Hello Pre-1 families. February has been a whirlwind to say the least. We wanted to start by saying thank you for being understanding and flexible during these unprecedented times. We are glad that the children are staying engaged in learning and play during the times we are forced to go remote. We couldn’t make this work without efforts on all parts and for that we thank you!
You may have heard your child come home and talk about various fairy tales. We have taken a deep dive in our fairy tales study in the classroom. Some of the fairy tales we have explored include: The Gingerbread Man, The Princess and the Pea, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs. We also have some non-fiction books about castles located in our castle dramatic play area which we have read in small groups. In the classroom library, we have different versions of the same tale. We use these read-aloud opportunities to strengthen the children’s emergent literacy skills as we can compare two of the same “story.” This is also a time we build vocabulary as we introduced and discussed words such as: characters, setting, plot (or problem), illustrations etc. When we have the children together as a group, we will use our large flip chart to expose the children to more print and vocabulary words by making lists/charts together and then displaying them around the classroom.
Our classroom centers have evolved as the children’s interests in fairy tales have emerged. Our dramatic play area has become a castle. It has been a joy watching the children turn themselves into kings, queens, knights, jesters, and princesses. They work together to make meals in the castle and we have witnessed a wedding or two take place in the castle. The children also used colored tissue paper on contact paper to create stained glassed windows in our castle and were proud to show the student workers their castle windows the next day. We arranged our writing center to accommodate 2 children and added some fairy tale words. We have observed the children writing notes, taking them into the castle and delivering them to their friends.
We also incorporated some fairy tale activities into our math/science small group activities. We made bridges using dixie cups and sticks when we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We also used links, unifix cubes, and rulers to measure Rapunzel’s hair after reading 2 different versions of Rapunzel. Next week have a dice game and some math activities planned when we read Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
I have included a short article for you which explains a few ways fairy tales help children build emergent reading skills.
https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/parent-child/build-reading-skills-fairy-tales.html
This link includes a link to various multicultural fairy tales. You can check out some of these stories at the local library. If you have any questions or want some more ideas for reading at home, please feel free to ask. We love sharing our passion for reading with the children and their families
https://www.readbrightly.com/multicultural-fairy-tales-for-children/
Until next month,
Nadine, Jen and the Pre-1 staff!
