A Peek Inside of OCS Classrooms: Unit 3 in Action

At Oldham County Preschool students are Exploring Habitats.
Check out these photos of teachers and students making the curriculum come alive!

Mrs.Honeycutt models how to draw their favorite play experience of the day.
At the end of the learning-based play, students will take a few minutes to represent their literacy experience.

Mrs. Honeycutt adds words (her name and what she did) to her drawing- sounding out letters to make words.

These eager learners chose the center where they could begin to draw something they loved from yesterday! After this photo was snapped, this young man decided to add his name and the friend's name to his drawing!

Sometimes animals get hurt in their habitat and kind people take them to the vet. Whether it's the farm animal, rabbit from the woods, or pet lizard, these animal clinic works are here to help! We have receptionists, veterinarians, and nurses at the ready! 

Going to the vet does not happen free of charge. This friend is paying for his visit and making sure to get a receipt for the services provided to his animal.

Farm games are super fun! Counting animals to put into the barn provides a meaningful context for integrating math with the habitats. Notice the dot cards, numeral cards, as well as physical (concrete) objects.

The desert is an interesting habitat, and even more fun when put into a rhyming text. Students in Ms. Prather's room could not get enough of this engaging and informative book about desert animals.

Name Games: Initial Sounds and Extensions

We all know the importance of a learner's ability to say, recognize, and write his or her name. Studies 

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/pdf/GK-1/P_Final_Part2.pdf

have shown over and over again the power of using a child's name as a building block, or motivation, for meaningful context for sound and letter learning. We often expose students to their name by asking them to say in a morning greeting, sin-in on a play plan, posting it on cubbies, having students place it in the play-based learning center of their choice, or write it on their artwork or writing. But...how often do we intentionally incorporate it into the learning experiences that build additional letter and sound correspondence? What if we played games with names? 

• Rhyming games
• Beginning letter sound games
• Silly word games

While I would never suggest only focusing literacy on students' names, I do think there is a time and place for "playing with and learning" from students' names. Below is one example of a quick game that could be setup in a play center for students to interact with during center time. Maybe they start with their own name, but my hunch is that some will want to work with friend's names, too. 

Idea #1:Have magazines handy for picture gathering, or have a variety of pictures cut out and placed to in envelopes so you could reuse them again and again- no gluing needed here. 

Idea #2: Adhere pictures to magnets  and place on your marker board. Let the students place  their name card, or write their names right on the board. They would then pull down the pictures that begin with the same sound as their names. Snap a quick photo for assessment and you've got data!

Idea #3: Have students write their names and draw pictures of things that begin with the same sound as their name. You could have them dream up the objects, or look "sound hunt" around the room for objects that begin with the same sound. (Sarah- sandpaper, scissors, etc.)

What is your idea? Please share it below!

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/pdf/GK-1/P_Final_Part2.pdf