At Reba Early Learning Center we view emerging literacy as inclusive of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Our goal is to help children grow in all of these areas through meaningful, authentic, pleasant experiences that help children to begin to understand the purposes and mechanics of these skills.

It is important for children to build an understanding of the interrelationship of the components of literacy. It is also important for children to understand that reading is gaining meaning from print. These understandings can be developed in a number of ways. The most common and easiest way of doing this is through reading to children. To call attention to the print in the book, the teacher may occasionally track the words with his/her finger as the words are being spoken. Other ways in which these concepts may be built include:

• working through a wordless book with a child. After the child realizes what is missing in the book the teacher will challenge the child to create the words that are needed for this story. The teacher will then write down the child's exact words as s/he "reads" the pictures and dictates the story. To extend the experience the pictures may be photocopied and the child's story added to the pages. Often a child learns to read stories written in their own words before they learn to read stories written by others.
•  taking dictation from a child describing his/her own experience. The child can later illustrate the story that has been dictated.
•  offering a story theater experience in which a child dictates a story that the teacher writes down. The child then acts out the story with his/her peers.
• engaging children in a cooking experience. The children look at a recipe book with a teacher and choose a recipe based on the picture and the words that the teacher has read describing the food. After the teacher has read the recipe, calling attention to the words, the children discuss the ingredients that will be needed and the teacher writes a dictated list of ingredients that are needed. The children then take the list to the cook and s/he reads the list aloud. The cook gets the ingredients for the child and they are engaged in more literacy experiences as they prepare the food.

Another important aspect of gaining meaning from print is bringing background knowledge to the reading experience. A child may be able to repeat the word COW and may even be able to decode the word. If s/he has only seen a picture of a cow in a book s/he will gain less meaning from the word than the child that has interacted with a cow. For the child that has had experience with a live cow, the word COW brings with it how a cow moves, the sounds a cow makes, how a cow feels, how a cow smells, and unique experiences s/he may have had, such as being licked by the cow. In order to help the children build this foundation for reading, concrete, enriching experiences are planned and processed with the children. The teacher may:

• plan neighborhood walking field trips.
• bring objects and materials to the classroom to be explored.
• schedule people with varying expertise to visit the classroom.
• allow time to explore children's interests and observation while walking in the neighborhood.

In addition it is also important to provide experiences that allow children to play with language. Teachers do this by:

• singing with children.
• encouraging children to make up rhyming lyrics for existing songs. These songs may be silly songs such as Raffi's Down By the Bay.
• reading nursery rhymes and rhyming books like Dr. Seuss books and playing with the rhyming words.
• learning finger play rhymes.
• doing chants combined with body movement.
• reading or telling stories emphasizing emotional voice.

Our literacy areas in each classroom include many materials for writing, books, and a computer. In addition we create a print rich classroom with stories dictated by children, written information related to the topic the class is exploring, and labels including the children's names. We encourage children to use literacy materials in all other learning areas during their play. A child may writte SV or ask a teacher to write SAVE to make a sign to put on a block structure to make sure that it is not knocked down.

We also have a small on-site library that the children visit. In addition to housing a variety of books, there is a listening center where children listen to "books on tape" and props that can be used for story telling.

We use the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Evanston/Skokie District #65 and Community Wide Early Learning Checklist to guide our planning in this area as well as in the areas of social/emotional development, mathematics, social science, science, and physical development.