Friday, January 18, 2013

Stamping Words


We have all been busy at work in the various stages of letter recognition, letter sounds and reading. Most of the two year olds are able to identify the uppercase letters with some regularity and they can recognize the names of the other children in the class. (There is always a big ta do at mealtime if somebody is sitting in a chair with the wrong name on it! ) The goal of this literacy project is to refine the skills of identifying the letters / sounds of familiar words and working with the letter stamps.



The set up: 

On one side of the easel I taped simple flash card words with space for Sam to stamp the corresponding letters underneath.

The other side of the easel had papers with each individual child’s name stamped on them.

Our small table had stamps, stamp pads extra paper and extra paper for open ended stamping.

Time to get to work!

At breakfast Sam read all of the flashcards on the easel and I explained that he could copy the letters underneath if he wanted to. He made it through two before deciding to do his own thing so we will leave it up for him to revisit another day. 

The younger children took turns identifying all of the names and we worked our way through the letters / sounds in their names. We talked about the beginning letter sounds of each name and I showed them space at the bottom of their names if they wanted to copy them. As they worked many of the children opted to “write” words by stamping random letters in sequence then showing me their word. Some of the children brought me letters to refresh their memory while others spent a long time searching for specific letters and discussing the sounds of those letters. When we were all finished they helped me match the letters to the correct spaces in the letter stamp holder. That was a tricky task in and of itself!


While the kids were working I made them these name stickers for art projects.

The skills needed to read and write involve many different parts of the body and brain. Working on hands on projects like this gives children the opportunity to extend what they know without over reaching their fine motor capabilities. The children learned the following concepts during their project today:

Letter matching
Print has meaning
Letter identification / letter sounds
Working together with peers to solve problems
Sequence of stamping on the pad then on the paper



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