Reading Activities Preschoolers Love
Reading activities preschoolers love!Reading to children, interactive books, children's picture books and beginning reading activities all contribute to reading readiness. Working with pre-schoolers to get them ready for reading doesn't take much time at all. Most reading activities for preschoolers are just everyday activities, like holding a conversation or going to the grocery store together. Did you know that reading readiness activities actually begin the moment your child is born? It's true! Your child starts learning from you immediately. She listens, watches and observes everything that you do. And she learns from you.
Photo courtesy of juhansonin
Here is a list of reading activities preschoolers (and others) enjoy: -
Print your child's name and help them or let them watch. Make a name sign for her room and have her decorate it with drawings or stickers. -
Play together with alphabet magnets. -
When you are out and about, point out individual letters on signs,food containers, books, and magazines. When your child is around 3 to 4 years old, ask her to begin finding and naming some letters. -
Also between ages 3 and 4, you can encourage your child to spell and write their name. A child's name is very special to her, and so you will find this activity will have a high level of interest. -
Reading activities preschoolers use when playing school - Make an alphabet book with your kindergartner. Draw pictures together or use pictures from magazines. Paste each picture in the book. Help your child write the appropriate letter next to the pictures (for example, B for bird, M for milk). - Read predictable books with words or phrases that repeat. For example, "I'll huff and I'll puff and I"ll blow your house down" in the three little pigs. Encourage your child to say the repeating phrases.
- Read books that give hints about what might happen next. Look for books with lifting flaps, cut-out holes in the pages.
- Read rebuses--those stories with little pictures that stand for words. Your child will love being able to "read."
- When reading a predictable book, ask your child what he thinks will happen next. This is one of those reading activities preschoolers use to learn sequencing and predicting outcomes skills.
- Help your child arrange her own books in a special place in her room or in your home.
- Read wordless books together. Talk about the illustrations and ask your child to make up a story for the book.
- Encourage your child to make their own wordless book using magazines or drawings. My daughter loved this kind of reading activity and it has led to her own books and poetry since then.
- Play rhyming games and point out words that rhyme. For example, say a word like "tall" and see how many rhyming words you can come up with together....like "ball, fall, mall." Another game is to say three words like "hat, sat, dog" and have your child tell you which one sounds different (doesn't rhyme). My kids especially like it when I mess up!
- Read poetry and rhymes together. Recognizing rhymes is an important auditory skill for reading.
- Help your child recognize same sounds in words. Make up silly sentences that all start with the same sound like, "six silly snakes slithered." or...
- Say two names for an animal, and tell your child to choose the name that begins with the same sound as the animal's name. Should a horse's name be Hank or Tank? Should a pig be Mattie or Patty? Should a zebra be Zap or Cap?
- Act out stories or plays you read using simple props.
- Help your child "perform" a simple poem with silly faces.
- Tell stories about your parents, or grandparents and tell stories about when you were little. My children really enjoy hearing about my childhood.
- Have your child tell stories about "when they were little."
- Write notes to your child and encourage them to do the same for you (even if it's just scribbles).
- Have your child sign their name on cards for friends and family.
- Make simple story books as your child begins to write.
- Encourage your child to develop the small muscles in their hands (for writing) by playing with playdough, buttoning dress up clothes, folding towels, brushing their teeth, doing puzzles, and threading beads onto string....among other things!
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