Effective Classroom Strategies for Early Childhood Literacy
Understanding Fairy Tales: Elements & Characters
A fairy tale is a type of folktale or fable, often featuring fantastical elements and characters from nobility or royalty. These stories commonly include:
- Witches and queens
- Giants and elves
- Princes and princesses
- Dragons and ogres
- Talking animals
- Fairies
Learning Outcomes of Teaching Fairy Tales
Teaching fairy tales offers numerous benefits for children’s development, including:
- Developing comprehension skills through listening.
- Learning the narrative structure of a story.
- Identifying plot, characters, and setting.
- Learning how to solve problems.
- Expanding vocabulary and language areas.
Effective Fairy Tale Use in the Classroom: 5 Tips
- Create a mystical atmosphere: Use your body language, voice, and lighting if possible to set the mood.
- Be mindful of scary characters: Do not overdo scary characters with very young learners.
- Involve children actively: Encourage children to guess the next episode throughout the story to keep them engaged.
- Integrate vocabulary naturally: You do not need to systematically pre-teach vocabulary. Arouse their interest with the picture on the front cover. You could ask questions such as:
- “Who’s this?”
- “Is this the wicked witch or a friendly fairy?”
- “Does the princess look sad or happy?”
- Avoid using as a time filler: Children will gain much more from fairy tales if they are integrated into a series of lessons or tied to a larger topic.
Non-Linguistic Elements for Story Comprehension
Non-linguistic elements can significantly help children understand a story better and keep them engaged. Here are some examples:
Visual Aids: Pictures in Books
Using a book with pictures helps children grasp concepts. For example, in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, children can look at the size of the chairs and beds in the pictures to understand “big,” “medium,” and “small.”
Realia: Bringing Objects to Life
Showing real things talked about in the story enhances understanding. For example, in The Three Little Pigs, you can show straw, sticks, and bricks.
Miming & Gestures for Meaning
Miming what happens in the story helps children understand meaning. For example, while reading Elmer, mime how Elmer walks or paints himself with berry juice.
Sound Effects & Onomatopoeia
Making sounds for things in the story, such as animals or trains, adds engagement. For example, in The Three Little Pigs, make the sound of the wolf blowing: “Huff and puff!”
Strategies for Enhanced Storytelling Comprehension
Various strategies and tools can help children better understand storytelling, particularly in phonics-based approaches:
Jolly Phonics: Sound Introduction Principles
In Jolly Phonics, sounds are introduced based on:
- How often they appear in English.
- How easily they can be combined to make simple words (e.g., s-a-t = sat).
- Focusing on functionality and blending potential, rather than alphabetical order.
Yo-Yo Phonics: Key Emphases
In Yo-Yo Phonics, similar principles are followed but with an emphasis on:
- Visual aids, digital content, and interactive games.
- Storylines and characters to maintain interest and context.
Common Characteristics of Nursery Rhymes
Most nursery rhymes share these common characteristics:
- They are short poems with simple vocabulary (for native speakers).
- They feature rhymed lines.
Key Aims of Teaching Nursery Rhymes
Teaching nursery rhymes serves several important aims:
- To improve pronunciation (e.g., The Wheels on the Bus).
- To exercise memory (e.g., Five Little Monkeys).
- To practice vocabulary (e.g., Hickory Dickory Dock).
- To have fun with words (e.g., Baa, Baa Black Sheep).
- To get children involved and develop fine motor skills (e.g., Incy Wincy Spider, Where Is Thumbkin).
Nursery Rhyme Activities for the Classroom
Various tasks and classroom activities can be developed using nursery rhymes:
- Drawing a picture related to the rhyme.
- Coloring illustrations of the rhyme.
- Singing the rhyme.
- Dancing, making gestures, and doing fingerplays.
- Role-play practice.
Benefits of Music in the Classroom
Music offers numerous benefits when incorporated into lessons:
- Improves concentration and memory.
- Brings a sense of community to a group.
- Motivates learning and makes it fun.
- Relaxes people who are overwhelmed or stressed.
- Helps people absorb material more effectively.
When to Incorporate Music:
- At the beginning or end of the class.
- To introduce a theme or topic.
- To change the mood (liven things up or calm things down).
- During transitions and breaks.
- During activities.
How to Incorporate Music:
- Playing music in the background while working.
- Using music as a primary activity.
- Basing lessons on song lyrics.
Strategies for Effective Music Integration
To integrate music effectively into classroom instruction, consider these strategies:
- Introduce an instrumental version first; familiarity with the sound can help students understand the words later.
- Prepare a vocabulary list ahead of time.
- Expose students to a song over several days.
- Choose interactive songs whenever possible.
- Play soft or upbeat music before class to encourage a positive atmosphere.
Benefits of Videos for Children’s Learning
Using videos for children’s learning provides several advantages:
- Children retain more information.
- They understand concepts more rapidly.
- They become more enthusiastic with their learning.
- They make new connections between topics in the curriculum.
- They discover links between these topics and the real world.
Activity: Promoting Kindness with Video
In this activity, children watch a short video called “Be Kind” (2 minutes long) that shows simple actions of kindness, like helping, sharing, and being friendly. After watching, the teacher discusses what they saw and how the people in the video felt. Then, each child draws a picture of something kind they can do in real life. At the end, they show their drawings and say one sentence, like “I help my friend” or “I share my toys.” This activity helps children understand kindness, talk about feelings, and connect learning with their own lives.
Understanding Phonics: Sounds & Actions
Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing the English language by developing learners’ phonemic awareness. The actions associated with sounds help children remember the letter(s) they represent. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not by its name.
Phonics Activity for Early Childhood Education
In this short phonics activity, children sit in a circle and explore the first sounds of familiar objects. The teacher shows an object, such as a ball, and asks, “What is this?” and “What sound does it start with?” (e.g., “B-b-ball”). Then, the child matches the object to the correct letter card (e.g., “B”). This is repeated with a few more objects, helping children connect sounds with letters in a fun and interactive way. The activity ends with a quick review and applause to celebrate their participation.
Yo-Yo & Jolly Phonics for Early Literacy
Yo-Yo Phonics and Jolly Phonics both support early literacy development by teaching young children the sounds of letters in a fun and clear way. Both programs utilize songs, stories, actions, and games to make learning more interesting. Children learn to listen to sounds, pronounce them, write the corresponding letters, and read simple words. They also learn some tricky words that do not follow typical rules. These methods help children feel more confident and happy when they read and write in English.