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Whether it is a small patch of green grass by the playground or bringing in natural materials into the classroom, there are endless ways we can integrate both literacy and ecoliteracy in early childhood.
Here are 5 ways to incorporate literacy and ecoliteracy in the classroom or on a nature walk.
Label in the Classroom
If you find fallen sticks or broken off bark, bring at least 5 samples back into the classroom. Add it to the Science Area, Block Area, in Maker Space, or use it as inspiration for a Morning Meeting conversation.
Invite children to make labels for the sticks for both the block and science area.
In Morning Meeting, invite children to think about the role that sticks and branches play for the tree. Use shared writing to write down the children’s thoughts, theories, and ideas about sticks.
It is also a great opportunity to say that we are going to practice carefully writing the letters and letter sounds in the word “stick” so that we can confidently label it!
Labeling and Ecoliteracy:
Labeling in the science area is also a really great way to support ecoliteracy and it encourages children to “read” our natural world.
For example, once we were able to understand and identify lichen, we brought in a variety of lichen into our science area. We labeled the different kinds of lichen, and began to research and study the role that lichen plays in our ecosystem and in our planet!
Bring Alphabet Cards Outside
Invite children to lay the cards out in alphabetical order.
Invite them to think about the Alphabet Challenge when they are outside!
When they discover something, ask them to say the word out loud, and think about the beginning sound of that word. Can they find the letter of the alphabet that makes that sound?
If they come across a ladybug, encourage them to find L and bring it to the ladybug to show them the letter L!
If they find a seed pod, encourage them to find S and P and place the letters by the seed pod!
When it’s time to transition, gathering the letters can be a joyful way to reconnect and identify letters that they have collected and have yet to collect.
Heggerty alphabet cards are large, readable, and easily transportable!
Stick Alphabet Challenge
As humans, our eyes are always looking for patterns and connections.
Each year I led my students on a nature walk, a child would always come up to me enthusiastically sharing that they found a letter stick!
Challenge children to find as many sticks as possible that look like letters of the alphabet.
You can bring these sticks back into the classroom and recreate the alphabet in the form of sticks!
This may require returning back outdoors to find the more obscure curved sticks to help with letters that are formed with curves.
As a station or in small groups, invite children to write out their names with the alphabet sticks! They can trace the sticks with their fingers, practice writing the letters in the air, and then write their name using beautiful materials with the stick letters as their guide.
Observational Drawings
Bring tarps, blankets, clipboards, and a variety of writing and drawing materials.
Before our walks, I would share images from science journals. Children would share what they notice: detailed drawings, labels, titles, notes.
I would encourage children to take a moment during their time outside to create their own scientific observational drawing.
We would bring a Fundations Alphabet Strip to support children in creating drawings with labels and titles.
Gifts, Letters, and Notes
Children love to connect and understand, not only with their peers, friends, and family but with all living things in our world!
In the past, children have expressed a desire to write the alphabet to animals and trees so that they can “know about it and talk with us”
It’s a beautiful and meaningful example to illustrate why we learn to read and write.
The children loved discovering the spiky seed pod of the Chestnut Tree. They were so grateful that it provided them with a unique material to explore and engage with. They decided to write that it was a Chestnut Tree so “that it can know who it is!”
It was a great opportunity to invite children to discover the digraph “ch”!
Is there something they want to share with the organisms they encounter in the outdoors?
If they want to make a gift for a tree, insect, animal, or mushroom, we can remind children that when we give gifts, we make notes so that they know who it's for and who it's from.
Is there a message we can add to the gift?
We have made alphabets for cicadas, gifts for insects, and notes to fellow hikers to inquire about the types of trees we find.
Ask children what they would want to say to the trees or animals. Can we communicate with them? Should we share how we communicate? Should we make a copy of our alphabet?
The Magic of Connecting with Nature: Integrating Joyful Literacy Experiences with the Outdoors
Children love to anthropomorphize our natural world, and I think it’s how children express how they are observing and processing our world: how to read it, protect it, connect with it, and understand its splendor, mystery, and magic.
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