Chan'tele Rountree

The D.R.E.A.M. Center Presents
Our 4th Annual Spring Dance Recital:
I KNOW I CAN

Date: Sunday, May 15th
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Berkmar High School
405 Pleasant Hill Rd. Lilburn, GA 30047
Cost: $20/per ticket

Click here to purchase your tickets:
https://29043.danceticketing.com/r/events/

Finally taking the time to celebrate the wins from this week...

I am honored to be one of the Top 3 finalists for Teacher of the Year at my school for the second year in a row. Although I came in as first runner up this year, I am still grateful for the opportunity to put dance on the map in GCPS as the FIRST and still ONLY ES dance teacher in our school system.

I am so proud of for being named TOTY this year and of for being in the running with me again this year! Both of you ladies are amazing and I am glad to know and work with you guys everyday.

Chantele or Shawntell? 😂🤷🏾‍♀️ ⁣
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In Kindergarten, I remember learning about the /ch/ and the /sh/ sound. As you know, my name is Chantele (pronounced shan-tell), so learning about these 2 sounds was very confusing to me.😕⁣
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So much so that I decided that my name was wrong.👎🏾 I thought to myself, “How could my name start with ch and make the /sh/ sound when you say it?” 🤯⁣
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So from that day forward, I started writing my name as Shantele on all of my papers.🤣 I am not sure how long I did this but learning about that sound really made a huge impact on me through its connection to my name.🤔 ⁣
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𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭.📚✍🏾⁣
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It’s ironic how much I love phonics and early literacy now as I reflect on this important memory from my Kindergarten years.😍😍 ⁣
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Drop a “👍🏾" below if you agree that the learning and interaction of your preschoolers name holds an important role in their early literacy skill development.⁣

Set your preschooler 🆙 for S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!🔠⁣⁣
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Did you know that you are activating your preschoolers early literacy foundation when you teach them about their name? ⁣⁣
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Those few letters in their name teach them about letter recognition, spelling, writing, and gives them a personal connection to the alphabet. This offers a great background when interacting with the alphabet in print, preschool, and beyond. ⁣⁣
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When we are talking about EXPOSING preschoolers to early literacy, this is where modeling and showing comes into play. A little bit of intentionality in this area can go a long way.⁣⁣
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Here are a few activities you can do at home to build early literacy foundations using their name: ⁣⁣
✨label their belongings (clothes, toys, bins)⁣⁣
✨identifying letters in their name in places around the house “I see letters __ __ __ ___, that spells (child’s name)!”⁣⁣
✨when doing anything with letters, start with letters in their name first “Look this is letter ____, your name starts with that letter!”⁣⁣
✨make a short song about their name that says each letter.⁣
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As you make exposure to their name a daily habit, this paves the way for exciting explore and engage activities to build off of what they already know. Their name allows them to have immediate success when they start learning and interacting with the alphabet.🏆 ⁣⁣
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Several students in my ABC Dance With Me class would always pick up the first letter of their name when we played alphabet freeze dance. This is because they brought their prior knowledge of the letters in their own name to jump start their interactions with the letters in class. ⁣⁣
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🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏾‍♀️So tell me… How do you lead your child with interacting with their name at home? I would love to share ideas with you. ⁣⁣Comment below 👇🏾👇🏾