Curriculum: Preschool

Overview and Framework | Preschool | K-3

Language & Vocabulary | Phonological Awareness | Book & Print Awareness | Letter Knowledge

Recommended Preschool Activities: Language and Vocabulary Development

The ability to understand language, follow directions, and express one's thoughts is critical for young children. Their knowledge of word meanings by the time they arrive in kindergarten closely predicts their success in later years.

Between the Lions addresses the following recommendations for fostering Language and Vocabulary Development:

Recommendation: Provide a language-rich environment where adults engage in give-and-take conversations with children. Encourage children to talk to one another at length and to engage in dramatic play.
Between the Lions examples: The lions respond to one another with interest, respect, and humor. They frequently pause to discuss a word or explain a concept. The young cubs converse with each other and readily express their thoughts. They frequently engage in dramatic play. For example: After reading "Violet's Music," the Lion family and their friends put together a band. Leona is inspired to decorate the library with her paintings after reading "Jamaica Louise James." Lionel tries out the commands he's learned from the book "How to Be a Good Dog."

Recommendation:
Provide a language-rich environment where adults engage in give-and-take conversations with children. Encourage children to talk to one another at length and to engage in dramatic play.

Between the Lions examples:
The lions respond to one another with interest, respect, and humor. They frequently pause to discuss a word or explain a concept. The young cubs converse with each other and readily express their thoughts. They frequently engage in dramatic play. For example:

After reading "Violet's Music," the Lion family and their friends put together a band.
Leona is inspired to decorate the library with her paintings after reading "Jamaica Louise James."
Lionel tries out the commands he's learned from the book "How to Be a Good Dog."

Recommendation: Read books aloud on a regular basis and encourage discussion about them. Ask questions, point out new words, and talk about connections to real life.
Between the Lions examples: Cleo goes "Between the Covers" and talks to the bear in the book "Bear Snores On" about hibernating. Theo explains the meaning of the word "Laundromat" to Leona when he reads her the book "Knuffle Bunny." Cleo sets up a piñata for the cubs to play with, and tells them more about piñatas, after seeing one in the book "Spicy Hot Colors."

Recommendation:
Read books aloud on a regular basis and encourage discussion about them. Ask questions, point out new words, and talk about connections to real life.

Between the Lions examples:
Cleo goes "Between the Covers" and talks to the bear in the book "Bear Snores On" about hibernating.

Theo explains the meaning of the word "Laundromat" to Leona when he reads her the book "Knuffle Bunny."

Cleo sets up a piñata for the cubs to play with, and tells them more about piñatas, after seeing one in the book "Spicy Hot Colors."

Recommendation: Encourage children to join in as you read a familiar story. Gradually, they can take over the story "reading" by telling the details they remember.
Between the Lions examples: Lionel reads aloud the simple picture book "Yo! Yes?" then Leona takes over the task and "reads" it herself. The cubs chime in on the repeated refrain when listening to the book "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat."

Recommendation:
Encourage children to join in as you read a familiar story. Gradually, they can take over the story "reading" by telling the details they remember.

Between the Lions examples:
Lionel reads aloud the simple picture book "Yo! Yes?" then Leona takes over the task and "reads" it herself.

The cubs chime in on the repeated refrain when listening to the book "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat."

Recommendation: Present new words in conversation and explain their meanings.
Between the Lions examples: Joy Learno introduces new words when she interviews the guests on her talk show. For example, when she interviews two dinosaurs, she explains the difference between carnivores and herbivores. Fred, the knights in Gawain's Word, and the football players in Blending Bowl demonstrate the meanings of the words they present.

Recommendation:
Present new words in conversation and explain their meanings.

Between the Lions examples:
Joy Learno introduces new words when she interviews the guests on her talk show. For example, when she interviews two dinosaurs, she explains the difference between carnivores and herbivores.

Fred, the knights in Gawain's Word, and the football players in Blending Bowl demonstrate the meanings of the words they present.

Recommended Preschool Activities: Phonological Awareness

Children need to focus on the sounds they hear in the words they speak. This helps them understand how our alphabet works—how letters stand for the sounds in speech. Children who can identify rhymes and the beginning or ending sounds in words generally have an easier time learning to read than those who can't.

Between the Lions addresses the following recommendations for fostering Phonological Awareness:

Recommendation: Repeat rhyming songs and poems: identify rhymes and play rhyming games. Choose books to read aloud that focus on sounds.
Between the Lions examples: Several of the featured books (eg., "Sheep on a Ship," "The Dirty Smelly King," "Cheesybreadville"), limericks, and poems (eg., "Baby Chick," "Ode to a Washing Machine," "Quack, Quack!") use rhymes in a playful, creative way. Numerous songs in the series showcase rhyming words: "Sloppy Pop" "Grubby Pup" "Rocket-Doodle-Doo" "If You Can Read at" (or: ay, en, ick, ig, ing, op, ug) "Double o, oo" "Humongous" "Fabulous"

Recommendation:
Repeat rhyming songs and poems: identify rhymes and play rhyming games. Choose books to read aloud that focus on sounds.

Between the Lions examples:
Several of the featured books (eg., "Sheep on a Ship," "The Dirty Smelly King," "Cheesybreadville"), limericks, and poems (eg., "Baby Chick," "Ode to a Washing Machine," "Quack, Quack!") use rhymes in a playful, creative way.

Numerous songs in the series showcase rhyming words:

"Sloppy Pop"
"Grubby Pup"
"Rocket-Doodle-Doo"
"If You Can Read at" (or: ay, en, ick, ig, ing, op, ug)
"Double o, oo"
"Humongous"
"Fabulous"

Recommendation: Spotlight the common sounds at the beginning of a set of words.
Between the Lions examples: Numerous songs in the series introduce words that start with the same sound: "We Choose to Cha Cha Cha" Dixie Chimps: "Goodbye, Chick" "Hung Up on H" "Q without U" "Shush" "W Trouble" Consonant-vowel (CV) Songs (coa_; pe_; car_) Tongue twisters appear in several episodes. For example, these tongue twisters revolve around the letter "s," and the digraphs "sh" and "ch": Seven Selfish Shellfish Shoppers Shop, Choppers Chop A segment called "Words Beginning with..." feature real kids showing a variety of objects that each begin with the same letter, highlighting the initial letter sound and also illustrating new words.

Recommendation:
Spotlight the common sounds at the beginning of a set of words.

Between the Lions examples:
Numerous songs in the series introduce words that start with the same sound:

"We Choose to Cha Cha Cha"
Dixie Chimps: "Goodbye, Chick"
"Hung Up on H"
"Q without U"
"Shush"
"W Trouble"
Consonant-vowel (CV) Songs (coa_; pe_; car_)

Tongue twisters appear in several episodes. For example, these tongue twisters revolve around the letter "s," and the digraphs "sh" and "ch":

Seven Selfish Shellfish
Shoppers Shop, Choppers Chop

A segment called "Words Beginning with..." feature real kids showing a variety of objects that each begin with the same letter, highlighting the initial letter sound and also illustrating new words.

Recommendation: Isolate the beginning sounds in familiar words.
Three recurring segments are designed specifically to isolate (and then blend) beginning sounds: Gawain's Word Fred Says Blending Bowl

Recommendation:
Isolate the beginning sounds in familiar words.

Three recurring segments are designed specifically to isolate (and then blend) beginning sounds:

Gawain's Word
Fred Says
Blending Bowl

Recommended Preschool Activities: Book and Print Awareness

Adults often assume that children understand how books work: they have front and back covers and right-sides up. We read the words inside to learn the story, and the words go in order, from top to bottom and left to right. Children who are frequently read to often have this knowledge, but not all children have this advantage. It takes hours of book handling and listening (best done on the lap of the reader) to develop this awareness.

There are many different kinds of books. We call these "genres," and we learn to expect different kinds of language in different genres of books, magazines, or newspapers. Stories and fables are different from poems, which are different from cookbooks, dictionaries, and guide books.

Moreover, print is all around us—carrying messages for us to read and follow. We see it on signs, posters, cereal boxes, telephones, labels, and billboards. Children can learn how this environmental print functions, if adults take the time to explain.

Between the Lions addresses the following recommendations for fostering Book and Print Awareness:

Recommendation: Show children how we read a book from front to back, page by page. Point out important features: the cover, title, author's name, illustrations versus words on the page.
Between the Lions examples: The lions always pause before reading to examine the cover and announce the name of the author and illustrator. The wordplay in many of the names (Beth Western, Livingston Dangerously) calls attention to sounds and to the name itself.

Recommendation: Show children that the direction matters when we read a page. Point to the first word on a line, and run your finger along as you read from left to right and top to bottom.
Between the Lions examples: Dynamic highlighting of the text in the featured books and stories, such as An Egg Is Quiet, shows viewers how we read: top to bottom, left to right.

Recommendation: Introduce children to a wide range of text forms and genres.
Between the Lions examples: Featured stories include a wide range of genres: folktales, fables, myths, poems, tall tales, mysteries, realistic fiction, nonfiction. Other segments include a variety of text forms: instructions, recipes, diaries, letters, signs, posters, notes, newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, maps. The song "Got a Good Reason to Write" illustrates the everyday functions of print in a child's world.

Recommendation:
Introduce children to a wide range of text forms and genres.

Between the Lions examples:
Featured stories include a wide range of genres: folktales, fables, myths, poems, tall tales, mysteries, realistic fiction, nonfiction.

Other segments include a variety of text forms: instructions, recipes, diaries, letters, signs, posters, notes, newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, maps.

The song "Got a Good Reason to Write" illustrates the everyday functions of print in a child's world.

Recommendation: Show children that print is all around us in the environment; that it helps inform and guide us.
Between the Lions examples: The episode "The Hopping Hen" focuses entirely on signs, and text on signs and labels appear on many episodes. Other examples are featured in recurring segments: Chicken Jane writes warning notes for Scot and Dot. The song "You Can Read the Signs" points out environmental print.

Recommendation:
Show children that print is all around us in the environment; that it helps inform and guide us.

Between the Lions examples:
The episode "The Hopping Hen" focuses entirely on signs, and text on signs and labels appear on many episodes.

Other examples are featured in recurring segments:

Chicken Jane writes warning notes for Scot and Dot.
The song "You Can Read the Signs" points out environmental print.

Recommended Preschool Activities: Letter Knowledge

Children who enter kindergarten knowing many letter names tend to have an easier time learning to read than children who don't. Reciting the alphabet is a good first step. However, children also need practice in recognizing letters (both upper and lowercase), writing them, and knowing how they stand for the sounds in words.

Between the Lions addresses the following recommendations for fostering Letter Knowledge:

Recommendation: Encourage children to notice that letters are all around them.
Between the Lions examples: The Lions' world—beginning with the Between the Lions theme song—is filled with letters and words. Throughout the series, recurring animations literally bring letters and words to life.

Recommendation: Help children learn to recite the alphabet.
Between the Lions examples: The "At the Library" song showcases all the letters while singing about the treasures to be found at the library. As part of our game A.B.Cow, your child can hear Leona sing the traditional alphabet song (50 times or more, if you like).

Recommendation:
Help children learn to recite the alphabet.

Between the Lions examples:
The "At the Library" song showcases all the letters while singing about the treasures to be found at the library.

As part of our game A.B.Cow, your child can hear Leona sing the traditional alphabet song (50 times or more, if you like).

Recommendation: Help children recognize and name individual letters. Playing with moveable letters is a good way to get started.
Between the Lions examples: Numerous segments include letter names as part of the "lesson": Vowel Boot Camp Fun with Chicken Jane The Vowelles The Dixie Chimps Limericks The song "Upper and Lower Case" shows the difference between capital and small letters. Many other songs feature individual letters and the sounds they make, such as: "If You Can Read at" (or ay, ig, ick, etc.) "The Two Sounds Made by C" "The Two Sounds Made by G" "Hung Up on H" "Q Without U" "Shush" "W Trouble" "Sometimes Y" "Troubled by Letter Y" A.B.Cow is also a letter-identification challenge. Your child will be saying the alphabet over and over again as she plays with the letters on screen.

Recommendation:
Help children recognize and name individual letters. Playing with moveable letters is a good way to get started.

Between the Lions examples:
Numerous segments include letter names as part of the "lesson":

Vowel Boot Camp
Fun with Chicken Jane
The Vowelles
The Dixie Chimps
Limericks

The song "Upper and Lower Case" shows the difference between capital and small letters.

Many other songs feature individual letters and the sounds they make, such as:

"If You Can Read at" (or ay, ig, ick, etc.)
"The Two Sounds Made by C"
"The Two Sounds Made by G"
"Hung Up on H"
"Q Without U"
"Shush"
"W Trouble"
"Sometimes Y"
"Troubled by Letter Y"

A.B.Cow is also a letter-identification challenge. Your child will be saying the alphabet over and over again as she plays with the letters on screen.

Recommendation: Encourage children to spell or write their names and other words they like. Have them try to spell out the sounds they hear in words.
Between the Lions examples: Leona frequently tries writing, though not always with perfect spelling. Her family appreciates her effort and thoughts about how words might be spelled. The "What's Your Name?" songs occur in many episodes, showing dozens of names in each song. This encourages viewers to want to write their own names.

Recommendation:
Encourage children to spell or write their names and other words they like. Have them try to spell out the sounds they hear in words.

Between the Lions examples:
Leona frequently tries writing, though not always with perfect spelling. Her family appreciates her effort and thoughts about how words might be spelled.

The "What's Your Name?" songs occur in many episodes, showing dozens of names in each song. This encourages viewers to want to write their own names.

Recommendation: Relate some letters to the specific sounds they represent. Preschoolers generally learn consonant sounds first, because they are more predictable.
Between the Lions examples: Word Morphs in every episode demonstrate how word sounds change when letters get dropped, added, or moved around. Take a look at the Spicy Hot Colors word morph game. Gawain's Word always begins with a consonant, whose sound is isolated, stretched, and then blended with the rest of the word. Words Beginning With... segments always feature an initial consonant sound and provide multiple examples of words beginning with that sound. Fred dramatically points out letter-sound connections.

Recommendation:
Relate some letters to the specific sounds they represent. Preschoolers generally learn consonant sounds first, because they are more predictable.

Between the Lions examples:
Word Morphs in every episode demonstrate how word sounds change when letters get dropped, added, or moved around. Take a look at the Spicy Hot Colors word morph game.

Gawain's Word always begins with a consonant, whose sound is isolated, stretched, and then blended with the rest of the word.

Words Beginning With... segments always feature an initial consonant sound and provide multiple examples of words beginning with that sound.

Fred dramatically points out letter-sound connections.

Preschool Curriculum Recommendations derived from:
Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children by S. Neuman, C. Copple, S. Bredekamp (Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2000)

Teaching Our Youngest: A Guide for Preschool Teachers and Child-Care and Family Providers (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2000)

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