10 Preschool Activities Proven to Boost Reading Success
by Elaine Engerdahl
According to National Research 90% to 95% of struggling readers can greatly increase their reading skills to average levels through prevention and early intervention programs provided by a trained teacher. Parents can also provide this intervention successfully, if they are aware of what reading strategies and activities work effectively.
“These statistics confirm the importance of providing a good reading foundation for preschool and kindergarten aged children. There are many activities parents can provide for their children that help reduce the risk. These activities are enriching but also can be lots of fun. Parents do not necessarily have to be a trained teacher to make a significant difference in providing this early intervention,” states Elaine Engerdahl who has been an Early Childhood teacher for 26 years.
She lists effective preschool and kindergarten activities parents can employ that are easy and fun to do with children:
1. Many online sources provide good reviews on literature for reading to children at this age level. These books offer wonderful opportunities to extend learning, which can be used for follow-up crafts and an introduction to learning the alphabet. For example, after reading the book “Rainbow Fish” your child can complete a craft activity decorating rainbow fish. The letter “Ff” for fish could be introduced. Features could be added to the letter to make it look like a fish. This helps relate the letter to the initial sound they hear in the word “fish”.
2. Introducing children to rhyming and alliteration type books allows a child to be exposed to sound differences and similarities. Tongue twisters and nursery rhymes allow a great opportunity for effective phonemic awareness introduction. When reading rhyming books, stop before the rhyming word and have your child provide the word to complete the sentence.
3. Help your child recognize their name in print. Print your child’s name saying each letter as you print it. Display the name and have your child make it using different avenues. They can print it in the sand, paint it, print it using pudding, alphabet stamps and magnetic letters, small white boards, stencils and play dough.
4. Using picture books that create a picture of the letter (picture mnemonics) has also proven to be an effective way for children to learn the sound-to-letter correspondence in a more meaningful context.
5. Point to words and letters everywhere. Signs are usually the first familiar words they will begin to recognize (MacDonald’s). Begin reading the signs and pointing out the letters within the sign.
6. Model the reading process with your child. Point to words as you read to them. This demonstrates what a word is, how print moves from left to right and corresponds to the pictures.
7. Many Kindergarten and Preschool classrooms use little books called emergent readers to teach beginning reading. These books have pictures that correspond to the text. The story line is simple and repetitive. Using these highly repetitive and predictable books allows your child to begin the reading process quickly and gives them a feeling of success.
8. Place magnetic letters on the fridge. Have your child make their name and other words by copying a model for them to follow. Matching the same letters and words are a good visual discrimination activities that help enhance future reading success.
9. Say a word to your child focusing on the initial sound. Say three other words with only one making the same initial sound. Have them identify the word that begins with the same sound as the first word. This helps build auditory discrimination, which is important in learning to read.
10. Have your child keep a special activities journal. They can dictate a sentence to a parent about a special activity that they have participated in. A photograph of this would also be a valuable picture clue for the child when they go back and try to read it on their own. The adult prints the sentence as the child says it. They read back the sentence, while the parent is pointing to the words as they read it.
For more Kindergarten and Preschool educational activities and resources visit http://www.kinderplans.com an educational web site owned by Elaine Engerdahl, a teacher that has been in the Early Childhood teaching profession for 26 years, specializing in reading instruction.
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