The New York State Early Learning Guidelines were created as a reference guide by the Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) for those who are responsible for the care and education of young children. These guidelines can help early childhood professionals learn and develop their skills to support children's growth and development. The guideline focuses on five areas: physical well-being, health and motor development, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, cognition and general knowledge, language, communication and literacy. Each of these areas is separated by milestones that children generally reach at a certain age. The three age groups are Infancy (from birth to 18 months), Early Childhood (from 18 months to 3 years) and Preschool (from 3 to 5 years). These guidelines can help teachers help children surpass milestones but, at the same time, not rush development. There are strategies that can help teachers along the way. The guideline I have chosen is Reading: Alphabetical Principles within Domain V Language, Communication and Literacy. Domain V focuses on children's ability to communicate how they feel and what their thoughts are. There are indicators listed for children and strategies for early childhood professionals to support development and learning. As a teacher, I would focus on one letter per week. I would like this as part of my daily lesson plan. The first indicator according to the alphabetic principle is that children should be able to recite all the letters of the alphabet. One way I would teach children the alphabet is by singing the alphabet song. Children hear this song for the first time when they are little. At the beginning of childhood we already begin to teach children letters. I would like to use the song as part of... half of the paper... for classmates whose names go with a "D" and objects in the classroom. I can pack a box with items starting with "D". I can incorporate the letter into other activities throughout the week. For arts and crafts, I can have everyone color a picture of a dog and I can hang it on a weekly activity board. For math, we can use blocks to create the letter “D”. They can use manipulatives to model the shape of the letter to show that they can identify the letter. I would like to incorporate the letter of the week into different daily activities, not the same every day, because I don't want them to lose interest in the letter. ECAC suggests using alphabet puzzles to encourage learning. This is a great idea because kids love playing with puzzles. Alphabet puzzles can help them learn the alphabet in order, the shapes of each letter, and each letter has an individual name.