Reading, Moving, and Learning

After reading "The Jones Family's Culture of Literacy" and Allington's Chapter 3, I certainly appreciate the early influences of literacy in my own life. My parents always read to me, and they themselves were "model readers". I was also homeschooled, so we did tons of reading at our house for academic purposes. 

There are many good tips for promoting literacy and teaching kids how to read in Allington's Chapter 3. I did not like, however, the idea of the a child being "King for the Day". I think that it puts too much attention on already-too-egocentric 4-and 5-year-olds. Instead, I think you could use a different animal, or colour, or just about any concrete object that is familiar to the child and use that as an example of literacy. 

When my younger sister was in Pre-K (homeschooled, though), my mom would have "Buddy Day". On Buddy Day, my mom and Em would go around and engage in activities that connected to that day's letter. For example, one Buddy Day was "P Day" and they studied all different things that had the letter P. To this day, Em still talks about the stuffed puppy, purple pom- pom hat, and trip to the playground. If you do fun, hands-on activities kids will be way more likely to remember them, and also to associate the new concepts to familiar objects/activities. I really liked the idea that was suggested in Allington's Chapter 3 about having the kids hold laminated cards that had the letters on them, line up in front of the class, and sign the "Alphabet Song". 

What are some good ideas you have to get kids moving and that are connected to/with teaching literacy? Are there any specific memories you have from early elementary school where you learned a specific letter of the alphabet?