The objectives of creating a rich language and literacy environment is to provide the interaction of imagery, imitation, and language on which to build a strong foundation. To achieve this, activities should include posters, signs, charts, quality books, classic literature, magazines, newspapers, poetry, fingerplays, songs, storytelling, nursery rhymes, puppets, flannel board stories and simple created dramas.

Activities in the four language arts and their combinations of (1) listening, (2) speaking, (3) reading, and (4) writing should all be presented side by side so children develop the ability to see relationships. These skills need to be nurtured before children can have academic success. Materials should be placed at children’s eye level to motivate them to explore, and to offer them an opportunity to follow individual interests.

1. Variety of different kinds and colors of paper and index cards
2. Pencils, markers, crayons, and chalk
3. Tape, rubber cement, glue, and stickers
4. Scissors, erasers, brads, hole punch, and staples
5. Record player, tape player, DVD player, typewriter, and computer
6. CD’s, records, tapes, books, blank books, and a picture dictionary
7. Chalkboard, flannel board, a puppet theater, and a prop box
8. Puppets, flannel board stories, and multicultural story baskets
9. Alphabet letters and numbers made out of cardboard, plastic, rubber, felt, sandpaper, and magnet letters
10. Picture files, word boxes, and clipboards
11. Printing stampers, printing ink blocks, envelops and stamps
12. Catalogs, calendars, greeting cards, and magazines

Infants: Texture Charts – Using opposites such as soft/hard, shiny/rough, dark/bright, and furry/smooth are especially good for infants to strengthen their tactile senses. These can be made on cardboard or bought or made as books using pictures of animals or made as a mobile hung above a changing table.

Toddlers: Four Season Chart - These charts can be made by cutting or tearing out pictures in magazines and gluing them on poster board to represent the four seasons (Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer) . They can also be made by having the children draw what trees would look like in the four seasons.

Preschoolers: Weekly Newspaper – To make the newspaper use a child’s dictated story about what they have learned each week. Share a local paper so they can see how it looks. Have the child make drawings for the newspaper.

1. Include recipes, songs, poems, nursery rhymes, and fingerplays they are leaning.
2. Announce future trips and projects in which the child will be involved. This can be mailed to grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins or friends.

The secret of success is to be ready for opportunity when it comes.