When thinking about your time at school, your memories drift to the classes you enjoyed, the classes you struggled with, and those moments where everything clicked on a hard subject. However, in the minds of an educator, the word preparation comes to mind. Are my kids prepared for what’s next, and are they ready for a future of learning? Those classes and subjects are the vehicles teachers use to diligently prepare their students for a successful future in education.
In addition to letters and numbers, preschool teachers are busy preparing their students for kindergarten, and building the important foundation from which all future learning stems from. Literacy is one of those key building blocks. In fact, research shows that literacy begins early and it is correlates with school achievement. Benefits of early literacy also include boosting student confidence as learners, improving self-esteem and discovering new skills for future learning.
“When students come to preschool, teachers have the opportunity to expose them to content and also conversational and academic language, which will impact the way students understand and interact with the world,” said Alyssa Rehder. “If we can help students develop a strong literacy foundation at a young age, they will be better prepared for their educational journey.”
This summer, 30 students at Spark will spend three weeks receiving extra support in literacy through an extended learning grant from Encana. During this time frame students will focus on mastering their Kindergarten readiness for literacy skills. Literacy is more than reading, it incorporates a range of modes of communication including music, dance, storytelling, visual arts, as well as talking, reading and writing.
“We have been reviewing all letters of the alphabet, including names, sounds, and writing formation. The students also been practicing rhyme, beginning sounds, syllables in words, and writing skills such as writing their first and last names and early spelling,” said Angela Zinn. “Our goal has been to give these students an extra boost of literacy practice to maintain and increase their literacy skills over summer so that they enter kindergarten with all the skills they learned during their time in preschool.”
Although the formal school year has ended, there are several ways to continue building literacy skills all summer long.
Here are six things you can do at home to help your students build their literacy skills:
- Read for 15 minutes everyday
- Visit your local library and check out new and exciting books, or attend their story times
- Practice writing and identifying letters in the alphabet
- Play “I Spy” with letters
- Practice saying the sounds letters make
- Sing silly songs, I like to eat Apples and Bananas is great for practicing the sounds vowels make