A goal this school year was to infuse empathy into my daily lessons. After reflecting on this goal I decided to do this via read alouds. Read alouds are a great way to incorporate social emotional learning into your classroom.
It is so important to get to know the students in your classroom. Getting to know your students helps build classroom community and creates a safe learning environment. Talk with your students, get to know their likes, dislikes, and things about their families. When you engage in conversation with your students you can learn so much about them.
Play is essential in early childhood learning. Young students learn best through play and exploration. Below is a resource for play based learning. Play based learning resources.
Classroom Environment Classroom environment plays a critical role in literacy learning. During a read aloud experience the students need adequate space relatively close to the teacher in order to see and hear the story. They need to be seated in a way that is mostly free from distractions. The decorations in the classroom should facilitate the learning not distract or take away from the learning. In my classroom set up I have a large carpet area where all the students have enough space to sit. I assign carpet spaces first spaced on alphabetical order and then after I get to know I the students I seat them in spaces that best meets their needs. The classroom environment for a shared reading experience is similar to that of a read aloud. The main difference is that I choose to use a big book so the students can interact and engage in the reading experience. A big book allows the students to see the text in large print and come up and interact with the book using a pointer or ...
My past literacy experiences have shaped my current teaching practice. My positive experiences with literacy and my teachers have created the passion I have for education specifically early childhood. It is my belief that we need to instill the love of reading and the joy of books at an early age.