Author Archives: glorea

Language Development and Communication through Fairy Tales

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The South Carolina Early Learning Standards are incorporated into the Sunflower class curriculum.  This week’s focus is: Language Development and Communication (LDC). 

The Sunflowers spent the month of January reading fairy tales, focusing on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  The students compared and contrasted the many different versions of each story and could identify the idiosyncrasies that made each one unique.  Our classroom reading center overflowed with books and offered the students motivation to read and recreate their favorite tales individually or as a group (Goal LDC-8).  

Using their familiarity with each tale, the Sunflowers expanded their vocabulary and continued to develop phonological awareness (LDC-11).  With magnetic words and pictures, the students were able to identify beginning letter sounds and recognize that some words shared a first letter.  Even though we read numerous versions of the same fairy tale, the Sunflowers showed preference for specific versions and could express what made a certain book their favorite over the others.  

Once the students were comfortable with the stories and their basic structure, we used the information to bring them to life using collaborative story writing (LDC-10).  In small groups, the Sunflowers chose a familiar story as inspiration, added and changed the characters (a unicorn was a welcome addition to the Three Little Pigs), and dictated a script to later be performed for the rest of the class. This expansion of their story comprehension offered a wonderful opportunity for the students to add their creative touch to beloved tales!

Creative Expression and Social Connections

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The South Carolina Early Learning Standards are incorporated into the Sunflower class curriculum.  This week’s focus is: Cognitive Development (CD).

‘Tis the season to celebrate all of the ways we can express ourselves during the holidays!  The Sunflowers are able to demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts within the school (Goal CD-5).  Routinely changing out the materials in the room allows the students to explore endless possibilities in their play and visual arts. Role play has taken us out of the southeast and up to the North Pole, where the students pretend they are Santa Claus delivering presents or flying off on an adventure with the reindeer.  

We provide many opportunities for the students to show their appreciation for different kinds of artistic expression (Goal CD-4).  From dancing to holiday music to creating unique crafts, the students can participate in and inquire about a variety of art forms. The Sunflowers enjoyed making decorative gifts for their loved ones at home.  They made cards that were multi-faceted and included gluing, folding, glittering, signing names, and dictating a sweet message for the recipient.

We brought warmth to the cool winter air during our exploration in baking.  The students rolled out and decorated sugar cookies with a variety of cookie cutter shapes and sprinkles that allowed everyone to use their creativity.  The Sunflowers also baked fresh loaves of bread from scratched and shared their hard work with their school community. Activities such as this help the students recognize that they are members of different groups (Goal CD-7) and encourages helpful community habits.  The Sunflowers continue to add their creativity and cheer to the ECDC hallways!

Creativity, Imagination, and Inventiveness

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The South Carolina Early Learning Standards are incorporated into the Sunflower class curriculum.  This week’s focus is: Approaches to Play and Learning (APL).

The Sunflower class has been patiently waiting for some fall weather to hit Charleston and the cooler breeze finally came through!  The Halloween season has been a great time for the students to demonstrate their creativity, imagination, and inventiveness (Goal APL-4).  The students have decorated our classroom with finger-painted pumpkins and tissue-paper ghosts- a great way to practice fine motor skills. Our dollhouse was not looking quite spooky enough, so the students garnished it with black paper and Halloween-colored masking tape.  We even created tiny monsters out of molding clay to live in the newly renovated dollhouse!

In the classroom and on the playground, the children continue to engage in increasingly complex play (Goal APL-3).  Outside, the students run around together as ghostbusters, acting out entire sequences with defined characters and plots.  We are able to practice our problem solving skills (Goal APL-6) when the story isn’t quite working out as planned. Some students offer to be ghosts or other monsters to keep the game active and complex.  The kitchen has turned into a place for witches to make brew and the art center is filled with tricks and treats to make spooky creations. 

Imagination and inventiveness can span far beyond arts and crafts- the students have enjoyed expressing their creativity through cooperative storytelling.  As a large group, we told a ghostly story and each student was able to add some dialogue and twists to further the plot.  We continue to watch the Sunflowers work together and each student is increasingly willing to try new and challenging experiences (Goal APL-5).  Whether inside or on the playground, in a large group or individually, these students are expanding their creativity every day.