Language & Literacy

During the early childhood years, children are enthusiastic and curious about reading and enjoy listening to stories. Children will focus mostly on illustrations and share their ideas.  They enjoy books with rhythm, repetition, and rhyme and regularly participate in pre-reading activities. Pre-reading is built over time, through exposure to print and to a gradual understanding of phonemic awareness which does not begin until the age of 4 or 5, depending on the child.  Many of our Early Childhood students are acquiring English in addition to their mother tongue and as such, the process of language development is modelled primarily by the teacher and school environment. 

Young children rely on their drawings to show meaning and express ideas through pictures. Children will often pretend to read and write and will gradually develop awareness of written symbols which correspond to sounds. Children are encouraged to explore literacy rich materials and will often share ideas and stories about what they have created. At home, children are encouraged to continue their mother tongue exposure by listening to books in their native language.

Literacy Objectives:

• Select own reading materials

• Connect stories to life experiences

• Listen to and talk about stories and illustrations

• Retell, act out, or respond through drawing to familiar stories

• Begin to learn letter sounds and names

• Use patterned language and rhymes

• Recognize signs, labels, and logos

• Use mostly pictures to show meaning

• Begin to label and add words to pictures

• Write first name 

• Understand that print conveys meaning

• Make marks to simulate writing

• Write recognizable letters to represent words

• Talk about own pictures and writing