A Child's Name as a Bridge to Language and Self-Esteem

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Hello and welcome back to all you champions of children!  It's always a pleasure to share with you concepts and strategies, (that have come from children, teachers, and parents) which you can use to elevate how our next generation lives, learns, and loves.  Hearing the stories from many of you of just how you're using these ideas is always thrilling.  Know that one great place to share your experiences is with the educational group, Living Like a Child, on Facebook, which I moderate.  Enjoy the blog!

Enrique

Founder, F.A.M.E. Foundation

Artist and Composer

We are all most likely very familiar with using a child's name as one of the first words with a child.  The first letter a child most often learns is the first letter of their name.  That's a fantastic, time-proven, way to use a child's name.  In addition to that, what if we asked a child questions about their name?  That's exactly what the teachers at the Benson Head Start Center in Benson, Arizona did.

Here are some of the questions they asked and the responses they received from child and parent.  One of the questions here was, "Why do we have names?"

Another question used looks like it was, "Where did you get your name from?"

An additional question looks to be, 

"Who named you?"

Another question teachers used looks to be, "What does your name mean?"  The responses to this particular question are fascinating.  Does a name absolutely have one specific meaning?  Perhaps, and while this may be true, this question leads us down the road of understanding how the young child sees their own image.  It speaks to how the child thinks of who they are.  In the adult world, one of the words we use to describe this is self-esteem.

Asking these questions of parents, in addition to asking the child, also allows us to connect in a profound manner with the family.  To understand some of the stories behind the choosing of a child's name not only opens a broad door of understanding about that family, but can also literally bring you to tears of joy.  You SEE the parents differently when you understand their story, and they SEE you differently for having asked.

While it wasn't done specific to this project, I have seen teachers engage children and parents in the creation of a family tree…pretty awesome!  I know when I've done just part of my own family tree we end up visiting Russia, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, the Yaqui nation, and my home state of Arizona, specifically, Tucson, Arizona.

Some stories are complex and other simple, and all of them valid, honoring, and critical to how the child sees how they fit in the world, which is a necessary step if they are to contribute to the world.  I know this child well, "Cruz."  His response is simple, yet empowering.  Because the teachers took the time to document, not only the words Cruz spoke, but HOW he spoke them (thus the !), we know that Cruz is excited about who he is.  This may seem like no big deal, but it's a very big deal.  Self-love is hugely important to self-esteem and to the child moving forward in life.

Each story gives you another layer of understanding of how parents choose names and how children accept them and use them as a lens of understanding.

Of course, as you can see, each child has written their own name and this particular set of teachers have done an outstanding job of allowing the young learner emerge as a writer, as opposed to helping too much and having each child's name look very similar or even worse, look exactly the same.

In this case, the family even has an acronym based on Sadie's name which describes her.  Many times, it is the grandparents who provide the inspiration.

There are no ordinary moments if we choose each moment to be one of illumination for ourselves and for those around us.  Thank you to the incredible parents, teachers, and children of Benson Head Start Center.  You are all an inspiration!

Live, Learn, and Love like a Child

Enrique

Reading aloud ... the best graduation present!

By Laura Eldredge

 

Ok, let me preface this post by saying ... I have just come off of a 3-day long celebratory weekend.  It was my oldest child's high school graduation AND 18th birthday all rolled into 3 exciting, emotional and proud days!  And maybe not so surprising (though it was to me), it was a time for A LOT of self reflection. 

 

I look at the young man before me as he enters adulthood and the next phase of his life and I think ...

 

"Did I prepare him enough?"

"Did I do too much/too little?"

"Would I have done this or that differently had I known better?"



Preschool Graduation - circa 2000

So I reflect back.  I think back to Kindergarten - his progress report stating, among other things, that he was "quietly distracted" (a.k.a. "a daydreamer") and not focusing.  Sitting down to practice letters or doing math sheets in those lower elementary years were tough.  But I knew he had the capacity to focus -- as his MANY Lego creations could attest.  So we tried different homework settings, attempted to limit distractions and sometimes brought out the dreaded timer. 

 

Do I know if those were the right things to do?  No, I don't know for sure.  But I do know that things started clicking for him by 3rd grade.  His internal drive to want to learn and succeed started to kick in, though he was still my little daydreamer.

 

But in all the time prior to and through elementary school, the one thing I KNOW I did right ... was reading aloud to him (and his siblings).  I can't even say why I knew this was the right thing to do at the time, since he was my first child. I wasn't a preschool teacher then, didn't look up research on it ... it just felt right, and was a calming way to end the day. 

 

So it is reassuring to find out that it WAS the right thing to do for my son.  Reading aloud is instrumental in helping a child achieve long-term learning success.  Reading aloud to young children doesn't "teach them how to read", but rather ... fosters a LOVE of reading to carry them through their life.  I can't think of a better gift to give! 

 

The Read-Aloud Handbook

 

And so it happens that this summer I'm participating with other bloggers in a book study on the importance of reading aloud to children.  I am thrilled with the book that Vanessa Levin at Pre-K Pages chose, which is “The Read-Aloud Handbook: Seventh Edition” by Jim Trelease.  This new edition just came out, and will provide parents, caregivers and teachers with insights on the value of reading aloud, tips on ways to read aloud, and (YAY!) a list of great read aloud books!  What a great gift to give to a new parent or teacher ... or even a seasoned one, as it reaffirms the importance of reading aloud.

 

I have only read the introduction so far ... and I am already excited!  In it, Mr. Trelease quotes a former college admissions director when talking about SAT prep to parents, saying ...

"The best SAT preparation course in the world is to read to your children in bed when they're little.  Eventually, if that's a wonderful experience for them, they'll start to read themselves." ("How to Make a Better Student", Time, October 1998)

You can click on the button above to learn more about the book study.  You can follow along, with or without the book, as the bloggers participating will summarize chapters and provide their own insight and experience.  

 

From Unfocused to College-bound

 

So, how did my "quietly distracted" son fair through his high school years? 

 

[WARNING: Shameless bragging ahead]

 

He is an Eagle Scout, has been on the honor roll all 4 years, member of the National Honor Society, leader on the Robotics team, played the clarinet in honors band, graduated in the top 10% of his class and was recognized as a Distinguished Scholar in the graduation ceremony.  How's that for a daydreamer who can't focus?!

 

With younger sister on Graduation Day

 

 

I take credit for NONE of this ... except for, perhaps ... loving him, supporting him and reading to him!

 

I think back to trying to read the first "Harry Potter" book to him when he was around 6 years old.  I'm sure I'll have many who disagree with me, but I found that to be a difficult book to read aloud to him.  With all the long and difficult to pronounce names ... we both wound up losing interest.  So we put it aside for the time being and read other things.  Working through "Magic Tree House" and "Geronimo Stilton" to name a few.

 

Being so busy in high school unfortunately does not leave enough time for enjoyment reading.  My son has quite the collection of books he would "like to have time to read" over the past 4 years.  He finished up with classes last week and guess what he spent a good part of the week doing?   Reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" ... of THIS, I couldn't be more proud!

 

Laura Eldredge is a teacher and curriculum coordinator at a NAEYC accredited early childhood program in Connecticut. She also co-founded the website The SEEDS Network, as a way to provide early childhood professionals with ideas and resources that support them in their quest to provide quality care and education to our youngest learners. She blogs at www.theseedsblog.com.

Linking literacy with music and movement

By Laura Eldredge

Research shows those of us in early childhood that movement is a young child’s preferred mode of learning – and that children learn best through active involvement.

The same holds true for children's literacy learning. Linking movement activities to story time and other literacy learning gets children more actively involved in the experience.  

When you involve children to physically perform action words (such as jump, march, roll) or descriptive words (like strong, gentle, huge, soft) – the understanding of those words is immediate. The children have heard the word, felt the word and seen the meaning of the word.  And, "the more senses used in the learning process, the higher the percentage of retention" (Fauth, 1990).

"Book & Boogie"

"Book & Boogie" is a children's story time program that we use at local area preschools ... in which we bring together story themes with a music and movement component to go with the stories, which gets children moving and actively learning.

By actively involving children in a story theme with music and movement, it enhances their early literacy development, expands their vocabulary, and helps children to improve gross motor skills and coordination.  When we use music and movement ... the sequencing of movements “accesses many learning modes: visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, rhythmic, vocal, mnemonic (long- and short-term), and creative.” Block (2001, p. 44)

To see how "Book & Boogie" works ... take a peek at the video below:

More online videos are available which provide story ideas, music choices and simple dance choreography that teachers and parents can use with their classroom or playgroup. 

Laura Eldredge is a teacher and curriculum coordinator at a NAEYC accredited early childhood program in Connecticut. She also co-founded the website The SEEDS Network, as a way to provide early childhood professionals with ideas and resources that support them in their quest to provide quality care and education to our youngest learners. She blogs at www.theseedsblog.com.


Research credits:
Pica, R., “Linking Literacy and Movement”, www.movingandlearning.com

Block, B.A. (2001). Literacy through movement: An organizational approach. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 72(1), 39-48.

Fauth, B. (1990). Linking the visual arts with drama, movement, and dance for the young child. In W.J. Stinson, (ed.), Moving and learning for the young child(pp. 159-187). Reston VA: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Back to School: Reading Camp Movement Fun! Dancing to Stories

August 22, 2012

 Back to School: Reading Camp Movement Fun! Dancing to Stories 

Bookstore Story/Movement Time!

More Movement Fun and Games!

Hello EC Community,

I am temporarily interrupting my DANCING THROUGHOUT THE DAY series (which will return next month with Part 6:  A Movement Exploration That Addresses Social Studies)  to bring you some ideas for dancing to three favorite children's books.  I helped to develop a curriculum for a six-week reading day camp this summer.  The camp's mission is to help bring children up to the 3rd Grade reading level.  Thirty books were studied, one each day, and my part in the lessons was to get the children up and moving, while reinforcing the learning.  Right up my alley, of course!  On the list of books were a few that I had already developed for movement activities, but most were ones that I have not used before.  The books are a little more advanced than the early childhood levels, but I have found that the preschool set loves to dance to stories such as these.  

Moving and dancing to the stories can help the children, through kinesthetic learning, with sequencing, identifying with characters, exploring and learning about the setting and background, vocabulary acquisition, and many other valuable pre-literacy and early language skills.  

So, I decided to share in this month's blog entry three of the activities that I developed, in order to pass them along to you and your students.  School is starting soon -- I hope you can incorporate some of these lively and fun ideas into your children's day!  Photos on this page are from recent visits to bookstores where I presented workshops about dancing to books and stories.

Children Dancing to Stories

1.  Imogene's Antlers, by David Small

This is one of my favorite children's books.  A creative, imaginative story told with fun and grace, your students will love this dramatic play and dancing activity after you have read the story aloud.

Music:  One lively, upbeat instrumental musical selection

Space:  The children can move all together in the shared space, or you can divide them up into two or three groups, one group dancing while the others watch.  Give the audience group a task, such as, What do you think it would feel like to have enormous antlers on your head?

As you give a movement prompt, allow time for the children to develop each idea in movement.  Say to the children:

Imagine waking up in the morning.  Stretch, yawn, and suddenly you notice something unusual coming out of your head. You have antlers!  Feel all around your head. Reach as high as you can -- they are very tall antlers! Let me see your surprised face, your happy face, your scared face, your silly face.  

Now jump out of bed and run to the mirror.  Let me see your surprised face again! Try to get dressed.  Can you pull your shirt over your head?  Get your shirt stuck in your antlers like Imogene did.  How about trying to comb your hair?  What else do you need to do to get ready this morning?

Now try going through the door.  Imagine you are bumping your antlers.  Let’s try it three times, 1, 2, 3  . . . but you can't do it!  Figure out that you have to turn sideways and scoot very carefully through the door. 

Now let’s slide down the bannister, here we go!  Uh-oh, your antlers are stuck in the chandelier!  Twirl around as you hang from the chandelier! 

Imagine you are Imogene’s mother when she first sees the antlers.  Gently fall to the floor as if you were fainting.  Now imagine you are the person carrying her all the way upstairs.  It is hard to carry someone up the stairs, isn’t it? 

Hang some towels to dry on your antlers!  What else can you hang on them?  Put some donuts on the antlers.  Go outside and imagine all the birds coming to eat food off of your antlers. 

Imagine you are a bird -- fly through the sky! Come in for a landing.  What an exciting day!  Now stretch, yawn and get ready for bed. Lie down and pretend you are sleeping. It's difficult to find a way to put your head on the pillow!  You have had quite a big day, dealing with those huge antlers.

Now it is the next morning.  Wake up, yawn and stretch.  Suddenly you remember about your amazing adventure yesterday with your antlers.   Reach up to touch your antlers.  Surprise -- they are gone!  But now, another surprise -- peacock feathers! Imagine you are a strutting peacock, showing off your tail. Now take a bow with your enormous tail to end our story.

  Play the music and ask the children to do a free dance about all of the movement ideas they just explored. Finish once again with a big bow and a flourish of the imaginary peacock tail.

2.  The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco

This is a story about how a beautiful family quilt can be passed along from generation to generation.  The quilt is used in many different ways, which sparked the idea for this movement activity.

Music:  One lively, upbeat instrumental musical selection

Space:  Divide the class in half.  One group will be the first to dance.  The other group will be the first group to be the audience.   Give the audience group a task, such as, Do you see anyone imagining their fabric is a magic carpet?

Materials:  Bring scarves or fabric scraps about 12" square (the fabric squares should all be the same), enough for about half of the class.  

After you have read the story, show the class one of the squares of fabric.  Prompt the children to imagine the fabric square can be many different things.  Offer them some ideas, starting with ideas from the story:  a babushka to dance with, like Anna; a quilt; a tablecloth; a bedspread, a baby blanket.  Then ask them to imagine the fabric can be other things, such as a tail, wings, a superhero cape, a magic carpet, a bridal veil, etc.

Once the children have mentioned many ideas, pass out the fabric squares to the dancing group, one fabric square per child.  Play some lively music, and ask them to dance about all of the many different ideas that were mentioned.  At the end of the music, ask the children to take a bow, holding their square of fabric high in one hand and then bringing it across their body as they bend over for the bow.

Switch groups, and let the second group dance about all of the ideas.  Finish with a bow as above. Repeat the activity as long as the children are engaged.

3.  Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen

This is a beautiful book with a simple, magical story, and different animals hidden on the pages.  It takes place in winter, so it can be incorporated into any lesson plan about that season.  Once you have read the book to the children, try this movement activity:

Music:  A soft, instrumental musical selection, such as a selection from Wyndham Hill
Space:  The children can move all together in the shared space, or you can divide them up into two or three groups, one group dancing while the others watch.  Give the audience group a task, such as, Watch the children dance and see if you can imagine what an owl looks like when he is flying through the forest at night.

Say to the children:

Now that we have read the story,  let’s imagine we are the owl from the book.  You have big owl eyes that can see in the dark, you can turn your head very far in both directions, and you have huge, feathery owl wings.  I will play some music (lyrical, quiet music) and we will take off from our branch high up in the tree, and fly into the forest.  What does it feel like to be an owl?  What do you see far down below? (Allow time for the children to develop each prompt through movement, picking up on their ideas as well.  Then move on to the next one).  

Continue the activity:

What other animals might you see in the forest at night?  Did you see the bird, the deer, the fox, the raccoon, the field mouse, in the pages of the story?  Let’s dance about each of those animals now.

Now let’s imagine we are the little girl, trudging back home in the snow.  The snow is very deep!  Take big steps and lift your legs high to get through the snow.  Make shapes with your footprints:  circles, squares, what other shapes would you like to make in the snow?

Conclude the activity:

Look, there is your house in the distance!  We are almost home.  Imagine you go inside and are finally warm.  Walk up the stairs, lie down in your bed, pull the covers up, and think about the amazing owling adventure you had in the cold winter night.  What will you dream about?

Use these kinds of simple activities for other favorite stories.  You will be amazed how many movement ideas can be generated from books -- and children love to dance!


Have a great start to the school year, and 

Keep on dancin'!

Connie

Moving is learning!

www.movingislearning.com

Dancing Throughout the Day, Part 4

FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012

DANCING THROUGHOUT THE DAY 

Part 4:  'Run' Rhymes With 'Fun'!  -- A Movement Exploration Activity that Addresses Early Language and Literacy

DANCING THROUGHOUT THE DAY

Part 4:  A Movement Exploration Activity that Addresses Early Language and Literacy

Hello EC Community,

As a way to further my passion for offering many different dance opportunities to children, this blog entry is the fourth in a series of activities based on the daily routine of young children.  They are simple and ready to use!

Today begins a series of four activities that specifically address Early Childhood Learning Standards.  We will begin with English Language Arts, and in the next three blog entries, I will present activities that address Mathematics and Counting, Science, and Social Studies.

'Run' Rhymes With 'Fun'! combines an energetic, large-motor skills activity with awareness of rhyming words.  The children will guess and then perform the movement that rhymes with each suggested word.

'Run' Rhymes With 'Fun'!

Adapted from One, Two, What Can I Do?  Dance and Music for the Whole Day (Redleaf Press, 2011)

JUMP!

What You Need: A large space, indoors or outside, and the list of words below.

What You Do:

With the children sitting or standing, talk briefly about what an action word is and what a rhyming word is.  Say to them:

Action words describe a movement you can do, such as 'climb' or 'throw.'  Can you think of some other action words?  Rhyming words are words that have similar sounds, such as these pairs of words:  'climb' and 'rhyme,' and 'throw' and 'toe.'  Let's think of some other pairs of rhyming words.

With the children, review the following list of action words and the words that rhyme with them:

            Action Word                                   Rhyming Word

                     Walk                                                   Chalk

                     March                                                  Arch

                     Run                                                     Fun

                     Gallop                                                  Scallop

                     Slide                                                    Wide

                     Shake                                                  Bake

                     Jump                                                    Bump

                     Hop                                                       Pop

                     Prance                                                  Pants

For children ages five and up, here are two more pairs of action words and rhyming words:

                     Skip                                                       Dip

                     

                     Leap                                                      Deep

SHAKE!

Now, line the children up side by side, with plenty of room between each child, along one end of the room.  Say to them:

We're going to try some big movements across the floor, but before we do we'll play a guessing game.  I'm going to say a word, and you guess the action word that rhymes with it.  Once you have guessed the right action word, you can all do that movement across to the other side of the room.  Remember to slow down before you get there, so you are ready to stop when you reach the other side!


Go through the list several times, in random order.  You may also do this activity one by one, with a child guessing the next rhyming word and then performing the movement across the floor by himself.  

MARCH!

Note that many of the action words (like 'walk,' 'shake,' 'hop') have a number of words that rhyme with them.  You can expand this activity by asking the children for more rhymes for certain action words, or by thinking up new action words and words that rhyme with them.  To stop the activity at any time, simply say, "Freeze, please!"

Next up in the DANCING THROUGHOUT THE DAY series: 

Part 5:  A Movement Exploration That Addresses Mathematics and Numbers

Keep on Dancin',

Connie

MOVING IS LEARNING!

                                                             www.movingislearning.com












Copyright 2012, Connie Bergstein Dow