Week 6 writing in field experience

One thing that I have noticed in my field experience classroom is that there are barely any labels around the room. The months are labeled above the board but they are so high the children can't really see them and only a few of the centers in the room are labeled, math center for example. So the lack of labels around the room seems strange because I've always imagined that a preschool room should have labels on everything. Of course, most 3 and 4 years old can't initially read these labels so they may seem pointless, but preschool is when children are learning how to write their letters and to recognize them. So the 3 and 4 year olds may not be able to read these labels but throughout their time in preschool they should be starting to recognize the letters in labeled words. Having labels on as many things as possible in the room is a simple way to reinforce the letters the children are also learning. Labels can also support site words. In kindergarten, first, and second grade children learn words that can't be sounded out very well, like 'of' for example. Site words are words that the children must learn just by recognizing the letters. The way the labels in a preschool room can support this is by talking about the labels. Since most 3 and 4 year olds cannot read, when you say, this label says, 'chair', the children know what a chair is and see that this word represents the object. They may not actually be able to read this word yet, but every time they see the label they are building a base knowledge of site words. The preschoolers probably can't write the word chair yet, but if they saw the word in a book or somewhere else they could recognize it and say they know that word is chair.

I think this is the most simple way to help children start reading. Just by exposing them to words that they can relate to an object.