3-year-old Kindergarten
Another big Term full of learning has just flown by for the Forest room! Term 3 has seen us explore many different topics but none bigger than literacy!
When it comes to early years literacy the Forest room have explored a range of literacy components including phonics (letter sounds), letter recognition, vocabulary, reading/ exposure to storytelling, writing/drawing and speech through different activities, group times and experiences this term. Early literacy learning means supporting children to build self-confidence, provide tools they can use to be successful readers and to be lifelong learners. These skills allow a young child to enter kindergarten and beyond with a love of books and a readiness to learn.
Letter of the Week Program!
Each week we have learnt about a new letter of the alphabet through our letter of the week program! We start off by singing the Elmo letter of the week song, which reveals the new letter to the children in a fun and engaging way, before asking the children what sound the letter makes and to think of and share words that start with this letter. For example for the letter P the children came up with the following words: perfect, pencil, pig, pirate, pug, playground, pen and picture.The children then are encouraged to draw the letter in the air with the teacher before reading a story that started with this letter, for P the children listened to Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey. This group time program saw the children engaging in a new letter each week with excitement and anticipation, while supporting the building of their vocabulary as well as their letter recognition.
Phonics exploration
Over the Term the children have been extending on their phonics skills by learning a alphabet phonics song to support their understanding of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes as well as their overall enunciation skills, through this song the children also made the exciting discovery that their are 26 letters in the alphabet!
Literacy learning within the classroom
With an increased interest in literacy due to engaging in the letter of the week group time we have explored the topic through many table top experiences including puzzles, letter tracing, sensory experiences, the reading corner and through art/drawing. The children have been extending their reading through exploring a range of stories in the reading corner with their peers and teachers and exploring pre writing activities such as letter tracing and drawing.
Show and Share Program
This term we have also participated in a show and share program that aims to extend children's self-confidence and speech/oral communication skills with their peers. This program saw each child be invited to present to the class on a topic of their choosing such as what they did on the weekend or a special holiday they went on. With photos to help guide them, they have done an incredible job at sharing with one another and using their verbal language skills to explain and discuss their topic confidently. This also supported the children in their active listening skills as they were encouraged to ask their friends questions at the end of their presentation. The teachers created a scrapbook that is on display to record what the children said and shared so that the children could go back and further extend on their topic throughout the term and further express their thoughts and continue sharing and engaging in special communication moments with their peers.
Book Week and Book Fair
Book week was also a very exciting week in the Forest room, with the children dressing up as their favourite characters! The children also engaged in a wonderful art experience that saw them create their very own Grugs since Grug has been a fan favourite this year! The children even got on board to help create the teachers Mr Men/Little Miss costumes, which they loved seeing us wear across the week! With lots of stories to read the children really demonstrated the theme of 'read, grow, inspire'We also had our Haven book fair the same week, which made it even more exciting as the families were invited to purchase books to take home and what better way to celebrate book week!
We are looking forward to seeing what the final Term of the year will bring.
The Forest room team: Kelly, Kristyn, Demmi, Sikha and Danni