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Maybe We Can Make a Road!

About this video

Young children have rapidly growing vocabularies that can be developed through conversations and book reading. Teachers can enrich playtime by engaging children in conversation and introducing new vocabulary.

In this video, two children are playing at a sensory table filled with gravel, miniature road signs, and toy cars. The teacher introduces two unique words, terrain and yield, to the children as she plays side by side with them. She uses these words along with familiar words such as road and bumpy. This helps the children infer the meaning from the context in which the new words are introduced.

Video

Transcript

Teacher: See, we could put “Yield” here.

Maybe we can make a road, actually, among the gravel.

Yeah, this is kind of a bumpy terrain here.

Benchmarks and How They Were Met

Teaching Practices That Help Children Meet Benchmarks

BenchmarksHow They Were Met
Language Arts
1.E.ECb: Exhibit curiosity and interest in learning new words heard in conversations and books.
1.E.ECc: With teacher assistance, use new words acquired through conversations and book‐sharing experiences.
1.E.ECe: With teacher assistance, use adjectives to describe people, places, and things.
While the teacher and students play in the sensory bin, she uses several words that the children may not understand. She introduces words such as yield, gravel, and terrain. She also uses the adjective bumpy to describe the novel word terrain. She uses the words in a context that the children could guess what they mean instead of explaining what the words mean.

About this resource

Setting(s) for which the article is intended:
  • Home
  • Family Child Care
  • Child Care Center
  • Preschool Program
  • Kindergarten

Intended audience(s):
  • Parents / Family
  • Teachers / Service providers
  • Faculty / Trainer

Age Levels (the age of the children to whom the article applies):
Related Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards:
Reviewed: 2019