Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Literacy- Enriched Play Centers

Literacy-enriched play centers are an important part of the classroom and to children's development. Creating literacy- enriched centers is simple. Below are several ways you can incorporate them into your classroom.

                                                         Art Gallery
                                   
     - Invite an artistic person into the classroom. This could be a parent, family members,
       museum curators, exhibit designers.        
     - Tour an art gallery or museum.
     - Share literature that focuses on art and artists from multiple cultural backgrounds.
     - Create an area that the children can use to showcase their art.
     - Have children present multiple works of art.

                                                       Construction Site


     - Tour home-improvement stores
     - Visit construction sites
     - Invite architects, designers, construction workers., plumbers, electricians, etc to come speak
     - Create an area for children to role play
     - Provide hard hats, tool belts, safety glasses, toy trucks, bull dozers, dump trucks, tools, boxes
       to use to build, writing utensils and paper for blueprints
     - Books about construction

                                                        Space Station


     - Visit websites about space stations
     - Share books about space, pictures
     - Provide items to make telescopes (paper towel rolls, cylindrical items)
     - PIctures of outer space, starts, planets, galaxies, etc
     - Boxes for making space ships, tin foil, paint, stickers, etc.
     - Paper and pencils for the children to draw maps, plans diagrams

                                                      Weather Station


     - View weather programs, videos
     - Listen to weather reports, radio
     - Provide students with websites to visit to view weather, record weather, observe weather
       around the world
     - Place a table and a magnetic white board or chalkboard near a window
     - Provide maps, video cameras, magnets and pictures of weather with weather words
     - Books about weather
     - Paper and pencils to observe and record the weather

Literacy is all around us in different forms. We use literacy in our daily lives, to do our jobs, to imagine, remember, and to function in general. Why not incorporate them in new inviting ways for children. Literacy-enriched centers provide children with a new opportunity to explore literature.

5 comments:

  1. I agree that play center for topics are really great ways for children to explore the topic in a curriculum. The best part is that they can usually be made easily in the classroom and even expensive items can be made such as the telescope being made with paper towel rolls. It will provide a really hands-on experience to navigate that part of their world!

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  2. This post is a great resource to provide for all educators. The set up is simple enough to allow readers to efficiently access ideas and opportunities for their own classroom. I like that you provided beautiful photos to align with your text. As your blog depicts, literacy is literally all around us, and it comes in shapes and forms.

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  3. Very good post. The examples are interesting and appealing not only to me but to a lot of children as well. I especially like the space station and the weather station because I feel these two areas will not only grab the interest for some of the students, I feel it will also spark a bit of curiosity in them as well. This will set up not only an opportunity to play but an opportunity to learn.

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  4. Communicating literacy into your classroom is more about reading to your students or teaching them their numbers and letters. It takes a combination of activities, resources, and conversation to bring a fully literacy enriching environment to your classroom. These are some great examples of how this can be done.

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  5. I really liked the art gallery idea. I think that displaying art in the classroom is so important. This gives children a chance to look at work that others have created. I also think that putting their work on the wall is important. This gives them the sense that this is their room and that they have contributed to it.

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