blog 3

For the past two weeks, I went to a toddler classroom. The children were 15 months to 24 months old. I interviewed the teacher of the class. The teacher of this class has been in the field for six years. She told me she loves toddlers because this is the age when their language has started or being expanded on. I sat in this class during the morning times to catch the children during activities. The day started off with circle time. The children were instructed to sit on the carpet. The teacher sat on the carpet first and the children followed. Next, the teacher sang songs about abc’s, numbers, colors, days of the week, months of the year, and names. The teacher mentioned to me that they also have a circle time at the end of the day for the children that come late and to review the morning activities. I thought this was a great experience for literacy because the teacher sings these songs every day. She expands on their verbal language as well as their reading language.

During the next thirty minutes, the children did a letter activity. The teacher called the children to the table one by one. The materials were out on the table ready for the children to complete the activity. The activity was a cut out of the letter a and some pictures of things that start with the letter a. The teacher said the letter sounds three times and had the students repeating her. Then she showed the children the different pictures that started with the letter a and said the names of the pictures. She made connections with the children by asking the children questions, such as where do alligators live or where can you find ants?

After the children were done with the letter activity, they were instructed to go to centers. The centers are centers in which they do certain things. The centers they had were writing, art, dramatic play, block, water table, library, and science center. There were two students to each center. While the children were in the centers, the teacher went around playing in each center with the students. For example, I can remember she read a book in the library center to the students. Next, she visited the water table where the children played in sand. She expanded on their literacy by asking questions and keeping the conversation going. I think all of her children talked except for two students. By how the children were talking I knew they picked up a lot of language from their teacher. Shea made sure she talked to every child even if it was to say hello and ask how their night was.

One thing that I seen this teacher made sure of was the children using their words. If the students had a dispute, the teacher would tell the students to use their words. For example, one child hit another child and the child started to cry. The teacher got on her knees and said use your words tell the other child how you feel. The child responded by saying ,”I don’t like when you hit me”. I like how she let them resolve the issue on their own by using words versus fighting.

My experience in this classroom was great. I think this teacher made literacy fun and exciting for her students. She was always talking, reading, singing songs, and telling the children use their words.