Boots, snow, and cotton balls are all a part of learning in Mrs. Mandolyn Hume’s special education preschool class at Lake Spokane Elementary School. These preschool students are taught the concepts they will need to know for kindergarten~colors, shapes, name recognition, and pre-counting. To accomplish this songs, books, art, PE, play, and conversations all reflect a theme.

In January, the theme centered on “Winter Weather,” and Mrs. Hume added a pre-writing piece. Using art as a teaching tool, the preschoolers not only worked on small motor skills and shapes, they began to associate that the spoken word can become a written story. The students sponge painted blue snow boots (colors and winter clothing) and glued “fluffy” cotton balls (circle and small motor) onto the top (spatial awareness) of their boots. Then each student dictated a sentence about the picture to Mrs. Hume, who wrote it down, word for word, under the picture. Mrs. Hume reinforced the verbal to written connection by reading the sentence back to its author. One student's sentence read, “My boots are blue, and I stomp!” By the end of the year, each child will have an original book of their own pictures and sentences to take home; their own preschool portfolio!

Actuality, Mrs. Hume has been modeling this concept throughout the fall by reading and discussing stories. At circle time she continues to model this, but now shares with her students if the story is true or pretend (fiction and non-fiction). More importantly, time is given for the preschoolers to tell their own stories, distinguishing if they are true or pretend. After a student tells his/her story, Mrs. Hume leads a conversation comparing or contrasting the child’s story to the one she read. This again reinforces the concept that a spoken word can become a written word, which can become a book. For Mrs. Hume’s students, stomping in the snow can lead to a page in a book from an up and coming author!