Line Leader Update

When we first started the line leader game we weren't sure what to expect. It was a nice surprise to see how much children loved it right away and how engaged they always were while participating! It was even more exciting to see them playing the game on their own during free play! With time children got better and better and were able to recognize the names with a couple of letters, they even started to count the lines and try to figure out who the line leader could be based on the number of the letters!

It was time to extend the game game a little by having two line leaders a day, which makes sense since we split into two small groups during the day for two hours of activities. Each morning there are two available spots for possible line leaders. At the top of our white board we draw lines to fit the names of the day leaders. At the bottom of the board we have groups labeled as Inside and Outside. Below that we list children in for each group. Some friends like to check the list in the morning to see which group they will be in for the day. They count the lines on the board to guess who will be the lucky person hoping today it will be them!

To illustrate the exact manner in which the game is conducted, I recorded the process on one of the mornings when we played it. Enjoy the read!

February 17, 2015

Teacher: "Rylee had a quiet hand first"
Rylee: "I pick R" (pointing to the R on the alphabet chart)
Teacher: "R, there is R" (filled the appropriate line on the board)
               "Stella has a quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Rex?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it's Rex?"
Stella:"Because it has R at the beginning"
Teacher:" and what else? what else do you notice?"
Rex:"and E and X"
Teacher turning her attention to Rex:"how many letters do you have in your name?"
Rex: "R E X" (counting the fingers)
Teacher:"how many is that?"
Rex:"3!" yelled out excitedly
Teacher: "you can go get your name tag Rex"
Once children figure out whose name it is they bring their name tag from the classroom's job chart over to the rug so that the friends can see the name and name the letters one by one to spell the whole name. It helps to focus children's attention to the name of the line leader instead of guessing off of the alphabet chart at that point.
Teacher:"Arielle"
Arielle:"X" (pointing to X on the alphabet chart)
Rex came back with his name tag.
Rex: "OK, I know which letters we're missing. We're missing E and X."
Teacher: "Arielle got the X, so we just need (pointing to the line of the missing letter at the white board) what do we need Rex?"
Rex:"E!"
Teacher:"yes"
Rex:"so Rex is the line leader!"
Teacher: "Stella has another quiet hand. Now we need to figure out this person"

Stella:"Is it Rylee?"
Teacher:"Let's guess letters first, it's not Rylee because she has R and we guessed R. There is no R" (pointing to the first line of the second line leader's name).
Stella:" ummm" pointing to D
Teacher:"what's that?"
Stella:"D"
Teacher:"D, good job Stella, there's no D today. Arielle"
Arielle: pointing to A "I pick A"
Teacher:" There is A at the very end. Stella you have quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Arielle?"
Teacher:"No, Arielle's A is at the beginning, this A is at the end. Who else has a quiet hand? Rex has a quiet hand".
Rex:"I pick P"
Teacher:"P, there's no P today. Here Romy (handing the alphabet chart to Romy) you can pick a letter"
Romy:"I wanna pick....I wanna pick....I wanna pick"
(Romy couldn't decide which letter to pick).
Stella:"Is it Romy?"
Teacher:"Romy has R (pointing to Romy's name at the bottom of the white board) we already picked R, there is no R. Pick a letter."
Stella: pointing to U
Teacher:"what is that?"
Stella:"U"
Teacher:" Jack you didn't get to pick a letter"
Jack:"I pick J"

Teacher:"J, there is no J today. Arielle, would you like to pick another letter?"
Arielle:"I pick C"
Teacher:"no C"
Teacher:"Daniel has a quiet hand. Daniel what letter would you like to pick?"
Daniel:"I pick R"
Teacher:"We already picked R, pick another letter."
Daniel:"O"
Teacher:"no O today, Rylee"
Rylee:"I pick this (pointing to B)
Teacher:"what letter is this?"
Rylee:"P"
Teacher: making the B sound "B"
Rylee:"B"
Teacher:"No B, Rex"
Rex:"I pick, I pick, ummm W"
Teacher:"there is no W. Jack, would you like to pick another letter?"
Jack:" I pick F"
Teacher:"no F. Friends look at the names (pointing to the list of names on the white board) one of these friends is the line leader"
Stella:" Is it me?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it is you Stella?"
Stella: (looking at the white board) "because it has E and A"
Teacher:"Yes, what other letters you need for your name?"
Stella:"S"
Teacher:"S! you got it! Do you wanna bring your name tag Stella?"
Stella went to grab her name tag.
Teacher:" So we have S E A and Arielle has a quiet hand. Arielle what letter are we missing for Stella's name?"

Arielle:"ummm T"
Teacher:"You got it, we have T, and the last letter we need, Stella you have a quiet hand. Stella what two letters are we missing?"
Stella:"L"
Teacher:"L two Ls"
             "Rex and Stella are the line leaders today."

The  duration of the game varies. There are days when friends can figure it out pretty quickly, and days when it takes a little while. However long it takes children love the game, and Miss Susan and I are proud of their learning!