dry and decided to check back after lunch. When we realized the stones were dry, we continued writing alphabet letters on them.  Adam and Noah put the alphabet stones in order so we would know which letters we still needed. We decided to do a whole set of uppercase letters and a whole set of lower case letters. Our Rock Alphabet was finally ready to be played with! Check out the post called, “ Playing with our Rock Alphabet  “ to see how the kohavim children have been using the rock alphabet! 

Hey! That's my name!

We are really starting to recognize our names in the Shamayim class.  Today, while making our challah bags, some children decided that they could spell their names, too!  Victoria, Ava, Bennett, and Josh (among others) searched for the correct letters and decorated with concentration and focus.

Bella included "cody" and "amanda" on her bag and then began assisting others with letter finding.  Victoria was having trouble finding a second "I".

Bella suggested we cut an L or T to make an I.  Great problem solving, Bella!

What's in a name?

As the second half of the year begins, we have been putting more focus on written name recognition.  Some of the Shamayim children know all of the letters in their names, some only know the first one.  Some know how to write a few letters, some still scribble.  Some children are interested, some are not.

All of this is developmentally appropriate.  We simply want the children to have opportunities to recognize their names (without photographs) and become familiar with how their letter configurations differ from (and are similar to) their peers.  In addition, for those children who are interested, being able to write some or all of their name is a great confidence booster.  It allows the child to be independent from the teachers ("I can write my own name on my work") and also provides early literacy practice.

When we returned from winter break, the job charts held each child's name with a small sticker (that they selected), rather than a photograph.  The sticker helps sort through the options (if they know they have a yellow sticker, they can eliminate those names with a purple, blue or red sticker).  As time passes, they will become more familiar with the letters in their name.

During challah bag decorating today, some children wanted to write their own name on their bag.  Grayden asked that his name be written on the bag and then he wanted to trace over it.  Bella wanted her name in bubble letters.  Ava (lucky girl with only three letters, two that are different) wrote her name with ease all over her bag.  Victoria knew some of her letters and the others were written on paper next to her from which she copied.

We are thrilled to see the interest and determination in so many of the children.

B is for...

During our circle time, we read a book about Israel's birthday.  I held up the book and Brett crawled right up and pointed to the cover and said "B"!  I said, "Yes!"  The first letter of birthday is B, just like Brett.  Ben then exclaimed "I start with a B, too".  Lizzie added, "Like a bumblebee!"


We teach letters and phonemic awareness in a natural way.  This is a perfect example of how we follow children's interests.  It is so exciting to see the children begin to recognize letters, sounds and make connections between their own world and the texts that we read!!