Collection of books, activities, and more designed to help your child develop important pre-reading skills. These skills will help them not only in reading, but in lifelong learning! Brought to you by Lake County Public Library (Indiana).
Shapes are all around us and you can be one too! Have fun stretching your body in different ways to make different shapes when you read Watch This! By Jane Godwin, Becki Orpin, and Hilary Walker
This book builds:
Letter knowledge – noticing and recognizing shapes within the actual letters
Vocabulary – knowing the names of shapes
Background knowledge – knowing body part names
And helps practice:
Reading – recognizing shapes is the precursor to recognizing letters.
Playing – movement and imagination go hand in hand. Imagine you are a rectangle and stretch your arms way above your head.
Talking – name a body part. What does this help you do? For example, my fingers help me hold things.
Extend the book by playing a simple version of Simon says or go on a walk and look for shapes in nature and other surroundings.
You can also give your child crayons and paper to practice drawing the shapes they see in the book (or make this nifty letter practice craft with paint and a zip-close bag!)
Dancing
Feet by Lindsey Craig is a delightful book that encourages movement and promotes the
early literacy practice of playing. Play nurtures creativity
and helps children think symbolically. Written with an distinct
rhythm, your child can “feel” the beat and dance along with the
animals throughout the book.
Along with rhythm and rhyme, Dancing
Feet is filled with silly words like “tippity”, “thumpity”, and
“slappity,” which are used to describe the sound the animal’s feet
are making. Rhythm, rhyme and silly words are all part of the early
literacy practice of singing and
support the skill of phonological awareness, or the ability to
hear the individual sounds in words.
Dancing Feet works well for
dialogic, or interactive, reading.
Read a page, such as, “Tippity!
Tippity! Little black feet! Who is dancing that tippity beat?” Ask
your child what animal they think has little black feet. Have them search the picture for clues and see if they can guess what animal it
refers to. Wait a few seconds for your child to respond. Ask why
they thought it was that animal.
Asking an open ended question is one
of the best ways to develop early literacy skills through talking.
If your child is too young to answer, or simply doesn’t answer, suggest
something, “do you think it could be an (animal)?” Let’s see…”
Turn the page to show ladybugs dancing on tippity feet.
Remember
that children learn more words when they have opportunities to talk,
use unusual words, and respond to an adult’s questions. The names of
the different animals adds to your child’s vocabulary.
Dancing Feet also is an early
introduction to footprints. Be sure to point out the footprints
throughout the book and talk about them. Have your child make
a footprint in sand or put some flour on the sidewalk and let your
child step in it to show their footprint. Learning about footprints
adds to your child’s background knowledge, everything they know before they begin to learn to read.
After reading Dancing Feet and
dancing the steps at the end, continue the fun by dancing along to
the Silly
Squirrel Dance from Sesame Street!
Extend the book with a moving trunk elephant craft
We followed this tutorial to make ours. When you blow through the straw, the elephant’s trunk extends!
You’ll need:
A piece of square paper (8.5″ x 8.5″ or 9″ x 9″)
A piece of paper size 2.5″ x 12″ (for the trunk)
A straw
Glue stick
Scissors
Here’s how ours turned out:
As you can see, we used googly eyes instead of paper for the eyes on the pink elephant - a fun addition if you have them!
The
Giant Jumperee
by Julia Donaldson is a fun story about a rabbit who returns home to
his burrow only to find that the loud and scary Giant Jumperee is
inside.
Rabbit
is afraid to enter, so he enlists his friends to try to get the Giant
Jumperee to come out of the burrow, but each in turn is frightened
away.
The
main character speaks in rhymes, which helps to develop your child’s
phonological
awareness,
or hearing the smaller parts in words. He always
begins speaking with the phrase, “I’m the Giant Jumperee…”
Have your child chime in on this repeated phrase to involve them in
the reading of the
story, and make it more fun and enjoyable. This is called print
motivation or learning
to love books and reading. Print motivation is a component of
background knowledge,
or everything your child knows before starting school.
There
are many words in this story that your child may not be familiar
with, like “slink” and “swaggered”. After reading
the story, go back to those unfamiliar words and talk
about their meaning, then help your child act out the movements, a
form of playing,
which will help them remember what the words mean. This will increase
your child’s vocabulary.
Studies have shown that children with a large vocabulary do better
in school.
Extend the book with finger puppets and paper frogs!
Your
child can use the finger puppets to retell the story, adding to their
narrative
skills.
You can also make a handprint frog, as designed by the folks at Crafty-Crafted! You’ll need some green paper, a pencil, a bowl (or other circle to trace), white paper, and a black marker. Follow the link for step-by-step instructions!
This is an interactive rhyming book
featuring colors, with a tiny mouse hiding on each 2 page spread.
Skills
Background Knowledge –
Recognizing colors is part of your child’s background knowledge,
which includes all the things your child knows before learning to
read. The more they know, the easier it will be to understand what
they are reading when the time comes. As you read the book, have
your child point to the colored objects mentioned. If they are still
learning their colors, you can point to the object and have them
repeat the color word.
Vocabulary –Along with color
words, there are some words your child may not hear everyday, such
as: darting, gigantic, sink (as in become submerged),
which contribute to his/her vocabulary - knowing the meanings of
words.
Phonological Awareness- The
rhyming text facilitates phonological awareness, the ability to hear
smaller sounds in words, and a very important skill when sounding out
words.
Practices
Talking Talkabout what is going on in the pictures and talk about any words
your child may not be familiar with.
Playing – This book is
interactive – it asks the reader questions and you can make a game
of finding the tiny mouse hiding on each page.
Make Your Own Mouse!
Extend the book by making a mouse to go with the story! You will need:
Colored paper (any color) cut in the shape of a heart and two small circles
A second color paper in two smaller circles (pink works great for the inside of the ears)
Glue
A piece of string or yarn, or a thin strip of paper (for the tail)
Marker or pen
Optional: small pom pom and other paper scraps for nose and whiskers, a googly eye
Fold the heart shape (any size, any
color) in half, from pointed end.
Open it up and spread glue on the
inside. Lay a piece of string, yarn or a thin strip of paper on the
fold, extending out the rounded end.
Fold the two halves of the heart
together. The pointy end is the head.
Cut two small circles from mouse’s
color and two smaller pink (or other color) circles. Glue a pink circle onto each
larger circle for the ears, then glue to head.
Draw on nose, eye, and optional
whiskers (or use a small pom pom for the nose, thin strips of paper
for the whiskers, and a wiggle eye, or cut all from paper scraps).
Read more for songs and simple activities from other blogs we love!
Listen Up! Train Song uses bold text and bright colored photos to highlight different types of trains and the sounds they make.
Onomatopoeia is used on each page, encouraging readers to make the sounds themselves. Children reading can explore new vocabulary associated with trains and sounds while pointing out what they see on each page.
Back matter includes early literacy tips on how playing with sounds, rhymes, and song can help get your child ready for reading and school.
When reading this book, do the sounds for your child and encourage them to repeat you. Make it a rhyme or chant if you can. When children play with rhythm it helps them learn about the sounds that make up words, increasing their phonological awareness.
On each page you can also point out the bolded letters that represent the sounds. Ask them if they recognize the letters and what sounds they may make, then make the sound together.
If your child loves trains, ask them to talk about this passion. What kinds of trains to do they see in the book, what color are they, what kinds have they seen in real life? Talking with your child helps them learn background knowledge, improves vocabulary, and builds a better understanding of how conversation works.
All of these skills lead to better reading comprehension when your child begins to read on their own.
Extend the Book with a Paper Train Craft
Supplies:
construction paper squares (variety of colors if possible)
construction paper circles (black)
Train engine template
markers or crayons for coloring and writing
glue stick
1 11x18 inch piece of paper for a background
1. Cut out the template of the train engine. You can either do this with white paper and let your child color it in, or cut it out onto construction paper and add a small square of yellow for the window.
2. Help your child count how many letters are in their name and then cut out a square for each letter. These will be the train cars. The engine can be the first one or two letters if need be.
3. Cut out 2 inch circles from black paper for the train wheels for your cars, and 1 inch circles for your train engine. Let your child help with the cutting if you can. This helps hone fine motor skills that later help with writing.
4. Glue your train in place on a paper background starting with the engine, then the colorful train cars, and then glue the wheels between each joint. I used a 12inx18in piece of construction paper, but you can tape together regular sized pages until it is long enough to hold your whole train.
5. Finally, help your child write the letters of their name on each train car.
A Peaceful Garden is written by Lucy
London and Illustrated by Christa Pierce.
The theme of this
book is gardens! Two cats, with help from their animal friends, plant
a vegetable garden. They all watch the garden grow until it’s harvest
time and then they share a feast!
Early Literacy Practices:
ReadingA
Peaceful Garden with your child will help to enhance their
phonological awareness and their vocabulary. There are many
vegetables listed and some may be new for your child. Reading with
your child also encourages print awareness. This book is great for
that because the vegetable pictures are labeled.
Talking
about the book will help to enhance the child’s background knowledge
of the world around them. Young children may not yet associate plants
in a garden with the food they eat for dinner.
Playing with your child also helps build pre-reading skills! Symbolic play and role playing are excellent ways to
reinforce what you talked about while reading the book.
Activity:
Plant some seeds!
Materials Needed:
Seed starting
pots, or any container with drainage holes
Potting soil or
seed starter mixture
Seeds
Mister or small
cup of water
Plant your seeds in the soil and watch them grow over the next few weeks. How much water does your plant need? What will it look like when it’s grown? These are great things to talk about with your child!
How often you water and when you can transplant depends on the type of plant you’re growing so make sure to look it up with your child. Your local librarian would be happy to help you find more information to grow your garden.
This book follows the exchanging of letters between two friends, Oscar and Bill. Oscar is an ant. Bill is an Octopus. Watch their friendship grow as you read the letters they send back and forth to each other.
Pen Pals will help build print awareness, vocabulary, background knowledge, and narrative skills.
This book also builds early literacy skills such as talking, reading, and writing.
Extend the book by writing a letter to a friend or family member
Even if your little one can not write yet, this is a great time to practice picking up a marker and just doodling to understand the concept.
What you will need:
1 blank piece of paper, with or without lines.
Plenty of markers
Adult: write at the top of the paper the word DEAR with a line and at the bottom the paper, the word LOVE or FROM with a line. This will be so you can practice writing names and showing your child where they would go on a letter.
2. Allow your child to write whatever they would like the paper. You can practice words or just let them doodle.
3. When they are done, ask if they would like to send it to their friend. If not, keep it on the fridge.
How Do You Dance by Thyra Heder is a fun, engaging book that allows for a lot of interaction.
It describes different ways to dance and really encourages kids to get up and move around. It provides an opportunity to build background knowledge while discussing the various dances, either by talking about dances that you have done or how/why people do a particular dance.
It also provides an excellent example of vocabulary expansion with words like “shimmy,” “scoot,” and “zappo.”
Extend the Book by Dancing!
After reading this story, or even while you’re on the “Try Some New Moves!” page, you can play by trying out the different dances that are listed.
Again, talking about these dances as you try them can provide children with more background knowledge.
Studies have shown that even children
as young as 3 can benefit from reading nonfiction. This
informational text has been designed specifically to foster literacy
in pre-readers. It’s also part of a series, so if you like this book try the rest!
This book builds:
Vocabulary
Background Knowledge
Print Awareness
This book helps kids practice:
Talking - encourages questions and answers
Reading
Writing - There is a drawing activity included in the book.
Playing - There is an animal game included in the book.
Extend the book with a letter owl!
You will need:
Paper
Scissors
Glue
Draw the letters O, W, and L onto paper
and cut out.
Since the W will be the wings, it helps to make that
letter pointy.
The top of the L will form the head, so make it round
and fat.
Scissors skills are important for children, so you may want
consider letting your child help you with the cutting.
Let your child play with the letters
and spell out the the word.
Next, fold back the base of the letter
L and glue it behind the O.
Glue the W behind the other two letters,
and decorate with crayons. The eyes are two little O letters, I put
w’s along the wings, and the beak, when closed, resembles a lowercase L.
I made one owl with the O a different
color to reinforce the initial letter. Snowy owls really do have a
dark “O” shape on their fronts, but it obviously isn’t
nearly this dark. I made a second owl with all white letters.
April is National Poetry Month! Daniel wants to figure out what poetry is, so he asks his animal friends in the park.
This colorful book’s illustrations will delight young children who can share their background knowledge about the featured animals. Adults can point to the pictures and ask children to identify the animals or ask follow up questions like “What does this animal eat?” Try talking about the animals you see on the pages or in your own yard or park.
Extend the Book by Writing a Poem!
Supplies Needed:
Paper
writing or coloring utensils
Ask your child to help you write a poem about an animal. You can take turns coming up with the words for the poem, or let your child dictate the whole thing.
Remember, just like Daniel’s poem in the book, not all poems need to rhyme!
Let your child practice their writing skills by drawing an illustration to go with your new poem.