More examples of print in the classroom

Here are two of my little friends sharing a book :) I wanted to share this picture because you can see some examples of print in the classroom (if you click on the picture it gets bigger). The kids were really interested in "The Eensy Weensy Spider" and we played some word games substituting different verbs for the word "climbed." If you look closely at the white easel to the right of the picture you'll see a sentence that says, "The eensy weensy spider ______ up the water spout." As we read the poem they would take turns calling out a word (jumped, ran, danced, etc) to fill the blank. I would write the word down on a piece of paper, hold it up to the blank, and we'd all "read" the sentence together. It was very informal and fun, and if someone wasn't interested they didn't have to participate. This was a way that I differentiated instruction for some of the kids in my class that were a little further along in their literacy development.

You can also see a green piece of paper below the "X." This was a sheet of paper with pictures and words that illustrated our group/circle time promises. I would just quickly grab the paper and hold it up if I had a little friend who was being disruptive and the visual was usually enough to remind them of the expectations.