Introduction to CKLA for PreK: Session 3 – Starting the
Day
Sequence of Sessions
Overarching Objectives of this February 2013 Network Team Institute
This session is the first training for CKLA-PreK. At the conclusion of this session,
1.
All participants will be able to accurately identify the instructional and support materials (e.g., cards, posters) required for
implementation of Preschool CKLA.
2.
Participants will be able to identify areas of the daily routine employed by CKLA-PreK.
a. Preschool educators will be able to identify adjustments / shifts that can be made to their current practices, routines, and
schedules to support Preschool CKLA.
b. Administrators will consider additional program level shift that will support classroom educators as they make
adjustments / shifts at the classroom level.
3.
All participants will learn and practice language stimulation and support strategies to support high-quality adult-child
interactions within implementation of Preschool CKLA.
High-Level Purpose of this Session

The purpose of this session is to orient partcipants to the CKLA-PreK materials, portions of the day, and best practices for implementation.
Related Learning Experiences

This is the first PD for the CKLA-PreK program. Participants can prepare for this session by viewing the CKLA-PreK Overview Webinar.
Session Outcomes
What do we want participants to be able to do as a result of this
session?
In this session teachers will:
1. Gain familiarity with the structure of the "Starting the Day"
portion of the CKLA-Preschool daily routine (i.e., Routines and
Nursery Rhymes).
2. Compare CKLA-Preschool Starting the Day activities with their
current practices and routines for planning purposes.
3. Articulate the two primary literacy goals (print knowledge and
How will we know that they are able to do this?
In-session activities.
phonological awareness) addressed during the Starting the
Day routines.
4. Gain familiarity with the general scope and sequence of
Routines and specific familiarity with the scope and sequence
of the Taking Attendance Routing.
5. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see
Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day
Routines.
6. Gain general familiarity with the structure and purpose of the
Nursery Rhyme portion of Starting the Day.
7. Practice the Echo Technique for teaching students Nursery
Rhymes.
8. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see
Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day
Nursery Rhymes.
9. Consider how the Nursery Rhymes Routine targets Core
Content and Language Arts Objectives.
10. See examples of how Transition Cards can be used to move
students between activities.
Session Overview
Section
Time
Parts of the
CKLA-Preschool
Day Review and
Comparison
10
Classroom
Routines
10
Overview
Prepared Resources
This session will orient Materials used include:
participants to the parts
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
of the preschool day,
and allow them to
compare the parts of
their current day to
those involved in
implementing CKLAPreschool.
This session will
Materials used include:
demonstrate how
Facilitator
Preparation
Applying
Language
Stimulation and
Support
Techniques
5
Nursery Rhyme
Routine
15
Applying
Language
Stimulation and
Support
Techniques
5
Reflecting on
Objectives
5
Classroom Routines
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
support development of
Print Knowledge in the
preschool classroom.
Participants will apply Materials used include:
knowledge of Language
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Stimulation and Support
Techniques (Session 2)
to hypothetical
situations from the
Classroom Routines
portion of the CKLAPreschool day.
This session will
Materials used include:
demonstrate how
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Nursery Rhymes
support development of
Print Knowledge in the
preschool classroom.
Participants will
practice the Echo
Technique, the method
used to teach students
rhymes in CKLAPreschool.
Participants will apply Materials used include:
knowledge of Language
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Stimulation and Support
Techniques (Session 2)
to hypothetical
situations from the
Nursery Rhymes portion
of the CKLA-Preschool
day.
Participants will reflect Materials used include:
on the relationship
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
between the Nursery
Transition Cards
---
Rhymes Routine and the
Core Content and
Language Arts
Objectives addressed in
one sample rhyme.
Facilitator will model
Materials used include:
the use of Transition
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Cards as participants are
dismissed to lunch.
Session Roadmap
Section 1: Parts of the CKLA-Preschool Day Review and
Comparison
Time: 10 minutes
[10 minutes] In this section, you will…
Materials used include:
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
1. Gain familiarity with the structure of the "Starting the Day"
portion of the CKLA-Preschool daily routine (i.e., Routines and
Nursery Rhymes).
2. Compare CKLA-Preschool Starting the Day activities with their
current practices and routines for planning purposes.
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
Script/ Activity directions
GROUP
Key Points:
1. Many teachers and schools include the same kinds of activities in their
preschool daily schedule.
2. What are some typical activities in the preschool day? [ask teachers to
respond by labeling activities occurring in these pictures]
3. Teachers support language and literacy throughout the day in all of these
different activities.
Key Points:
1. Consider the parts of the day depicted on the previous slides.
2. Consider these areas of language and emergent literacy.
3. When do you currently support these areas of language and emergent
literacy during your preschool day? [at their tables, participants discuss these
goals in relationship to the parts of the preschool day]
Section 2: Classroom Routines
Time: 10 minutes
[10 minutes] In this section, you will…
Materials used include:
1. Articulate the two primary literacy goals (print knowledge and 1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
phonological awareness) addressed during the Starting the
Day routines.
2. Gain familiarity with the general scope and sequence of
Routines and specific familiarity with the scope and sequence
of the Taking Attendance Routing.
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
Script/ Activity directions
GROUP
Key Points:
1. Classroom Routines are activities that are conducted every day that help with
classroom management and provide opportunities for students to practice
language and literacy skills.
2. Teachers likely include a variety of other routines in their morning circles,
and they can continue to do what works in their classrooms.
3. CKLA-Preschool routines include: Taking Attendance, Learning Center Labels,
Center Sign-in, Daily Schedule, Classroom Jobs, Learning Center Materials
Labels, and Writing Name to Indicate a Choice.
4. These routines are specific to meeting the goals/objectives outlined in CKLAPreschool.
5. These are gradually introduced and modified throughout the school year.
Key Points:
1. Attendance is an example of a routine that is conducted every day, builds
print knowledge, and is modified throughout the year.
2. At the beginning of the year, students names are paired with their photos.
3. By the end of the year, students are writing their own names.
4. Routine shifts throughout year as students acquire fine motor skills, letter
knowledge, more experience recognizing their own names.
Key Points:
1. Students interact daily with their own names and the letters in their own
names.
2. Students learn skills in small group that help them as they learn to write their
names.
3. Students practice fine motor skills, writing strokes, writing letters, and
writing their names in small groups and then generalize to writing their
names independently.
4. Attendance is one example of how this interplay between development
across time, instruction in small group, and generalization in routines plays
out—this same design principle applies to the other routines as well.
Key Points:
1. Starting the Day—daily routines that occur during morning circle
2. Small Groups—groups of five to ten students led by one adult that are held
every day
3. Listening and Learning—whole-group read-alouds (story time).
Key Points:
1. CKLA-Preschool supports language and literacy in these three parts of the
preschool day
2. We will talk about each of these three parts of the day and how language and
literacy are supported through developmentally appropriate activities:
• Starting the Day—rhyme, phonological awareness, phonemic
awareness, print knowledge;
• Small Groups—environmental noises, rhyme, phonological awareness,
print knowledge, alphabetic principle, handwriting, narrative;
• Listening and Learning—vocabulary, content knowledge, narrative,
print knowledge.
3. Where do you see overlap between what you just discussed (i.e., the parts of
your day relative to these skills) and the CKLA-Preschool day? [teachers
discuss at their tables]
Section 3: Applying Language Stimulation and Support
Techniques
Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
1. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see
Session 2) to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day
Routines.
Materials used include:
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
Script/ Activity directions
GROUP
Key Points:
1. Malik is a shy four-year-old who arrives at school. He takes off his backpack
and gets ready to sign in. His teacher greets him and facilitates the sign-in
process.
2. Notice how Malik’s teacher uses a question to start the conversation.
Sometimes, questions really get kids talking, especially open-ended
questions. In this case, a question does not help continue the conversation.
3. This is the conversation that transpires between Malik and his teacher.
4. Malik doesn’t have the knowledge to answer the question yet, so the
conversation STOPS.
Key Points:
1. So, Malik’s teacher decided to follow up her question with a comment.
2. Malik responds to the teacher’s comment, and the teacher comments again.
3. Notice the differences: the amount of information the teacher
provides/richness of language (capital, lowercase, letter names), the number
of conversational turns, the information Malik is able to provide,
pride/satisfaction/engagement of Malik?
Malik: [Arrives in the classroom and gets a marker to sign into school]
Teacher: Malik, what letters are in your name?
Malik: Don’t know.
Teacher: You chose a red marker to write your name. You are writing the capital
letter ‘M.’ Now, you are writing the lowercase letter ‘a.’
Malik: Then I’m going to write the stick letter.
Teacher: You are writing the letter ‘l’. You are making it nice and tall and straight.
Malik: I remember the name of the letter with the dot! Letter ‘i’.
Comments
Often, a teacher’s inclination is to ask questions to get a conversation
started. Effective teachers recognize that a comment can be just as
effective or more effective at getting a conversation going. Consider the
following examples: Shauna enters class one morning wearing a new
pair of shiny red shoes. Teacher A says, “Shauna, I like your new shoes.
Where did you get them?” Teacher B says, “Wow! Look at your new shiny
red shoes!” Shauna’s response to Teacher A will likely be a one-word
answer or short sentence answering the teacher’s question, “Where did
you get them?” Shauna’s response to Teacher B may very well be a story
about going to get the new shoes. Teacher B’s use of an open-ended
comment provides Shauna the opportunity to answer following her own
interests and excitement. Likewise, the use of a comment removes the
pressure of Shauna’s having to respond. Using comments provides
children with an opening to initiate conversation and the freedom to talk
about their own interests.
Key Points:
1. Lottie is a student in Malik’s class. She also arrives and is greeted by her
teacher. Lottie has trouble finding her Name Card.
2. What comment might Lottie’s teacher make to her? How might Lottie
respond? [participants share their responses with the group]
Section 4: Nursery Rhyme Routines
Time: 15 minutes
[15 minutes] In this section, you will…
1. Gain general familiarity with the structure and purpose of the
Nursery Rhyme portion of Starting the Day.
2. Practice the Echo Technique for teaching students Nursery
Rhymes.
Materials used include:
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
Script/ Activity directions
Key Points:
1. Which rhymes are taught?
• Old favorites that many teachers already know
• Rhymes with motions that students enjoy doing
• Simple, short rhymes early in the year, then longer as year progresses
2. Rhymes usually have a content connection.
• All About Me: Students are learning to identify body parts both inside
and outside their bodies.
• Animals: Students learn about ways to group animals, including the
group called insects. Bees are insects.
• Plants: Vegetables are a type of plant. Peppers are a kind of vegetable.
GROUP
3. Rhymes highlight a particular emergent literacy skill.
• Head and Shoulders: reciting a rhyme using motions to cue words,
rhyme awareness as they start to hear and enjoy rhyming words
• Here is the beehive: identifying rhyming words bees/sees, hive/five.
Students are learning to identify and producing words in rhyming
families. Teacher asks students for other rhyming words in those
families.
• Peter piper: identifying initial sound. Teacher asks students to listen
for sound that many of these words start with. Then, students list
other words that start with /p/
Key Points:
1. The echo technique is a way to familiarize students with nursery rhymes.
2. First, the teacher reads the entire poem.
3. Then, the teacher reads a line, and students repeat.
4. Have participants stand and be the “students”
Today we are going to learn the song “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Listen to
hear the names of some of the parts of your body as we sing. You are going to hear
about our heads, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.”
Point to each of your body parts as you name them.
Now, I’m going to help you learn “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” I am going to
say a part and then I will stop and give you a chance to echo the words. That means
you will say the exact words that I said. When it is your turn to talk, I will point to you.
We will keep doing this for each part of the nursery rhyme.”
Section 5: Applying Language Stimulation and Support
Techniques
Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
Materials used include:
1. Apply Language Simulation and Support techniques (see Session 2)
to a hypothetical situation from Starting the Day Nursery Rhymes.
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
Script/ Activity directions
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
GROUP
Key Points:
1. Mikey’s class has just finished the Nursery Rhyme ‘Head and Shoulders,
Knees and Toes’.
2. Mikey makes a comment, and his teacher acknowledges his comment, which
is makes Mikey happy.
3. However, Mikey does not continue the conversation.
4. So, the teacher decides to expand Mikey’s comment.
Key Points:
1. The teacher expands Mikey’s utterance.
2. Mikey is able to use the teacher’s expansion as a cue to start singing the song
again.
3. Mikey gains more practice in learning the nursery rhyme and more exposure
to rhyming words.
Expansion
Using the expansion technique, effective teachers expand on what
children say by repeating the child’s words in a more grown-up manner.
The following examples demonstrate how effective teachers might use
expansion throughout the daily routine:
• Child: “Zip.” Teacher: “Zipper up!” (helping child zip coat)
• Child: “I’m going home to Kara’s house.” Teacher: “You’re going to
Kara’s house after school?”
• Child: “Go home time.” Teacher: “It’s time to go home!”
• Child: “My turn.” Teacher “It’s your turn.”
• Child: “Red car.” Teacher: “You want the red car?”
Effective teachers consider a child’s language ability and respond by
modeling an expansion just beyond the child’s capabilities. Note in the
examples above that the teachers’ responses are only slightly longer and
only slightly more complex than the children’s own words. The teachers’
responses maintain the children’s thoughts, yet model how an adult
might express them.
Key Points:
1. Imagine a variation of the previous conversation in which the teacher uses
expansion plus.
2. The teacher expands Mikey’s utterance and also adds additional information.
3. Mikey generalizes the information the teacher provides and makes a
comment about other body parts, thereby reinforcing content knowledge
from the domain.
Expansion Plus
Using the expansion plus technique, effective teachers expand on what
children say by adding another sentence and more information to what
the children say.
Key Points:
1. Jamir is also in Mikey’s class and has enjoyed singing the same rhyme.
2. Jamir says, “Nose, toes, bose.”
3. How might Jamir’s teacher expand that comment? How might she add more
information (expansion plus)? [participants share their responses with the
group]
Section 6: Reflecting on Objectives
Time: 5 minutes
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
1. Consider how the Nursery Rhymes Routine targets Core
Content and Language Arts Objectives.
Materials used include:
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Script/ Activity directions
Key Points:
1. Nursery Rhymes address or build towards specific Core Content and
Language Arts Objectives.
2. Students will not master every objective listed, and objectives will reappear
across the year.
3. These objectives are listed at the beginning of each day and are intended to
guide instruction.
4. At your table, reflect on two things:
GROUP
A) How CKLA-Preschool activities/materials teach these objectives
B) Tweaks they might make to enhance students’ uptake of these
objectives as they lead the activities
Section 7: Transition Cards
Time: --
[5 minutes] In this section, you will…
1. See examples of how Transition Cards can be used to move
students between activities.
Materials used include:
Time
Slide #/ Pic of Slide
1. CKLA PreK Starting the Day and Routines PPT
Script/ Activity directions
GROUP
Key Points:
1. Throughout the presentation, we will be modeling the use of Transition
Cards.
2. Transition Cards are included in the comprehensive domains and are used to
move students from one activity to another.
3. We will show a variety of ways the cards can be used, and encourage teachers
to think of other ways they might use them.
Key Points:
1. What body part is this?
Key Points:
1. Which of your five senses uses this body part?
Key Points:
1. Tell me something you can taste.
Key Points:
1. I’m thinking of a body part. You have two of them. They are on the sides of
your head. You use them to hear. What is it?
Key Points:
1. Show me how you smell with your nose.
Use the following icons in the script to indicate different learning modes.
Video
Reflect on a prompt
Turnkey Materials Provided

See materials section.
Active learning
Turn and talk
Additional Suggested Resources

none