Summer, 2011
What you do helps your child get ready to read! Children need the following six pre-reading skills before they can learn to read, and they love learning them with you!
Love of Books (Print Motivation): Being interested in and enjoying books.
New Words (Vocabulary): Knowing the names of things.
Tell a Story (Narrative Skills): The ability to describe things and events and tell stories.
Use Books (Print Awareness): Noticing print, knowing how to handle a book and how to follow the words on a page.
See Letters (Letter Knowledge): Knowing that letters look different from each other and have different names and sounds.
Make Sounds (Phonological Awareness): Being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.
For samples of activities that will help your child develop these skills, pick up a copy of the PARENTS of pre-readers page (link below)
As you engage your child in these activities keep track of the time you are spending on the gameboard and win prizes for you and your child along the way.
Parents Of Pre-Readers (pdf)
Other Activities to share with your child:
♦ Share a nursery rhyme or fingerplay.
♦ Sing a song about animals—then sing it again!
♦ Take an exploration walk and talk about the colors of the things you see.
♦ Make or bake something while describing what you are doing.
♦ Share a book with simple sentences. Point to the words as you read them.
♦ Talk about shapes and find examples such as balls and blocks.
♦ Point out the printed words in your home and other places such as the grocery store.
♦ “Play” with the alphabet using ABC books, magnetic letters, alphabet blocks or puzzles.
♦ Pick a favorite story to share again and have your child draw a picture of a favorite part.
♦ Have your child re-tell a favorite story to you.
♦ Choose a book together and have your child make up a story about the pictures in it.
♦ Play with the letters of the alphabet. Look for curly tails, straight parts and round parts. Tell your child the sound that each one makes in addition to its name.
♦ Teach your child the letters of his or her name and look for those letters throughout the day. See if your child can spot the shapes of letters in everyday items.
♦ Together think of words that rhyme with your child’s name and make a silly poem.
