Reading Activities: Preschoolers

Understanding Print

Regular experiences with a rich variety of books allow preschoolers to gain an understanding of how print works. Young children need to recognize that letters put together make sounds, and sounds put together make words. This is called phonemic awareness. Preschool children also need to understand that books open a certain way, pages turn a certain way, and that print moves in a left to right progression. Once a young child has mastered these skills, he or she may be able to memorize the ABC song and to begin letter recognition.

Letter and Sound Recognition

Most reading activities for preschoolers focus on letter recognition. Concept books should be a part of any preschooler’s library. Concept books focus on teaching children a specific idea such as the alphabet and numbers. Concept books that focus on the alphabet are an excellent way to build both letter and sound recognition in the preschool child. Sesame Street focuses on teaching letter and number recognition as well as sound recognition to young children through entertainment. Parents can build letter and sound recognition while engaging in every day activities. While driving in the car, ask your preschooler to look for things that begin with the letter 'B'. At the grocery store, go on a scavenger hunt to find labels with the letter 'T' in them. Every preschool child should have a set of letters, either the plastic magnet kind or alphabet blocks, to hold and manipulate. Parents should regularly engage the child in play using these blocks.

Familiar Print

Once a child has developed some degree of phonemic awareness, yet long before he learns to decode words, he will begin to recognize familiar print. Familiar print is any word that appears consistently in a child’s environment, like Cheerios and STOP signs. The more exposure preschool children have to familiar print, the better prepared he will be for reading instruction. When a child recognizes a word in her environment, parents should acknowledge that as an achievement. Write the word on an index card and hang it on the refrigerator, or spell it out with magnet letters to reinforce the skill. Build a word bank for the young child to read regularly. This builds confidence as well as reinforces letter and sound recognition. Use the word bank to practice recognizing letters and sounds.

Nursery Rhymes and Songs

Believe it or not, nursery rhymes and songs are excellent reading activities for preschoolers. Sharing them with kids helps develop reading readiness. Reading nursery rhymes and singing songs with children will help them to memorize the simple verses. Then, when you read the verses to them from a book, putting your finger under each familiar word as you read or sing will build sight recognition and phonemic awareness. Any time you read to a preschool child, you should point to each word as you say it aloud.

Engaging Children in Active Participation

When reading aloud to preschool children, allowing them to participate in the reading process is an important way to stimulate reading readiness.

Filling in the Blanks

Preschoolers love to read books that include end rhyme. When reading these books to children, pause before the rhyming word and allow them to fill in the blank. The young child will learn to understand rhyming words and will begin to develop an understanding of context clues. Context clues are anything that helps a child figure out what the print says, like rhyme, illustrations, prior knowledge, and the words surrounding the word in question. Any time you see an opportunity for the preschooler to fill in a blank, ask them to do so. In Sandra Boynton’s book, Moo, Baa, LaLaLa, a young child can fill in the blank after the words “A cow says...", or after "A horse says...." Even a child as young as two will be able to fill in the blanks.

Predicting

Allowing young children to predict what will happen next in a story is an excellent way to develop their understanding of story elements. It also improves their listening comprehension (how well they understand what is being read to them), and strengthens their use of context clues. Asking a child what might happen next promotes discussion and more actively involves the child in the reading process. Prediction is a higher level thinking skill and not all preschool children will predict successfully. All predictions should be recognized as valid and no one answer should be measured as correct.

Reading from Memory

Once a preschool child has had a book read to him numerous times, he begins to memorize it. Ask the child to then read the very familiar story to you. Don’t expect him to get the words right or to even look at the words. Just allow him to put the story in his own words. He will use the picture clues to guide his telling and eventually he will begin to notice the words. The more he engages in this activity, the closer he may get to the actual print. Praise all attempts and refrain from making any corrections. The goal here is to strengthen the child’s understanding of story elements and use of context clues, to develop his memory, and to give him successful reading experiences. A desire to feel successful about reading is what motivates the preschool child to choose the same book to be read to him over and over again. Parents should indulge the desire, no matter how sick they are of reading the same book!

Reading Activities for Preschoolers Summary

Preschool children do not need to be engaged in a formal reading program, but instead should be exposed to print as often as possible to develop reading readiness skills. Reading to children, exposing them to many different types of books, exposing them to familiar print, and actively engaging them in the reading experience will help to prepare them for formal reading when they are older.