The NYS Early Learning Guidelines

638 Words2 Pages

The NYS Early Learning Guidelines were created as a reference guide by the Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) for those who are responsible for the care and education of young children. These guidelines can help early childhood professionals with learning and developing their skills in order to foster children’s growth and development. The guideline focuses on the five domains: Physical well-being, Health and Motor Development, Social and Emotional Development, Approaches to learning, Cognition and General Knowledge, Language, Communication and Literacy. Each of these domains are separated by milestone that children, generally, accomplishes at a certain age. The three age groups are Infancy (birth to 18 months), Toddlerhood (18 months to 3 years) and Preschool (3 to 5 years). These guidelines can assist teachers with helping children cross milestones but at the same time, not rush development. There are strategies that can help teachers along the way. The guideline I chose is Reading: Alphabetic Principles under Domain V Language, Communication and Literacy Domain V focuses on children’s ability to communicate how they feel and what their thoughts are. There are indicators that are listed for children and strategies for early childhood professionals to foster development and learning.
As a teacher, I would focus on one letter per a week. I would have it as part of my daily lesson plan. The first indicator under the Alphabetic Principle is children should be able to recite all the letter of the alphabet. One way I would teach children the alphabet is by singing the alphabet song. Children first hear this song as infants. At the begin of infancy we are already starting to teach children letters. I would use the song as part o...

... middle of paper ...

...nt out classmates whose name beings with “D” and objects in the classroom. I can prepare a box with objects that begins with “D.” I can incorporate the letter in other activities throughout the week. For arts and crafts, I can have them each color a picture of a dog and I can hang it up on a weekly activity board. For math, we can use blocks to create the letter “D.” They can use the manipulatives to form the letter shape to show that they can identify the letter. I would incorporate the letter of the week in different daily activities, not the same one each day, because I do not want them to lose interest in the letter. ECAC suggest using alphabet puzzles to encourage learning. This is a great idea because children love to play with puzzles. Alphabet puzzles can help them learn the Alphabet in order, the shapes of each letter and each letter has an individual name.

Open Document