dog food

clearly we need a dog food sign, otherwise how would we know what is play dog food and what is play people food?

we had to make 2 signs because one little girl who mainly speaks spanish took our first sign and put it in her book bag and refused to give it back. picking my battles (i mean, it is a sign in english she can read, and anyway, making a new sign just repeats the learning activity) we happily made a new sign. notice the pink to match the pink puppy.

one little one because so excited about doing interactive writing with me that she began using the abc chart to practice her letters- right there in the middle of free choice. "hows that?" she'd ask, after writing a p. "that one was hard"

she certainly seemed motivated in house keeping to write.

later we became drs and the children wrote out "prescription" notes for the teddy bear baby they adopted. it was endearing to watch them take turns feeding the bear the medicine, burping him (including the boy in the group) and then "re-reading" the fake drs note (a series of numbers- they wrote that one without me).

making signs

on friday at the end of a very long week i jumped into a house-keeping game that was already in full swing. the refrigerator was already plastered with new sticky notes with "print-like" symbols~ messages to one another that held lots of meaning but no one else will be able to read.


one boy came to me and explained that they had created a little nook to be either the 'house or school' and another to be the restaurant. i, ever being the sly teacher, exclaimed, "so cool! why don't we make a sign?!"


YEAH! the boys cheered and we quickly on the ground with the ABC chart, markers and index cards. I'm quickly learning that to engage the kiddos in interactive writing during their free play it requires a bit of being quick and messy. there's no time for wondering what to do next, or having a child quietly sit and wait for you. it's play time and so everything has to sound like the most exciting thing in the world, and has to be fast. when it is up to their 5 year old pace they are hanging on every word and excitedly helping say words slowly so we can hear the beginning sounds. (where we are right now~ just beginning sounds). the ABC chart has proven to be very helpful because many of them look at me and say, "i don't know how to make that!" i need to remember to put cover-up tape in the area (or bring it with me so they don't use it themselves) to correct our attempts at letters. we tried to make s's yesterday and it was a struggle. still, we did it and made a 2 sided stand that can be turned to show the boys are at school or are sleeping at night. they seem to get a kick out of turning the sign during their play, which is great because they have to pay attention to which side says what (does it have a c or an o? don't forget to check the first letter!). right now we have 3 of the 2 sided signs. two open/closed signs and one school/night signs. they crack me up as they turn between the two and try to decide what each one says.



(sometimes i think sucker!! you chose to play in housekeeping and didn't know you'd have to read! hahaha")