school with elle: day14.

after the usual routine of calendar, chalkboard, snack, and journal, we did a bit of stamp art and played a syllable game (another activity i created during a kindergarten ed class). in this particular game, elle picks an item, we say the name of it, and then we clap the number of syllables in the word. she then places the item next to the card that illustrates the corresponding number of claps. (you could easily do this without any of the manipulatives; simply gather items from around the house and clap their syllables, placing them in groups according to their claps. this actually sounds like a better idea, in my opinion.)

next elle read her first BOB book, and i enjoyed seeing the strategies she uses to decode the text. i had her point once under each word as she read to ensure that she closely attended to the text, and i prompted her to go back to repeat a sentence for meaning if she initially read it in a halting fashion. she definitely picked up on meaning, as the pages with mat and sam sitting on each other cracked her up.

**note: these books were loaned to us by a friend, and i'm not heralding them as the most effective manner to equip a child with strong literacy skills. i do have my preferred methods i'd use in a traditional classroom setting, but from my observation, just about all literacy philosophies are at least moderately effective at teaching most children to read and write.**

for our last activity, elle wrote a note to grandma owens, writing down all the sounds she heard. (she did write her entire name, but in the photo above i blocked out everything but the beginning L.) we placed the card in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and walked it out to the mail box. we got to talk a bit about how the address tells the post office (and later the mail carrier) where to deliver the letter.