Picture Book Power: Connecting Children’s Literature and Mathematics

In the article Picture Book Power: Connecting Children’s Literature and Mathematics by Joyce Shatzer I found a connection with a book I have loved since I was a child. Tikki Tkkik Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel. I cannot believe that 40 years later I would remember by heart Tikki Tikki Tembo –no sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo, But I do. My husband would probably tell you he was shocked because I have a very bad memory. I love to read this book to my classes but I have never before thought of using it to teach phonological awareness, phoneme segmentation, until I read this article. So in the Imagine It program we have the name necklaces at the beginning of the year to teach the kids about their names. How many letters? How many upper case letters? How many lower case letters? What does your name start with? And we begin teaching word parts or syllabication by counting syllables within the kids’ names.

          After reading this article I read the book to my kids. They loved it. You just want to say that name over and over it’s like a rhyming riddle; Tikki Tikki Tembo –no sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo! We clapped out the syllables in it and I called on several of my higher math achievers to count our claps for the word parts but none of them could come up with the right number, close, but not fifteen the number of syllables in the name which is now dancing through my brain again.

GPS

ELAKR2: The student demonstrates the ability to identify and orally manipulate words and individual sounds within those spoken words.

b. Identifies component sounds (phonemes and combinations of phonemes) in spoken words.

Materials

Tikki Tikki Tembo retold  by Arlene Mosel

Chart paper

Markers

After the reading and discussion I drew a large graph on chart paper and talked about collecting data and told them a graph was a picture that tells us how much. I put number of syllables on the horizontal and the number of kids on the vertical rise. I have 16 kids, 2 have 1 syllable names, 10 have 2 syllables, 3 had 3 syllables, and one child has 4, MRS. Alvarez makes 5 syllables. It was our very first graph. What a great introduction!

Prior to this activity we had the name necklaces for three weeks and had clapped the word parts in each of their names and counted word parts with their fingers. This activity put it into a visual modality I could see it spiraling deeper into their understanding.

We are very blessed that in the K grade in Bartow we have adopted some excellent phonics programs the past several years. The “purple book as we call it” is actually versed and lesson by lesson built on the phonological continuum we’ve just learned in the endorsement. Since using this for our first small group guided reading instruction, before any print is introduced, the kids hear how many words are in a sentence and learn to hear rhyme. It of course builds from there.  The first grade teachers at our school have absolutely raved about the students’ phonological awareness. And though we’ve had very low groups come to us this past two years in particular they have left READY for first. Even though we warned them and felt that the kids were coming to them low in writing skills they were READY to write they told us; which they were ecstatic about. Though I’ve been to many phonics trainings, because the foundation for it is in Kindergarten, I have gleaned something new or in this case many things that are new and others that refresh my memory spark my dedication to the systematic approach set out before us in this endorsement. The continuum is key. If a student has missed a rung you must go back and catch it before they will understand and feel the success come from themselves as it is internalized.

I was so happy that I have many of the texts in this article available to me. The Wolf’s Chicken Stew is a great one especially for the 100^th day, A Chair for My Mother- great story I’ve used it to have children design their own chairs but the application for using catalogs and prices is great for first, second, or third.