The preschool years play a key role in the development of literacy. At this age, your budding writers are engaging in the important work of preparing to read and write.

Before the formal study of literacy can be acquired, pre-writing and pre-reading skills need to be mastered. One of these skills consists of phonological awareness. Phonological awareness refers to letters representing sounds, that, when strung together, make words that create meaning.

There are several ways to encourage phonological awareness. One thing we do daily is engage in different games that begin with the letter of the week. For this particular week, we were learning about the letter G, so each child selected a particular item begininng with the letter G out of a hat.

We then discussed the “G” sound that we hear in the word. We also sang silly songs that reinforced our understanding of this letter. For this particular activity, we used word mats to spell the word GIRAFFE. Students would select different letters in the word and match it to its corresponding letter on the mat. Once finished, they enjoyed mixing the letters up to make silly words!

Giraffes can be found in central, eastern and southern Africa.

Giraffes live in the savannas of Africa, where they roam freely among the tall trees, arid land, dense forests and open plains.

As part of our giraffe unit, we created our very own habitats out of brown styrofoam, wheat stalks, artificial grass and toy giraffes!