Laura Eldredge: GROWING

I am thrilled to be a part of this great collaborative effort started by Debbie - and I look forward to seeing this forum grow and grow and GROW!

I am Laura Eldredge, co-founder of The SEEDS Network - where our tagline is Supporting Early Educators with Dynamic Solutions (hence ... S.E.E.D.S.)! I began in early childhood over 5 years ago after 16 years of experience in Information Technology ... I know, not a normal path to the preK world! But I found through my volunteer work with my church and in my children's schools, that I enjoyed teaching young children. So after the birth of my third child ... I made the leap to teaching!

My background in web development spurred into an idea between myself and Tressa Giordano, (my SEEDS partner) and The SEEDS Network website was born as a way to provide information and tools for ECE professionals. Our initial idea was to develop a searchable database of early childhood ideas for lesson plans, learning centers, classroom portfolios and layouts. And while the database continues to grow weekly, we also expanded the site to provide professional development listings, advocacy information and a blog.
What I plan to share with you in this space are some of my favorite types of literature-based preschool activities. I find as a teacher that when I can tie an activity, game or craft along with a BOOK - that the children's understanding of the story is deepened. Here are just a few of my favorite book-related activities!

Storybook Character Parade
This is one of the times of the year when the children can come to school in costume - but with a twist! Children have to come as their favorite character from a storybook that they love ... and they bring the book with them as part of show and tell. The great part is that children recall and retell the story of their book and why they love their character!

Llama Llama Red Pajama Activities

The "Llama Llama" series of books by Anna Dewdney are some of my favorite read-alouds! The experiences of "little llama" are so relatable to children (going to bed, shopping with mama, going to school for the first time). These books lend themselves to great discussions and projects! In early October, many blogs posted some wonderful ideas to go along with the book "Llama Llama Red Pajama" - including a preschool PJ party!

I look forward to sharing more literacy-based ideas here at PreK and K Sharing! What has been COMPLETELY unexpected during my ECE journey so far - has been the large (and incredibly supportive) network of other ECE bloggers and professionals who share their experience and expertise online! Many of them will be featured here - and they continue to help me in my GROWTH in this field. I am honored to be part of this group!