New at Our Early Literacy Center

If you follow me, you may be familiar with our Post Office Early Literacy Center.  If not, you may want to check out post #1 and post #2.  Now that we have ironed most of the kinks out, it is working out great.  My issue was that I have been getting a lot of letters.  What do you do with all of these letters put them in a folder on your desk or post them on Facebook every so often?

Ta-da!  We now have a book.  All I needed was a binder and some page protectors to get started.  At this time, our book does not circulate, but that may change in the future.  I like the idea of the book because it reinforces the reading early literacy skill.  Plus, it is fun for kids to read their letters!

Our first page explains the center and why we are doing it.  One of our biggest problems so far is getting parents to work with their children, instead of texting their friends or finding their own materials.  There is a purpose to our play-it isn't just a babysitting tool.

I added dividers for each of our eight characters and copied some of my favorite letters for each character.  (Excuse the sideways pictures. I haven't figured out how to flip them yet.)  While spelling isn't important for letters that are included in the book, I looked for ones that are fun and are good examples of letter writing.  For example, did the kids write who the letter was to (Dear Froggy), did they sign it, and did they write a message.  Below are two more letters (also sideways).

This bottom letter I like because the child actually drew The Pigeon.  I do like to add some fun to things, in addition to being educational.  So far the book has been a big hit.  I have seen kids reading the letters both with and without their parents.