To add to some of the ideas that have surfaced during the Chapter 6 Literacy Beginnings discussion, I thought I’d share a way I get my little detectives interested.  Last year I started using a green dragon puppet, “Mr. Sea Dragon”, to create a little mischief and kickstart the day with a reading-related activity.  From time to time, “someone” would cause a mishap that required fixing.  The first activity we participated in was to rearrange our word wall letters by putting them back in the correct order.  After we finished our activity, I showed them the hidden camera footage of who did it.  They were so excited from that day on, and would look each day to see what he had done.  Here is a link to the video:
http://s1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee483/maggieskindercorner/?action=view&current=100_0895.mp4