Early Literacy in the Classroom

Imaginative play is enhanced by props.  Props support vocabulary acquisition.  

A print-rich environment supports early literacy skills.  In Dramatic play as well as other areas in the classroom, labels, picture/word matching and directions are posted.  

Parent volunteers share their reading enthusiasm with familiar text.

Here students hold copies of a familiar poem and practice reading it.  Concepts of print are reinforced (top to bottom, left to right, return sweep or word by word reading).

"Things that Go Together" is a game that develops categorizing and vocabulary acquisition.  Dramatic play offers the concrete experience; later pictures offer semi-concrete representations.