Big Sentences by Little Learners: Emergent Syntax & Grammar

Keen to build oral language in early childhood? These slide decks were created and generously shared by Melinda Hinch, a Speech-Language Pathologist in Greater Essex County DSB. Each deck follows a scope and sequence of syntax and grammar structures, and uses an explicit “I do […]

Strive-For-Five Conversations

Oral language is the cornerstone of literacy, and this reader-friendly book provides a tool – the “Strive-For-Five” framework – to help educators extend conversations with students to help support speaking, vocabulary, reasoning and other skills. Chapters include “Creating Classroom Routines for Strive-for-Five Conversations”, “Choosing Books […]

Literacy Learning for Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

This book is an excellent, reader-friendly resource for kindergarten teachers and Early Childhood Educators. While infant and toddler development takes place before the Ontario curriculum kicks in, the authors are American. Their recommendations for preschoolers generally align with the age of our Year 1 kindergarten […]

Talk Moves

Talk moves are sentence starters that students use to join a class discussion – they encourage both academic thinking and social connectedness.

Barrier Games

Barrier games are fantastic resources to support a child’s speech and language skills. There are many benefits from using barrier games with a child such as developing: listening skills, oral language skills, social language skills, clear talking and understanding of concepts. They are great for […]

Mystery Bag: Promoting Oral Language

Mystery Bag is an engaging classroom activity designed to enhance students’ oral language skills. Students generate clues about a mystery object, and their classmates use question sticks to prompt and structure discussion.

See-Think-Wonder

This visible thinking routine developed by Harvard Project Zero uses observations, inferences, and questions to develop vocabulary and background knowledge, and foster conversations among students.