Hi Sandra.
I share your appreciation of the fall literacy issue as a new afterschool and sub in my new school. I was the lead literacy/art teacher in July with mixed age groups all day with second to sixth graders. I tried to link large group book readings and open discussions with fun story and informational books. We acted out the stories trying in my own way to imitate Vivian Paley's work with story acting. They loved making their own masks of the story characters. We also made houses and cars from recyclables that I had been collected for a few years, after we looked over adult books from my city library on home designs and car models. We got into electric cars and homes for the handicapped, that I happened to find a book on. One girl constructed a school for children with special needs from Kleenex boxes, egg carton pieces for desks open to wheelchairs etc.
I will study the fall issue as I learn to scaffold literacy skills within our hands on work. Right now, I have books I ordered through interlibrary loan recommended by NAEYC - one on clouds and one on rocks. I have collected a bag of varied colorful stones from the shore of Lake Champlain near my city here in northwestern Vermont. We will sort and classify them and then guess how and where they were formed. I want to learn how to extend children's ideas about science and social studies within my version of Reggio Emilia open investigation.
I updated myself with a masters in early childhood education online at Champlain College after I completed my father's life with him in the fourteen years after my mother died and he sold his local downtown furniture store where he began after World War II in the Navy in Europe. Have been working in most schools and many childcares up in this part of the State for the past seven years as I studied. Now hoping to become a regular primary teacher after I earn trust at my chosen school seven miles north of here near the Canadian Border where the staff is pleasantly acceptant and friendly to me.
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Carolyn Giroux
AfterSchool/SummerTeacher and Substitute Teacher grades PreK to 6
Swanton School
Saint Albans VT
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-02-2021 01:17 AM
From: Sandra Douglass
Subject: Fall 2021 Young Child Issue
Hi,
I just want to say how pleased I am with the Fall 2021 Young Child Issue. I enjoyed all the information on Literacy. I feel that there has not been a real good one like this since the one on Math. Thanks again.
Sandra Douglass