LITERASCI
Professional Learning Workshops will be offered in late September and mid-October 2014, registration information coming soon!
The development of language and literacy skills is a critical component of LiteraSci. Science activities support concept development and vocabulary growth. The science cycle encourages questioning, planning, reflection, and explanation, thus laying the foundation for language and literacy.
- Vocabulary: New words are introduced in the context of science lessons and reinforced during small group science activities.
- Alphabet awareness: Each day children study letters related to that day’s science investigations.
Phonological awareness: Songs, poems, and finger plays are used as the basis for exploring letter sounds, rhyme, and alliteration. - Print awareness: Daily read-aloud sessions familiarize children with differences among genres, with distinctions among letters, words and sentences, and with features such as a table of contents, index, and page numbers.
- Writing skills: Children label graphs, write reports, keep journals and make books.
ScienceStart! teachers read aloud to children everyday, from children’s literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) related to the day’s science topic. This helps children learn vocabulary, develop reading comprehension skills, and begin reading.
Brigance Train-The-Trainer
kid∙FRIENDLy Preschool Pals have trained 170 childcare providers in the Brigance Screen III for children ages 3, 4, and 5 and distributed the screening materials for Centers to use in screening the children they serve. Brigance Screening will be replicated for new Centers and staff.