Early Literacy Project--Vocabulary

Vocabulary is knowing the name of things (also emotions, concepts, ideas).

How Things Move
A plane flies in the air.
A boat floats on the water.
The car rides on the road.
A train runs on the tracks.
A truck travels on the highway.
My dog and I walk on the ground.

When you use this flannelboard you will put up simple pictures of each of the forms of transportation.  This is a good vocabulary builder because the object is not just being identifying, it expands on what it is doing and where.

Carlson, A. and Carlson, M. (2005).Flannelboard stories for infant and toddlers. Chicago: American Library Association.

 

Sing a Song of Opposites

(Tune:  Mary had a little lamb)
This is big and this is small,
This is big; this is small,
This is big and this is small,
Sing along with me.

Additional Verses:

This is tall and this is short…
This is up and this is down…
This is in and this is out…
This is happy and this is sad…
This is soft and this is hard…
This is fast and this is slow…
This is here and this is there…

This song builds vocabulary as children identify, sing, and act out opposites.

Schiller, P., Lara-Alecio, R., and Irby, B. J. (2004). The bilingual book of rhymes, songs, stories and fingerplays. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, Inc.

Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep  by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple; illustrated by Brooke Dyer

This story introduces many words that are synonyms for “sleep” such as dream, nap, and snooze.  Each page has large illustrations with things to talk about on the page that is not in the text, such as snakes napping with a firefighter helmets on.

Yolen, J. and Stemple, H. E. Y. (2007). Sleep, black bear, sleep (B. Dyer, Illus.).New York: HarperCollins.

Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A book of changing seasons  by Il Sung Na

This book’s illustrations are rich in color and the text is simple by not “saying it all”.  Each page shows animals in the winter and tells what they do, but the text does not identify the animal, the child gets to.  For example, the text says, “Some fly away from the cold” and the two page spread picture shows ducks flying.  The child can also find the rabbit on each page and tell what it is doing.

Na, I. S. (2010).Snow rabbit, spring rabbit. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

The Cutest Critter by Marion Dane Bauer; photos by Stan Tekiela

This book gently teaches the names of animals and baby animals as children see a full page photo of the animal(s) with a simple question on the opposite page as the reader decides who the cutest critter is.  “Maybe it’s a fox kit in black mitts?”  “What about a gosling, learning to hiss?”  There are pictures at the end of the book that allows the child to identify the animals again along with additional information the adult may choose to share with the child.

Bauer, M. D. (2010). The cutest critter (S. Tekiela, Photographer).Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, Inc.