The Learning Ladder A Reading and Writing Curriculum for Early Care and Education Teachers, Children and Families

Family Projects

Each time you complete one of the projects below you are doing important work. You are helping parents understand the educational practices of your program. These projects will assist both teachers and families to understand and meet the needs of children better.

The Classroom Environment

Teacher/Parent Activity: Create a family event in your classroom.

Speak with your supervisor and ask for her/his advice and support. Tell her/him that you want to hold an event for the families in your classroom. You can use this time to show parents the different learning centers in your classroom. You can also help the families understand what their children are learning as they use the materials in each area.

Plan for it to happen at a time when your classroom is not in use: either in the early evening hours or on the weekend.

You will need to write an invitation for the event. Include the following: the date and time, which family members are invited (both children and adults or just adults), and the reasons that you are opening your classroom.

Before the event, make a poster for each area. On the poster you might want to include:

• the kinds of activities that happen in that area
• the reasons why those activities are important to a child's learning and development
• a list of things that your room needs to make the area better. For example:

  If you create a poster for the art area you let your visitors know that the art area gives the children a chance to draw with markers, crayons and large pencils. It also has materials for cutting and gluing and an easel for painting with brushes. The materials that you would like parents to give to the art area include: empty cardboard egg boxes, empty yogurt containers, old magazines and different colors of yarn.

• As the family members explore your classroom and read your posters for each area, invite them to use the materials in each of the learning centers. Walk around to each area to help answer their questions and concerns.

Creating Curriculum

Teacher/Parent Activity: Creating weekly curriculum for your classroom

Develop a form that will keep the families in your classroom informed about the themes of the activities you are working on. These forms may increase family involvement in your classroom because you can include ideas for them to help you. They will also help families talk to their children about their time at your program.

You might want to use the following form:

Classroom:____________________

For the week of:_______________

The theme we are exploring this week is:

Children's books that we will be adding to the library are:

• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

Poems/songs we will be learning during circle time are:

• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

Materials and equipment we will be adding to the learning centers include:

• _________________
• _________________
• _________________

Here is a sample of what your completed form might look like.

Table Toys or Manipulatives

Teacher/Parent Activity: Make a game for children to take home and play with either independently or with a family member.

Make a game called "Sort the Plates and Cups".

1. Draw six dinner plates and six cups. On each plate, make a pattern. Examples of patterns can include such things as shapes (circles, squares, triangles), designs (hearts, moons, stripes).
2. Make a cup the same pattern.
3. Glue the six different plates to a piece of construction paper.
4. Put the cups with the same design on them in an envelope labeled "cups."
5. If your program has one, ask your supervisor to help you cover the all paper cups and plates with plastic by using a laminating machine.
6. Write a letter that will go home with each game. Tell parents that you created a sorting game for their child to use at home. Explain that the game will help their child develop math skills such as understanding shapes and sorting them.

Congratulations! You completed Module 6!

Congratulations! You have completed the six modules of the Learning Ladder. We hope you enjoyed it and that you are feeling more prepared to take a college level class and do well. To learn more about the career pathway in early care and education and to get information about all of the colleges in Massachusetts that have degree programs in early childhood education, search this website: http://www.ececareers.org

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