Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy
Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy
Begin the Year with Oral Language Traditions That Honor Childhood, Teach Names, and Enhance Literacy Foundations.
Our songs, dances, musical dramas, stories, and studies provide the shared experiences needed to build community and belonging.
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Oral Language is the First Curriculum Priority: So Bring Back the Out-Loud Culture!
“Hello Neighbor” is a grand greeting song and dance with Celeste Starr. Children learn social skills: how to shake hands and make friends.
Willoughby, Wallaby Woo by Denis Lee invites us to teach rhyming words and names in the most engaging personal way.
We Sing Songs That Honor Each Child, Teach Colors, and Develop English Syntax: Mary Wore Her Red Dress.
Notice we highlight color words as a reading scaffold.
Through giving dictation, children learn that talk can be written down; they begin to develop the concept of a word. By incorporating children’s lives into songs and class books, they learn that their lives are worth singing and reading about.
Children love studying this class book.
Laura Flocker writes: This delightful book engaged the children’s interest in learning more about each other. They started noticing shoes, clothes, names and faces!
We Build on Adaptions of Familiar and Memorable Language Patterns: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Brown Bear, Brown Bear is linguistically perfect because Bill Martin, Jr. patterned it on the rhythmically perfect melody Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
What do you see?
I see a red bird
Looking at me.
Teachers have adapted this pattern to make engaging class books featuring their students. Teacher Nicole Hiley asks parents to send in a baby picture of their child. She takes a photo of each of her new kindergartners the first few days of school and combines this with the child’s baby picture and creates a memorable class book. By using several alternating colors, it is easier for each child to find their page.
Another popular photo book that children and their families enjoy reading features pictures of every child in the class. Title: Children, Children, Who Do You See? (Note: To keep the original Brown Bear, Brown Bear pattern with high pictorial support on each page, the first page will only have one sentence.)
Sing Songs That Build Friendships and Literacy in English and Spanish
The More We Get Together
The more we get together,
together, together,
The more we get together,
The happier we’ll be.
For your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends.
The more we get together,
The happier we’ll be.
The end
A Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book™
Entre Más Nos Reunimos
Entre más nos reunimos,
reunimos, reunimos,
Entre más nos reunimos,
Más felices tú y yo.
Mi amigo es el tuyo,
y el tuyo es el mío,
Entre más nos reunimos,
Más felices tú y yo.
El fin
Invite the children to create new verses to The More We Get Together
Kindergarten friends: What else do we do together that makes us happier?
Katie Nelson Builds Phonemic Awareness with Her Helper-of-the Day Song and Fingerspelling Cheer
Fingerspelling helps build the reading and writing brain.
With Happy Hearts We Dance and Sing:
It’s how we teach language concepts, provide brain breaks, cross the midline, and develop cooperation and listening skills.
Kathie Bridges says: There is hardly a day goes by that we don’t dance and sing.
To learn more see video.
We Sing Songs and Create Class Books about the Lives of Our Kindergarten Children: Who Lost a Tooth?
Download template for making this book on FREE Resources
What’s the Most Favorite Kindergarten Book? ALL About Teacher!
Children love to learn about their teacher…
Handjive, Clap, Dance, and Move to Internalize the Rhythms of Language
Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back…
Connect with a partner and
handjive to Miss Mary Mack
The rhythms of sound have a powerful effect on cognition. Children who cannot keep a steady beat nor respond to the rhythms of language have a hard time reading fluently.
Share Greetings in English, Spanish, and Sign Language and Sing Beautiful Traditional Spanish Songs with ALL Learners
Use Music, Movement, Dance, and Shared Sign Language to Make ABC/Phonics Learning Easy, Memorable, and Fun
Then personalize a class book featuring your ABC Phonics Experts.
See ABC Phonics Page
Children deserve to memorize, recite, illustrate and read delightful language. These pages become a part of each child’s “I Can Read” Anthology Notebook.
Celebrate Language and Build a Joyful Community of Learners! Children will forever carry the memories…
Special thank you to Becky Leber, Katie Nelson, Celeste Starr, Joanie Cutler, Laura Flocker, Jaime Corliss, Kathie Bridges, Shanda Lung, Julie Lay, and Diane Bonica.
Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy with the Children Whose Lives You Touch!
Smiles!
Nellie Edge
Celebrate Language Resources
A Gift of Literacy from Nellie Edge Online Seminars
- Download free 20-page e-Book: Oral Language Traditions: Build a Joyful Community of Learners
Additional Resources
- Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy: High Expectations • Joyful Learning • Proven Strategies Literacy Manual by Nellie Edge
- Defining Excellence in Kindergarten and Early Literacy
- The SMILE Approach to Accelerated Literacy
- The More We Get Together, Miss Mary Mack, Mary Wore Her Red Dress, and De Colores are Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™
- Join Nellie Edge for Kindergarten Writing Seminars See Nellie Edge Online Seminars
Celebrate Language Related Blog Articles
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