Kindergartners learn using music, poetry, action
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
Students in Kenna Krause's kindergarten class at Centre Elementary School, Lost Springs, are exposed to a variety of activities to help them learn the letters of the alphabet.
Krause uses a copyrighted program called "Animated Literacy" to enhance the children's ability to read and write. It was developed by a teacher, Jim Stone, while he was an instructor in an inner city school where general reading ability was below par.
The program has three components: 1) the animated alphabet, 2) pattern reading, writing and singing, and 3) drawing to read and write.
The animated alphabet is an introduction to sounds, letters, and spelling patterns used to read and write. Each letter, digraph, or vowel combination has its own character, story with comprehension questions, and song.
For example, during Friday's session, Baby Barnaby was a "B" object. A jingle set to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," was full of "b"s and went like this:
Baby Barnaby likes to bounce,
Bounce and bend and play banjo,
Bounce and bend and balance Bs,
Bounce and bend in Boston's Band,
But he bumped a bumble bee,
And he broke his blue banjo.
The children then colored the picture making sure to color the banjo blue.
Another strategy is to associate each letter with a gesture. For example, the spoken letter "o" is accompanied by opening the mouth as during a physical examination, the letter "u" is demonstrated by pointing up.
Several compact discs provide accompaniment to many alphabetized tunes.
Some exercises place special emphasis on vowels.
In pattern learning, the children substituted a "B" word in a familiar nursery rhyme or song which was written on the blackboard.
In the ditty, "Are You Sleeping," the children substituted "Sister Brenna" (a student's name) for "Brother John" and changed "Ding, Ding, Dong" to "Bing, Bing, Bong."
The drawing lesson centered around the word "duck," written on the blackboard. Using gestures while speaking each letter, the children sounded out the word, then followed step-by-step illustrated instructions to draw a duck in their journals. The final exercise was to write the word "duck" on the picture.
Inserting a rudimentary introduction to grammar, Krause then asked them whether a duck is a person, place, or thing. After they identified it as a thing, she mentioned that it is a noun and circled the word to indicate such.
"I don't expect them to remember that," she said, "but it gets them familiar with grammatical terms."
Krause said the drawing exercise helps the students learn to follow directions.
It was evident the children enjoyed the activities. Some of them commented on the program.
"You can read," said Joe Pierce.
"It helps us learn sounds," said Callie Riffel.
Krause said she has found that connecting sounds and words to actions helps children remember what they've learned.
The strategy works in other subjects as well. In a lesson about oceans, students learned a poem which incorporated the names. Krause said most students could easily remember them after that.
The primary goal of the program, according to its creator, is to help children develop the attitudes, skills, strategies, and vocabularies necessary for academic success in their first years of school when they are learning to read and write so that they can do well and learn to communicate in later years.
It has been proven to work for all intelligence levels and carries over into higher grades.
Rose Ybarra, a teacher's aide at CES, said when she works with first graders, they continue to use the strategies they learned in kindergarten to learn to read and spell new words.
Krause said the Animated Literacy program is flexible and fits in with other programs.
"For less than $100, it is proving to be very cost-effective," she said.
