Celebrating Literacy and Friendship

At The Malvern School, two things are core to our programming: literacy skills and character values, like kindness and compassion. While we develop these in our young friends through a variety of activities every day, we were able to celebrate both in a bigger way during our latest Literacy Celebration Day!

Literacy Celebration Day is a school-wide event that we host four times a year as part of our Literacy at the Core program. Designed to celebrate our love of literacy, the day features one central story as well as lesson plans and activities built around the theme of that story. In September, we celebrated “The Friendship Umbrella” by author Jennifer Bleecher and illustrator Eliza Callard.

Our Featured Story: “The Friendship Umbrella”

A little red ladybug gets stuck in a rainstorm and receives unexpected caring from others. This fun and interactive story is not only an introduction to colors and manners for young readers, but more importantly teaches the beauty that comes from kindness, working together and appreciating each other’s differences.

Our Activities: Reading, Science, Art & More!

Our teachers kicked off the day by introducing our friends to our featured story, “The Friendship Umbrella,” during story time and a Morning Meeting discussion. Our friends then had the opportunity to explore the book independently. Other literacy-oriented activities included games like alphabetizing ladybugs labeled with different letters of the alphabet, journal writing reflecting on the book and so much more.

Bringing the story to life on the science front, we made “rain in a jar” to simulate the rainstorm that the ladybug gets stuck in. We learned that rain falls when clouds are full of droplets and worked together – just like the animal friends that helped ladybug – to fill shaving cream “clouds” with colored water. When they were full, we watched the colored “rain” fall down.

Art is always a favorite for our friends! From creatively crafting umbrellas to collaborating on art projects highlighting how to be a good friend, we exercised our fine motor skills while making beautiful works of art.

Literacy Celebration Day is always an exciting and fun way to learn through play! To get an inside look at the other ways we promote literacy, social-emotional development and other important pillars of early learning, follow us on Facebook and Instagram!