Literacy with the Robins

Every day at TCS is a new adventure with activities that promote learning. We are highlighting some of these activities in a series of blog posts to look “under the hood” at how we promote growth and development. For our second installment, we join the Robins class.

The Robins began the day by answering our Question of the Day, which read "are you excited to do a project with Teacher Suzan?" They each answered by finding their name magnet and putting it on either the "yes" or "no" side.

We read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. With help from our Art Specialist, Teacher Susan, the students used art materials to create their own caterpillars. They thought about all the fruit from the story and picked their favorite to draw for their caterpillars to gobble up.

The students engaged with the printed material of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and listened to the story. They discussed the story as they went and made predictions about what might happen. They practiced listening comprehension and recalled details from the story while working on their art project.

When listening to a book read aloud, preschoolers expand their vocabulary and build an understanding of narrative structure. They practice decoding the story from pictures which helps with their comprehension. They begin to associate the letters with sounds and understand that printed material conveys meaning. By engaging with the story in different ways, they strengthen their comprehension of the story.

Donations directly support our many books and classroom tools, like whiteboards, laminators and a Canva subscription to make magnets and custom learning materials. Donations also allow us to bring in specialists, like Teacher Susan for art and Teacher Cyd for Explore a Story and they allow us to provide our teachers with planning time to design developmentally appropriate and engaging activities.