Language and Literacy

Activities

Listening and Speaking

Daily Questions

Developing Oral Language Conversation Skills

Use pocket chart with children’s names on sentence strip cards.  Have a daily question at the top of the pocket chart.  As you ask a child the daily question place their name in the pocket chart.  This will insure that you have had a meaningful conversation with each child that day.

Make sure the conversation is able to go back and forth at least three times to each person having the conversation.

*     What is your favorite dinner?

*     Where do you eat dinner?

*      Who had dinner with you?

Repetitive book

Read a story that has repetitive sentences in it, like Little Red Hen.

Use a pocket chart to show the repetitive sentences.

Who will help the ___________?

“Not I,” said the _____________.

“I will,” said the _____________.

Have different characters to play with the text on the pocket chart.

To build early language and literacy skills children need to have a print rich environment.  Children benefit from a curriculum that helps build on their prior experiences.  Daily questions help children recall information in a simple yes no question.  To make a daily question area in your classroom you can use a pocket chart.  On a sentence strip,  write the daily question and make two columns one for the yes answers and one for the no answers.  In advance write each child’s name on a sentence strip and place in a basket.  The children will find their name and place it under the appropriate answer.  You can use the daily question as your sign in.

Another way to set up your daily question area is with a sheet of butcher paper.  At the top write the question and under the question write yes and no.  Place a piece of yarn or ribbon under yes and no.  On clothes pins write the children’s name and place in a basket.  The children will find their name and clip it to the appropriate ribbon or yarn for their answer.