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Daycare teachers promote early literacy skills with music

If Shakespeare had developed daycare or preschool curriculum instead of sonnets and plays, he may have rewritten one of his most famous lines: “If music be the food of love literacy, play on.” Research continues to prove this sentiment, including a new University of Buffalo study published earlier this month.

Training equips preschool teachers to use music

Before conducting this study, professors from the University of Buffalo knew what the research said about music’s ability to greatly impact a child’s early literacy and language abilities. With their study, however, they specifically wanted to see if early childhood teachers, with little to no music background, could be trained to use music in developmentally appropriate ways to boost early literacy development.

Led by Maria Runfola, PhD, and Elisabeth Etopio, PhD, the team recruited 165 preschoolers to participate in music activities led by 11 daycare teachers. As part of the daycare curriculum, the preschool educators leading the music classes received training in musicianship skills and specific strategies for leading preschoolers’ music development. Prior to this early literacy study, these preschool teachers did not have any music training. The researchers found that participating preschoolers experienced a boost in oral vocabulary and understanding of grammar compared to students not enrolled in the preschool curriculum. Plus, children with lower initial literacy skills saw the biggest positive impact.

“First, we found that the musicianship of the early childhood teachers improved as did their ability to guide music activities in ways that enhanced student music development,” explained Runfola in a press release, Study Finds Link Between Music and Preschoolers Reading Readiness.

Since the preschool teachers did not come from a musical background, it was not surprising that participating children did not experience a significant boost to musicality, such as rhythm-pattern achievement. However, the researchers concluded that early childhood teachers without a music background could be trained to teach a daycare curriculum that uses music as a vehicle for early literacy and language development.

“Administrators need to better understand the importance of the arts to children’s development,” Runfola concluded in the press release. “We hope this research will help music educators and childhood educators support their requests for music time for the youngest of our students.  Children need daily appropriate music activity to stimulate their neural activity to develop tonal and rhythm audiation that in turn appears to help their emergent literacy skill.”

If music be the food of literacy, then play on indeed!

Preschool curriculum helps daycare teachers use music to boost early literacy

Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me is a daycare curriculum that uses music and movement activities to boost early literacy and language skills while also cultivating turn-taking and sharing, improving coordination, enhancing creativity, and more.

Through a robust classroom kit that includes Digital Teacher Guides, ABC Music & Me provides step-by-step planned out lessons so even educators with no musical experience can begin teaching this daycare curriculum immediately.

For more information about using ABC Music & Me as a supplemental daycare curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

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Kids plugged in to eBooks

Using eBooks with children

Walt Disney understood the magic and wonder of childhood and also the importance of early literacy and reading. After all, he confessed: “there is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” We couldn’t agree more!

Early literacy experts know that parents can best support their children’s early literacy and language development by reading together. Today parents can choose from a wide variety of books: Board books, bath books, lift-the-flap books, chapter books, comic books, and picture books. Now, thanks to emerging technology, such as smart phones, e-readers, and tablet computers, parents can even carry an entire library of eBooks in their pocket (or diaper bag!).

eBooks for kids gaining in popularity with families

A new report, Kids and Family Reading, published by Scholastic shows that the number of children reading eBooks has more than doubled since 2010.

“We are seeing that kids today are drawn to both print books and eBooks, yet e-reading seems to offer an exciting opportunity to attract and motivate boys and reluctant readers to read more books,” explained Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic in a press release. “While many parents express concern over the amount of time their child spends with technology, nearly half do not have a preference of format for their child’s books. The message is clear—parents want to encourage more reading, no matter the medium.”

Kids and Family Reading study highlights

  • Twice as many children are reading eBooks today than two years ago
  • Half of children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to eBooks
  • Seventy-two percent of parents show an interest in having their child read eBooks
  • Eighty percent of children who read eBooks still read books for fun primarily in print.
  • Fifty-eight percent of kids age 9-17 say they will always want to read books printed on paper even though there are eBooks available (a slight decline from 66% in 2010), revealing the digital shift in children’s reading that has begun.

Kindermusik now includes eBooks (and more!) through Kindermusik@Home

Our music classes for toddlers, babies, big kids, and families include fun, age-appropriate music and movement activities that help children develop social, pre-literacy, and language skills and practice a wide variety of abilities. An integral part of the Kindermusik experience includes providing parents with the tools they need to tap into the power of music to not only help make parenting easier but also support their role as a child’s first and most important teacher.

Now, with Kindermusik@Home, parents can easily access favorite Kindermusik songs and activities, music, eBooks, and lyrics—as well as recipes, learning games for kids, crafts, and more in a green-friendly digital format any time from any smart phone, iPad, tablet, laptop, or computer.

To learn more about enrolling in Kindermusik classes and receiving access to Kindermusik@Home, contact a local Kindermusik educator via our Class Locator.

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Encouraging children to “use words” supports early literacy

(Source: Carol Read’s ABC of Teaching Children blog)

“Use your words.” Early literacy and preschool teachers, parents, grandparents, and other caregivers can often be heard patiently saying that same phrase to young children throughout the day. Teaching and encouraging children to use words to express thoughts, feelings, and opinions not only supports a child’s social-emotional development, but also increases vocabulary acquisition. Not surprisingly, new data released from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows a strong connection between vocabulary acquisition and literacy.

Connections between literacy and vocabulary acquisition

The report released last month compares vocabulary results from 2009 with 2011 reading assessments. Both assessments were based on nationally representative samples of fourth-graders, eight-graders, and twelfth-graders.

  • Fourth-grade students performing above the 75th percentile in reading comprehension in 2011 also had the highest average vocabulary score.
  • Lower-performing fourth-graders at or below the 25th percentile in reading comprehension had the lowest average vocabulary score.
  • At both grades 4 and 8, the average vocabulary scores for at risk students were lower than the scores for other students.

Using music as part of an early literacy curriculum

While this report measured literacy and vocabulary abilities of fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders, we know that vocabulary acquisition and literacy begin much earlier. ABC Music & Me, an early literacy curriculum created by Kindermusik International, uses music to support young children’s early literacy and language development, including vocabulary acquisition. Picture vocabulary cards support unit-by-unit vocabulary, comprehension, memory, and pre-literacy skills. The ABC Music & Me early literacy curriculum is full of vocabulary-building opportunities. Our stories, songs, and activities introduce students to hundreds of words and their meanings.

For more information about using the ABC Music & Me early literacy curriculum in your classroom, school, or district, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

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Decrease in Father Involvement in Children’s Reading

Source: Sean McCabe for The Wall Street Journal

It is no secret that parent involvement in early childhood education can be a pivotal factor in a child’s academic success, especially early literacy. In fact, research shows that children’s reading achievement, vocabulary, and comprehension skills improve when their parents read to them.

While the benefits of reading together and modeling the joys of reading may be common knowledge in early literacy circles, a new study published by the UK’s National Literacy Trust shows a widening gap between the reading habits of mothers versus fathers. The National Literacy Trust surveyed 21,000 8- to 16-year-olds from nearly 130 schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. One of the revealing trends indicates that fathers’ involvement in reading and literacy is significantly less than mothers and continues to decline.

Highlights of the National Literacy Trust survey Continue reading “Decrease in Father Involvement in Children’s Reading”

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5 early literacy Christmas activities

Mother Goose could well be called the Mother of Early Literacy. “Hey Diddle, Diddle,” “Little Miss Muffet,” and other nursery rhymes support early literacy by building phonemic awareness through experiences that recognize, repeat, and predict rhymes. Rhyming word play contributes to phonemic awareness as children begin to hear the differences and similarities between words like “moon” and “spoon” and “muffet” and “tuffet.”

Along with favorites from Mother Goose, this holiday season add a penguin to your early literacy activities with Penguin’s Christmas Gift. This story download, created by Kindermusik International, combines rhymes with active listening as children hear the story of a tiny penguin who turns an ordinary tree into an extraordinary one for an extra special Christmas at the zoo.

Download Penguin’s Christmas Gift here and use it in your class next month to support early literacy growth.

4 additional early literacy activities to use with Penguin’s Christmas Gift

If you are like many early literacy educators, your Pinterest boards contain dozens (if not hundreds!) of early literacy activities to use in the classroom. We culled through some of our favorites to use along with Penguin’s Christmas Gift.

  1. Letter P Penguin Craft
  2. Beginning Middle & End Instead of using a candy corn image, use a Christmas tree.
  3. Rhyming Tree Literacy Activity Use branches of a Christmas tree instead. Also for pre-readers, use images and words.
  4. Body Rhyme Early Literacy Activity This early literacy activity isn’t really about penguins or Christmas. We just love the movement and use of rhyming words to support phonemic awareness.

Follow our early literacy and language board on Pinterest for even more ideas.

Early literacy curriculum that uses music as the vehicle for learning

ABC Music & Me, our early literacy curriculum, uses music and movement to teach young children early literacy and language. In addition to the research-based curriculum, ABC Music & Me increases parent involvement in early childhood education by providing families with materials to use together at home.

For more information about using ABC Music & Me as an early literacy curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

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National Parents as Teachers Conference

We partner with a lot of experts to create and support our standards-based early literacy curriculum, ABC Music & Me, including experienced early literacy educators, trainers, researchers and professional musicians and music producers who understand how music can unlock a child’s potential. However, we also recognize the pivotal role of parent involvement in early childhood education, which is why all of our programs, including our early literacy curriculum, include a child’s first and best teacher: the parent.

Parents as Teachers and early literacy

The organization, Parents as Teachers (PAT), shares our commitment to equip parents with the tools and resources to help provide young children with school readiness skills, including early literacy. PAT organizations around the United States use our early literacy curriculum, ABC Music & Me, to increase parent involvement in early childhood education. For example, the Choctaw Nation Support for Pregnant and Parenting Teens is a PAT program that uses ABC Music & Me in its group connection meetings with parents and children.  The Tulsa Public Schools Parents as Teachers even received the coveted PAT Losos Prize for Excellence in 2010 in part for being the first in Oklahoma to use our early literacy curriculum, ABC Music & Me, to increase parent involvement in early childhood education.

National Parents as Teachers Conference

To learn more about how Parents as Teachers programs use our early literacy curriculum, stop by the ABC Music & Me booth at the National PAT Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, November 7-9. The first 100 people to visit Booth #2 will even receive a special surprise!

Not able to attend? Email us at info@abcmusicandme.com for more information about using ABC Music & Me.