Oral Language and Beginning Reading Skills

Oral Language: Expanding Your Child's Vocabulary
By: West Bloomfield Township Public Library (2006)
Talking to your child helps expand vocabulary, develop background knowledge, and inspire a curiosity about the world – all of which help with learning to read! Here are some simple activities you can do at home to get your child ready to read.

What reading experts say

Reading and talking with children plays an important role in developing their vocabulary. Typically, more words are used in written language than in spoken language. The more you read to children, the larger vocabulary they will develop. Research has shown children learn new words by:
Hearing a word over and over.
Hearing words spoken by the important people in their lives: Mom, Dad, siblings, grandparents.
Hearing words in a meaningful context – during conversation at dinner, in the car, while playing and while reading.
"Rephrase and extend your child's words, ask a clarifying question (tell me more about the man you saw), model more complex vocabulary or sentence structure (yes, I see the tall skyscraper you built with lots of windows), and ask open-ended questions," says Susan Hall and Louisa Moats of Straight Talk About Reading.

What good readers know

Good readers have a diverse vocabulary. They ask questions when they are unclear about what a word means, they use the context of a conversation or the happenings in a book to decipher the meaning of unfamiliar words and they use varied vocabulary in referring to familiar objects (this bird is big, but this elephant is gigantic).

What parents can do to help children Grow Up Reading™

Create or learn songs to expand your child's vocabulary. Use songs to describe your daily routines, periodically adding new verses that include new vocabulary words.
Read stories such as The Three Bears or Three Billy Goats Gruff. Act out the stories using small, medium and large stuffed animals. Find other items in your home that are large, medium and small. Ask your child to classify the items according to size.
Play "I Spy" with your child using words that describe an object's position. ("I spy something on the carpet, in front of the couch, next to the dog.") Expand this activity by playing "Simon Says" using directional words. ("Simon says put your hand above your head.")
Keep a journal. Spend some time every night discussing your activities from the day. Introduce new vocabulary words by elaborating on the day's activities. Write down your child's impressions of the day.
Bonus Activities

"The Picky Puppet"
Using a favorite puppet, explain that the puppet is picky – he only likes things that start with a certain letter. For example, "he only likes things that start with the letter T." Give your child some examples of things that begin with the letter. Then have your child look around the house (or around the neighborhood during a walk) and tell you things that begin with that letter. Introduce a new letter for the puppet to be picky about each day.
When learning about writing letters of the alphabet, give your child many opportunities to write or trace letters in a variety of media. Use a sand table to trace letters, write letters in shaving cream or finger paint, make letters out of play dough and pipe cleaners.
Create a "spinning wheel" using two cardboard circles of different sizes and a brass fastener. On the outer wheel write uppercase letters; on the inner wheel write lower case letters. Punch holes in the center of each circle and fasten them together. Have your child spin the wheel to practice matching upper and lower case letters.
Make an alphabet caterpillar by writing each letter of the alphabet on a circle and having your child put the caterpillar together in alphabetical order. Attach two pipe cleaners to the "A" circle to make the caterpillar's head.
Great Books to Read

Alphabet books are useful because they:
Support oral language development
Help children learn letter sequence
Help children associate a sound with a letter
Can help children build vocabulary
(from Phonics from A to Z: a practical guide, Blevins, 1998)

The links below to Amazon.com are provided for your convenience. A portion of your purchase helps support Reading Rockets. Thank you!
Matthew ABC by Peter Catalanotto
Cowboy ABC by Chris L. Demarest
Dog's ABC: A Silly Story About the Alphabet by Emma Dodd
Alphabears: An ABC Book by Kathleen Hague
Toot & Puddle: Puddle's ABC by Holly Hobbie
Kipper's A to Z: An Alphabet Adventure by Mick Inkpen
What Pete Ate from A to Z by Maira Kalman
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.
ABC T-Rex by Bernard Most
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
So Many Bunnies: A Bedtime ABC and Counting Book by Rick Walter

This article came from Reading Rockets. Reading Rockets is an excellent resource for parents and teachers on reading skills.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/15566 and past the following link for more information:

What is a developmentally appropriate classroom

It is the time of year when many preschool teachers answer the question what exactly is a developmentally appropriate classroom and what will my child learn in your program? I think this video does a nice job explaining what a developmentally appropriate program is and what it should look like. I'm very proud to say this is what happens in the Burlington Integrated Preschool.

As part of our unit Wind and Water the children listened to the story "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keates. Here is a video of the story to enjoy with your children.

Beautiful Junk

We will soon begin unit 4 of our new curriculum "Opening our World to Learning." The following is a list of beautiful junk that will help the teachers provide the students with hands on developmentally appropriate lessons that go hand and hand with unit 4 "The World of Color". If you can provide any of the following supplies please send them to school with your child. Anything that you want returned at the end of the unit make sure you label the supplies you want returned.

Fruit and vegetable juice bottles (empy and washed out)

seed/bulb catalogs

airmail envelopes

plastic tubing

wire whisks

plastic ice cream scooper

drawstring laundry bags

paper doilies

heart shaped stickers

Books: ( we will return at the end of the unit)
information books about fruits and vegetables. flowers, animals and flags of different countries
Alphabet picutre books.

What is an integrated preschool

The Burlington Integrated Preschool held it’s open house this past Thursday and we had a great turn out. It was wonderful to meet new prospective students and parents and to answer questions about the program. One question that came up over and over again is: How will my typically developing student benefit from an integrated setting and how can we assure that his/her needs will be met? This is a great question and I always enjoy answering it. I think if we start by explaining what an integrated preschool is it will assist in providing an answer .
An integrated preschool classroom is comprised of 7 students with identified special needs and 8 students that are developing along a normal continuum. The classrooms are capped at 15 and can’t exceed that number at any time. Each classroom is staffed with a master’s level teacher certified in early childhood special needs, a teaching assistant that has a bachelor’s degree and an additional teacher’s assistant. Many of the assistants also have college degrees. Incorporated into the program are additional specialist staff members, including a speech and language pathologist, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist. The teaching staff is highly trained with a specialization in early childhood development.


Children without disabilities, although developing along a normal development continuum, still possess strengths and weakness and need to continue to work on mastery of fine and gross development and language development. However, one of the biggest benefits is that they acquire a broader understanding of accepting differences. Children learn at a very young age that there is something special about each and every one of us and that those qualities need to be celebrated. The child whose language that might not be developing the way it should be could be a rock star in the motor room. The child whose language is developing normally may be apprehensive with motor skills and may need guidance and support in that area. Each child has unique abilities that are shared and celebrat ed. All the research shows us that children without disabilities benefit just as much as children with special needs.


One wonderful quality about children is their ability to take things at face value and not harbor predjudices or preconceived ideas. The child that needs the walker to help him walk is just as special and important to the classroom as the child that is agile on his/her feet. When you look around the integrated classrooms, it’s difficult to distinguish the children with special needs from the typically developing children. All children are special to us and are treated equally. All children not only acquire and master the skills that will make them successful in kindergarten but they also acquire the social skills that will help them be accepting of all people and be more well rounded adults. I have included our program overview for people to review. Take a minute to read it and then ask yourself the following questions: What are the skills that are important to me for my preschooler to learn; What are the life lessons that I want my child to learn as he/she goes out into the world? Remember childhood is a journey not a race. There is no need to rush our children through it. Time goes fast enough as it is!


The program’s curriculum is designed to promote children’s cognitive, language, social emotional, fine and gross motor skills. Program staff is committed to helping each child reach his/her full potential and offering children a range of enriching experiences to promote a lifelong love of learning.
The teachers in the program are highly trained and skilled and serve as facilitators. Each classroom is staffed with a head teacher, a teacher assistant and teacher’s aide. The head teacher has a masters or bachelor level degree in Special Education. Teaching assistants have bachelor’s degrees and many are working towards their master’s degree in education. The educational aides in the program have significant experience in working with young children.
The program offers a developmentally appropriate curriculum with readiness skills embedded into the daily routine. During different times of the day, children are exposed to letters, word recognition, number patterns, sorting, and categorizing, shape and color recognition. During choice time activities, children work on developing cognitive, fine, gross motor and play and social skills. The adults in the classroom help to facilitate and model for the children