The Recycle Game

Brenda Beck is a Head Start teacher at the Franklin Pierce site in Pierce County. Her early literacy practices with children are praiseworthy, and we are featuring her here, as our very first “Highlight from the Field”.

Best practices state that early literacy activities need to be planned and implemented in every area of the room, and be linked to each developmental area. Brenda does this in many ways, but we would like to share a specific activity here.

The traditional “circle” in Brenda’s classroom is used for “Team Meeting”. The activity shown here is called Recycle. Families get involved with literacy by sending in labels. These labels are placed on the children’s carpet squares and the children sort them. Labels include cereals, junk food, candy, healthy and nutritious, etc.—we have the alphabet in recycled items! Questions can be asked about which letter a child has. Each one is also on a piece of tagboard made into a book. This activity brings familiarity and cultural relevance to the children connecting home and school.

Print in every form is critical for the environment with young children. Pictures, words, symbols, etc. catch the eyes of children. Most important is that all are supported with meaning and relevance which will promote natural curiosity without the fear of failing to understand. Creating a fun-filled, literacy-enriched environment gives children the opportunity to develop language skills and letter recognition through situations which are meaningful to their experiences.