Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

Signs, signs, everywhere signs!

It's amazing how much confidence children can gain in their reading ability through "reading" signs...and gaining confidence in being able to read is a huge part of the battle.  One way you can help your children/students to read is by making your own book of signs/logos.  Take pictures of all the familiar signs you see around town...the stop sign, the one-way sign, the sign for the street you live on, etc.  Also, collect logos from bags of stores you frequent such as McDonalds or your local grocery store, or cut words out of your cereal boxes.  Or just get online and find pictures of signs and logos your child will recognize quickly (it's much more fun to go on a sign hunt though!)

Paste all of your pictures in a notebook (or better yet creatively design a book with contstruction paper, sparkles, the works) and write the word for each sign in big letters.  Now you are ready to "read" with your child.  At first, they may just recognize the shape or colors of the signs/logos, but they can read this book to you!  Little by little you can start covering up the signs and just have them read the words.  It's a lot of fun and teaches them about the signs and stores in their neighborhood, all while developing reading skills and confidence. 

The Potato Pals series of readers we use with our 4-6 year-old students makes great use of this principle...every sentence has a "memoricon" associated with it so that kids can quickly "read" books on their own, even before they are recognizing the words.  From there, it doesn't take much to have them focus on the words and we find many of our students telling us to cover the pictures because they want to read without hints. 

Signs are powerful helpers in what can be a VERY intimidating activity (reading) for young kids.  Next time you walk outside, notice the signs around you and think of ways you can use them to help teach your children/students.  Be aware that reading is more than simply sounding out words, but involves using a number of clues to help understand meaning, and that the reading of signs should be praised and recognized as an important first step.

Here's a great Electric Company song/video that helps kids to read using signs.  Enjoy!

Update: Unfortunately the video I linked to was removed...so here's another Electric Company clip using signage...not as good as the last one but still fun use of signs.

One last thing...promise.  Watching this video I see the old Walk/Don't Walk signs and it makes me wonder...were those really so difficult to understand?  Did we really need to switch to the symbols? Just wondering...seems like giving up.  Admittedly, I was young, but I don't recall ever seeing someone have trouble at the crosswalk reading the signs!  Bring 'em back!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This week and next, I'm reading the Bill Martin/Eric Carle classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do Dou See? in some of my classes.  It's amazing how quickly even some very young non-native English speakers respond to and "learn" this book.  Eric Carle's art is simple yet vivid, and the repetition in the words is so comforting and confidence-building.  The simplicity of the book makes it one of those classics that children can read by themselves before they can actually read words. 

We like to listen to Greg and Steve's song version of the book off of their CD Playing Favorites, which also has a nice version of Woody Guthrie's Put Your Finger in the Air (with an Obla-di, Obla-da riff) along with other classics.  Click here to hear a short sample of Greg and Steve's Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Or listen these kids give it a shot.

Being a staple of kindergartens and primary schools around the world, there are a ton of great lesson plans, activities, and crafts available on the web to support the book.  Start with DLTK and check out Eric Carle's site.  The Virtual Vine is another good resource.

 

Super Simple Songs 2

A couple of folks have asked what the deal is with Super Simple Songs 2 (thanks for asking!).  Well, as you may have guessed from the red album link over there in the left column, Knock Knock English's latest CD, Super Simple Songs 2, is available now!  Check it out. 

The story behind the Super Simple Songs CDs is that we wanted some kids' music that our students here in Tokyo (aged 2-10) could easily follow, learn from, and participate with.  As much as we love and recommend artists like Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, Justin Roberts, etc., most of their songs are simply above the comprehension level of our students due to their age and English proficiency.  Artists like Raffi, Dr. Jean, Hap Palmer, Greg and Steve, etc. have several songs that work great, but even those artists are just a little too fast sometimes or not easy enough to understand through gestures for our young students. 

So we began to create our own songs, and from the start we loved the process of creating a song, trying it out and seeing the reactions, tweaking the song, trying it again, more tweaks, etc.  We wanted to create songs all of our students could sing and/or act out through gestures.  Our students really helped us find the fun in each song, and we were able to see very clearly when a song was too fast for students to interact with, not bouncy enough, missing a little oomph, etc.  They helped us find the parts where...

Our first CD, Super Simple Songs, got passed around to some English speaking families here in Japan and in the U.S., and parents and teachers started telling us how much their toddlers loved the songs because they could sing and understand and interact with all of them. Everything was at their level. They could handle all of the actions and hand gestures.  And they loved the music.  The songs were THEIR songs.  So we made it available worldwide through CDBaby and iTunes, and to our great pleasure, people responded very well and we won an i-Parenting Media Award in January, 2006, right alongside a couple of our favorite artists, Brady Rymer and Cathy & Marcy.  It was a thrill.

We worked on Super Simple Songs 2 throughout 2005 and into 2006, generally trying to make sure that each song got at least a few weeks worth of feedback and revision in our classes before settling on the final version.  It was a blast to make and I hope everyone will enjoy it as much as our students have.

So check 'em out!  Ideal for kids aged 1-4, and up to age 7 for young English learners.  There are classics and originals, all made super simple for toddlers to participate and learn with.  We're working on getting #2 up on iTunes and creating a new website when we have some spare time outside the classroom, so there will be no big official release for now...but bear with if I'm back on here in a couple of weeks with another announcement!  Thanks!

よろしくおねがいします！！

Sendak

NPR re-broadcast a fascinating interview with the author and illustrator of my favorite children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak. Sendak's work was also the inspiration for what some call "the finest children's album ever made", Really Rosie (you wouldn't get much of an argument from me...it's great stuff.)

The interview discusses his work on the book Brundibar, based on an opera written and performed by children in the Czech concentration camp, Terezin. It's a great book and a really interesting interview...worth a listen.

P.S. to PatJack...looking at the early editions of Where the Wild Things Are above reminds me of some of the early editions of Potato Pals. May the Pals enjoy such longevity!

Sesame Beginnings

There has been some controversy over Sesame Workshop's introduction of the Sesame Beginnings line of DVDs aimed at kids 2 and under. Critics are upset that Sesame Workshop would try to get kids of that age in front of the TV and try to encourage "TV as a babysitter".

Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshops, responds to some of those criticisms in the Washington Post today, and for the most part, I have no problem with his assertions that kids that age ARE watching TV and that it's simply being pragmatic for Sesame Workshops to produce age appropriate material. I have no doubt it's a business decision, but it's not a business decision that bothers me on any ethical front.

I applaud the emphasis the DVDs place on parent-child interaction. Watch some clips here to see for yourself. These DVDs almost seem more directed at parents than under 2s, showing ways to interact with your child in stimulating ways.

My question is whether or not these DVDs will really be all that appealing to the under 2s. At our school, we've seen that a suprising number of 2 year-olds and under don't respond so well to videos with puppets and anthropomorphic furry things. The majority prefer real live human faces or curious, non-humanesque (I don't care if that's a word, I'm going with it) oddities like the teletubbies and boohbahs.

I think the next step here is for Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby, etc. to follow Sesame Workshop's lead and produce DVDs more aimed at encouraging interaction, but using real parents and kids instead of muppets with less explication and simply more mimicable activities.

If you have kids and are watching the Sesame Beginnings DVDs, let me know what you think of them.

(hat tip to Tanja)