The Journey of Language in the Kindergarten
The parents of our students in the kindergarten gathered together at the panel titled “The Journey of Language in the Kindergarten” on Saturday, January 4 at our Levent Campus.
The following titles were the highlights of our innovative panel “The Journey of Language in the Kindergarten” which covered the concept of literacy in preschool; prerequisites, knowledge, skills, and attitudes that need to be acquired by the students in the preschool in terms of reading and writing:
- Sharing the impact of early literacy processes on cognitive development and the ways to support this process of development;
- Sharing a variety of ways of carrying out listening and reading activities in preschool;
- Sharing the criteria of selecting books for preschool;
- Sharing the linguistic approach of the PYP;
- Developing reading strategies and presenting an example of interactive reading;
- Sharing the activities that aim to develop students’ language skills;
- Sharing what is being done in class activities;
- What parents can do in preschool.
The panel started with the harp concert of our student Gehan Naz Karadağ and continued with Hülya Salt Aygün, our PYP Coordinator, who shared topics such as IB’s linguistic approach, language learning and acquisition, activities related to language acquisition, literacy, and multiple literacy under the headings “The Importance of Language, Language Processes in PYP”. Gülsemin Kucba, our Turkish Language Coordinator, shared topics such as the ways to enhance intelligence in preschool, the time to start reading, book selection in preschool, resources, and reading strategies under the headings “Early Literacy Processes, Book Selections, Interactive Reading” and carried out an interactive reading activity based on the book titled “Kırmızı Fil’i Gördünüz mü? (Have you seen the Red Elephant?”. During the interactive reading activity, the parents contributed by asking questions and sharing examples. Gözde Saruhan, the Grade-level Head of the Kindergarten shared various topics such as preschool activities that support speaking skills, chat times, calendar exercise, concept books, Orff activities, puzzle/riddle/finger game activities, visual/auditory perception exercises, creative thinking, and “philosophy for children” exercises under the heading “Examples of Preschool Practices”.
During the panel Can Özkar, our 4th grade student, shared his own preschool literacy experience through the characters of the book titled “Palyaço Mumi’nin Sarı Benekli Papyonu (Yellow Dotted Bowtie of Mumi, the Clown)” under the heading “My Literacy Adventure”.
Can Özkar shared the impact of preschool reading activities and interactive reading exercises carried out with the family on vocabulary and creative thinking skills in an enjoyable way. Finally, the parents joined Roza Erdem, the storyteller by sounds and rhythms and explored the impact of the tradition of verbal story-telling -i.e. fairytales and short stories- on language.
The Question-and-Answer Session that took place at the end of the panel reinforced the methods and techniques that develop preschool literacy skills which was the primary aim of the panel.