Pre-K students get familiar with literacy

By Stuart Hedstrom

Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Students and family members of the pre-kindergarten program at the SeDoMoCha Elementary School spent a pair of recent evenings taking part in several activities designed to help get them interested in reading together and thinking about the entire process during Family Literacy Nights.

On May 12 students in the morning pre-K session gathered in the multipurpose room. “There are four activities that are literacy-based,” pre-K teacher Ellen McBride said before the start of the first of the two Family Literacy Nights. The activities tied in with the “Five Little Monkeys” books students have been using in class, and included an ABC lowercase and uppercase match, retelling the story with finger puppets, rhyming words to find matches such as rock and sock and monkey mask making. Literacy involves more than just reading, also listening and speaking as demonstrated through the evening’s activities.

“This night we do cookies and milk and banana,” McBride said about the selection of snacks for attendees to enjoy in-between the various tables of activities.

With students, parents and some siblings gathered, McBride said, “The purpose for this, from our mindset, is we wanted you to come together to share some activities.” In the fall pre-K families were invited to Math Nights, which instead of letters were based around numbers. She then had the students and siblings sit on the floor around her as she read aloud “Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree” by Eileen Christelow.

Pre-K teacher Elizabeth Bisson asked the parents “to think of everyday simple ways to incorporate literacy, besides just reading at bedtime.” She mentioned making use of junk mail as an example, explaining the students can look through the various catalogs and notices to see the text and set up on the parcels and be able to pick out the letters they recognize.

Bisson said another literacy teaching tool is for parents to point out street signs. The shapes and colors can catch the students’ eyes and then they can notice the accompanying wording and realize the importance of these letters.

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