Pre reading activities for preschool


8 Best Pre-reading Activities for Preschoolers

Reading is a skill that you can’t develop overnight. It follows a process of learning small steps that grow in complexity and depth with age. Before a kid becomes a good reader, he first needs to develop pre-reading skills to understand the sounds, letters, words, and illustrations in books. 

Pre-reading skills are an essential skill that can be developed in preschoolers and used throughout their lifetime. Decoding and reading words will help kids in school, their careers, and any other field they choose to pursue. As parents, it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for children to practice pre-reading in their early years.

We at Computer Kids Daycare understand that learning to read is not something that a child can achieve instantly. So, we have prioritized giving parents some activities that would help their children develop pre-reading skills

We have come up with 8 of the best pre-reading activities for preschoolers that are perfect preparatory exercises before reading time. Providing these preliminary lessons will allow your little ones to enter into reading with enthusiasm and not fear, so they can start developing the literacy skills they will need as they grow older. In addition, these activities will build essential skills and strengthen the bond between a child and a parent. Read on to learn more about our top 8 pre-reading activities for preschoolers.

Pre-reading activities are preliminary lessons that teachers can use to prepare a preschool child for reading.

The main pre-reading activity is to help them learn how to decode or pronounce words, which is the first essential step in learning how to read. If they are unfamiliar with the alphabet, you can teach them through fun games and activities. Don’t worry if your child doesn’t want to play these games on your first try because it takes time for kids to familiarize themselves with new things.

These activities should be offered at least one month before teaching the child to read through reading books. This way, your little learners can get used to what they will encounter once they start reading independently.

The most important benefit of providing pre-reading activities for preschoolers is to instill a love of reading early.

Another advantage is that your little learners can develop a great interest in books and they’ll be more likely to ask you to read to them every day. In addition, if they have been exposed thoroughly to all the basics that will be used in the actual reading, they will have a better grasp of advanced reading skills.

1. Recreate a Picture Book

Get a copy of your kid’s favorite picture book (buy an inexpensive copy that you can find at a thrift store) and separate all the pages and reshuffle it. Then, instruct your kid to remake the story from his memory by arranging the pages in the correct order.

If you find your child getting excited to do more, you may cut the text from the pictures. Then find out if he can match the text with the illustrations. Your kid may not recognize and read the words, but if given enough time to read the books together, your kid may recognize the form of the terms for each page.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Your kid will learn how to retell the story in order or sequencing.

2. Read to Your Kid

The best way to introduce your kids to cadence, words, sequencing, and fluency is to read to them every day. When reading books, pick up an old favorite of yours or choose a book your child would like. Then, read to them at bedtime and also any other time you have together.

Make this a habit, and it’ll soon be a custom in your family. Reading to your children builds a bonding experience, and it helps them discover that reading is something that they can both enjoy.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Print motivation or interest in reading books and vocabulary building. 

3. Create Stories About Pictures

Ask your kid to tell you stories about random pictures available around, like family pictures or pictures from magazines. Encourage your kid to tell who the characters are and what they are doing. Let him know that there is no right answer and only tell a story out of her imagination. Then, to encourage him more, you can tell a story of your own.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Vocabulary building, narrative skills.

4. Create a Book of Environmental Print

Environmental print refers to the words, signs, symbols, and logos that kids see every time. 

Encourage your kid to create his book of environmental print. Give him resource materials like magazines, newspapers, glue, safety scissors, and a sheaf of blank paper. Let your kid cut out familiar symbols and logos and paste them all into his book.

Pre-Reading Skill Developed: Letter and Print Awareness

5. Let Kids Play Sequencing

It is an exciting activity your child can play. You may need sequencing cards which you can buy in stores. Or, If you want to save costs, you may print sets of them yourself. Each card has a picture which your child needs to place in the correct order. 

Once your kid is done sequencing the cards, ask him to tell the story. It may not always have the complete details, but it’s fun to witness what your kids come up with. Your child will learn that stories have a beginning, middle, and end.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Narrative Skills, Reading Comprehension, Sequencing.

6. Label Common Items at Home

For this pre-reading activity, you may use pieces of poster board to print the names of the items available in your home. Create two sets; one set is used to put a name for each item and giving the other to your kid for play.

Don’t pressure your kid to match the two sets. The main idea is to get your kid familiar with the look and form of the words of the items, eventually realizing the connection on his own. Once you do it regularly and your child gets used to the activity. Chances are he will develop and be able to recognize his words from seeing them around your house.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Vocabulary building, Print Awareness.

7. Let Child Play Word Games

Word Games let your kid experiment with letters, words, and sounds, which are all essential to learning how to read. You can play games with your preschooler like,

  • I Spy: Use language-based clues for this game, like “I spy something that starts with D” or “I spy something that rhymes with a clock.” If your kid finds it difficult to understand, add more details, such as “I spy something that starts with “C,” and it is placed on the wall” (a clock).
  • Word Families: Teach the kid to recognize the letters that make up words, such as “at” or “up.” Have kids create words that start with a particular letter and then mix and match them and create new words. For example, you can start with a word like “at” and ask your kid what other word can be created using the letters “at.” The answer will be a “hat. ” It is a fun game to develop your child’s reading skills.
  • Rhymes: Kids learn the sounds of words when they hear them in little rhymes like “coke” and “poke.” Try these rhymes with your kids. They can make up their rhymes, like “lunch” and “crunch.”

Pre-reading Skills Developed: Vocabulary building, rhyming skills, word recognition, phonological awareness.

8. Flash Cards

Flashcards are an effective method of teaching your kid to recognize and name letters. It’s a simple way of teaching the sound-symbol connection, which is essential for early reading.

In selecting the material, you have to be careful to match the difficulty level with your kid’s ability level. So it is because if you choose too hard or too easy materials, he’ll fall behind in learning how to recognize letters.

Pre-Reading Skills Developed: Letter and print awareness, Learning Alphabet/Letter names & sounds. 

By introducing these activities, you’ll be helping your child build the foundations of literacy. There are many phonological awareness games and other print motivation activities out there, but there are some resources for you to start with. Kids enjoy doing these activities, especially if you involve them in selecting the materials and making up the game rules. And if they like it, they’ll keep doing it.

10 Ways to Build Pre-Reading Skills in Kids

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Here are some fun, simple pre-reading skills activities for preschoolers that are fun for home or school.

There are everyday activities kids should already be doing at home, as well as some other ideas to try.

What is Pre-Reading?

So, what are pre-reading skills?

Before any child can learn to read well and become a competent speller, five pre-reading skills must be mastered in order to lay a proper foundation.

Pre-reading skills are important as they set children up to decode words independently and read with understanding. They need to be developed before teaching a child to read.

They are important for school readiness and early literacy development.

What are the 5 Pre-Reading Skills?

These are the five main pre-reading skills that every student must master before learning to read, as listed in the article Reading readiness: The Top 5 Skills, by All About Learning Press.

1.

Print Awareness

Print awareness is the understanding that letters form words and that these words have meaning when they are read.

It is knowing that the four letters on a stop sign have a message and that the words in a book tell a story or provide information.

There is also an understanding of the order of reading as they watch people read from left to right, and cover to cover.

2.

Motivation to Read

The desire to decode words and understand what is in a book is essential before a child learns to read.

A baby is too young and does not yet have the motivation to want to decode the words in his plastic bath book.

Older children who have developed print awareness, and have listened to their parents read bedtime stories, will want to start understanding the words on the pages themselves.

This skill must be fostered until children develop a healthy desire to read.

3.

Listening Comprehension

When a child is able to ask and answer questions about a story or summarize what they have read or heard, they have developed listening comprehension.

4.

Letter Knowledge

Knowing the difference between upper-case and lower-case letters and recognizing letters and their sounds, forms the basis of letter knowledge.

Without this, words cannot be decoded and sounds cannot be blended together.

5.

Phonological Awareness

This refers to hearing the different sounds in words (beginning sounds, end sounds, rhyming patterns, middle sounds and individual sounds).

Good phonological awareness means children are able to blend sounds together, decode them and manipulate them.

These five skills can be developed from a very young age in many easy ways.

Here are some ideas, starting with basic activities to develop print awareness, motivation and listening comprehension, and moving on to more advanced activities that build letter knowledge and phonological awareness.

10 Pre-Reading Skills Activities for Preschoolers

Here are some simple activities for pre-reading skills. They are also suitable for kindergarteners.

Many of these activities are inspired by the ideas in the Phonological Awareness Package, compiled by Jane Sheils and Yvonne Sawyers.

1.

Read to Children Every Day

It’s never too early to start reading to your children.

Initially, it may just be soothing to listen to you read as your baby falls asleep, but as our child grows he will get used to the idea that the book represents a message.

When reading to your older children, even those who can already read, you will be instilling a love for books and showing that you value time to read together.

Read your kids these fun rhymes about books. They are all about the magic of reading.

2.

Ask Questions While Reading

Develop listening comprehension and stimulate higher-order thinking skills by asking questions while reading.

Make sure to incorporate a variety of question types, such as cause-and-effect questions, predictions and opinions.

3.

Point Out Print in the Environment

There are several ways to do this:

  • Read the road signs as you drive and discuss what they mean. What would happen if people couldn’t read the sign that says “Beware of school children crossing the road”?
  • Discuss the labels on your groceries. Why does the chemical cleaner have warning words? How do you know how much sugar is in your cereal?
  • Discuss books. How do you know who is the author of a book? How do you know what the book is about before you read it? Which cover is the front cover and which is the back cover?
  • Open the mail together (letters and emails). Who are these letters from? What message do they have for me? How do I know how much I need to pay for electricity usage this month?

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4. Learn the Letters
  • Play with magnetic letters, letter tiles, stamps, letter cut-outs and shapes.
  • Teach your child the letters in their name.
  • Learn the alphabet song.
  • Think of nouns that start with each letter.
  • Use alphabet charts to compare upper-case and lower-case letters.

5.

Learn Rhymes and Poems

Rhymes, songs and poems are a great way to start introducing rhyming words. They help children learn to read. Point out the sets of rhyming words as you sing them.

Make up new rhymes with simple patterns such as an (can, man, ran, pan) or ip (tip, rip, lip, sip).

When your child is old enough to play with sounds, move on to rhyming games.

6.

Play Rhyming Games
  • Find rhyming words – Say the word cat. What sound does cat end in? What other words end in atmat, pat, rat, etc.
  • Identify words that don’t rhyme – Say three words e.g. lap, map, hop. Which word doesn’t fit in?
  • Finish the sentences with a rhyming word – Finish the sentence by finding a word that rhymes with cat: My cat is wearing a _____?

7.

Develop Listening Skills

Develop listening skills by asking your child to listen to a word, remember it and then remove part of it, mentally. Use compound words at first.

Here is an example of the instructions to give:

  • Say jellyfish
  • Now say jellyfish again but without jelly.
  • Answer: fish

This can be very difficult at first but is an excellent activity for developing listening and the ability to manipulate sounds.

Give the answer at first until the concept is understood, and your child can do it independently.

8.

Hear Sounds in Words

Start by listening for the beginning sound in words:

  • Write down two sounds or use two letter tiles.
  • Say a simple, 3-letter word and ask which sound the word begins with.
  • Your child must either circle the letter or point to it and say it out loud.

Then, follow the same procedure and listen for the end sound.

And finally, identify the middle sound.

Vary this activity by saying just one sound (e.g. ‘t’) and asking where the sound is in the word – beginning, middle or end.

9.

Manipulate Sounds

When your child is able to identify sounds and hear them at the beginning, end and middle of words, she is then ready to manipulate sounds. Here is an example:

  • Say cat
  • Now change the c to a m
  • What do you hear?
  • Answer: mat

Make sure you are using the actual sound, not the letter name (mm, not em)

  • Say ham
  • Now change the m to a t
  • What do you hear?
  • Answer: hat

10.

Blend and Decode Sounds

The final step is sounding out words and blending letters. These activities can be done with letter tiles.

Sounding out/decoding:

  • p-e-n (pen)         
  • c-a-t (cat)

Blending: 

This activity can be done with letter tiles. Place an e and d together to form ed, then add new letters to the beginning to make new words.

  • b-ed (bed)
  • r-ed (red)
  • l-ed (led)

When children have the phonological awareness to decode words, then they are ready to read!

I hope you enjoyed these preschool and kindergarten pre-reading activities.

Remember that pre-reading and pre-writing skills are both important to develop before introducing formal instruction to young children.

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Summary of OOD on teaching children to read in the senior group on the topic "Literacy" | Outline of a lesson on teaching literacy (senior group):

Abstract

OOD for teaching children to read in the senior group on the topic: "Literacy".

MDOU "Kindergarten No. 93", Yaroslavl

Educator: Evdokimova Olga Vladimirovna

Purpose: the formation of syllabic reading skills in children.

Tasks:

Educational:

- to form in children the ability to conduct sound and syllabic analysis of words;

- to form in children the ability to read words by syllables.

Developing:

- to develop children's oral coherent speech and understand the meaning of the read text;

- develop the ability to understand and explain the meaning of riddles;

- to expand the vocabulary of children with new words in the field of literacy;

- develop memory, attention and conceptual thinking.

Educational:

- to cultivate cooperation, a friendly attitude towards each other, a sense of mutual assistance, the ability to evaluate one's own activities and the activities of peers.

Material for the lesson: a set of small handout letters, houses (blue and green), schemes of the word “letters” (demonstration and handouts), texts of short sentences, cards with parts of words denoting names, sound replacement chips (large and handouts) , medals "Literate", sweet medals.

Preliminary work: passing during the academic year an additional general education program aimed at early teaching children to read for children of senior preschool age (5-7 years old).

Course of the lesson:

  1. Organizational moment:

- Guys, what is your mood today? (merry. good, joyful)

- Give me your good mood! (The teacher extends both hands to the children, who put their hands on them.)

All the children gathered in a circle

I am your friend and you are my friend.

Let's hold hands tightly

And let's smile at each other.

2. Introduction:

- Guys, I know that you like to guess riddles on different topics. Today I will give you an interesting riddle. Listen to her.

On the pages of the primer

Thirty-three bogatyrs,

Wise men-bogatyrs

Every literate person knows. (Alphabet)

- And who are the "thirty-three heroes" in the riddle? (Letters) And why are they called wise men?

- Do you know the letters? So who are you? (Literates!)

3. Main part:

(Knock on the door, Dunno enters, he walks sad, head down.)

- Hello guys!

- Hello Dunno, what happened to you? Why are you so sad?

(Dunno talks about how he goes to school in the Sunny City with his friend Znayka, who gets fives, and it’s hard for him to study, because he can’t analyze words and read. So today the teacher gave him a lot tasks that he will not be able to competently perform.)

- Guys, will we help Dunno to complete the tasks of the teacher? But first, let's play a game! Dunno, get up and play with us!

Name a Pair Ball Game

  1. The teacher names a hard sound, throws the ball to the child, who has to name a soft sound. ([b] - [b '])
  2. The teacher calls an open syllable that is pronounced firmly, and the child pronounces the syllable softly. (ma - me)

- And now let's see what tasks Dunno got at school and help him complete them!

Task 1. Sound analysis of the word "letters".

- How many syllables are in the word "letters"? (two)

- Look at the word scheme and tell me how many sounds are in the word "letters"? (Five)

One child conducts a sound analysis of the word at the blackboard with explanations, the children complete the task independently in their places.

Task 2. Set the houses in vowels.

- What color are our houses? (blue and green)

Children complete the task in their places, one of them is at the blackboard.

- Guys, why did you put the letters: "a", "u", "o", "s", "e" in a blue house? And the letters: "I", "yu", "ё", "i", "e" in a green house?

Game "What has changed?"

(The teacher and the children swap the letters in the houses, the children correct the mistakes with explanations).

Task 3. Game "Finish the word". Make words-names of children from parts and read them.

Children are given cards with the first part of the word-name, their task is to find the second part, add the word and read it.

-US -

-Sa

-Yaros -lav

-Ma -sha

-Yes -

-Vla -dik

-Ksyu -sha

-Did you complete the task correctly?

-Guys, tell me, why are your words capitalized?

Task 4. Read the sentence and say what it is about.

-Whom or what is the sentence talking about?

- What is the letter of the first word in the sentence?

-What is the value of the end of the sentence?

Game "Live sentence"

The teacher calls the sentence, the children determine the number of words, name 1, 2, 3, 4 words. Next, the teacher determines who will be what word, the remaining children “read”.

"Children launch boats in spring."

"The sun shines brightly in spring."

Task 5. Make a sentence together from the words: "We love to help each other."

- How many words are in this sentence? (Five)

- What is the first, second, third, fourth and fifth word.

- The children all together make up a sentence from individual words on the floor and read it.

- Well done, guys, you correctly and competently made up a proposal!

- Guys, who are you? (Literates!)

-Who else are you? ( Friends)

4. The result of the lesson:

- Guys, today I want to award you a medal for learning to read.

- What is the name of the medal? (Literate)

- The teacher gives a medal to each child.

- Guys, who else did we help today? (Dunno)

- What tasks did we perform with him?

-Guys, do you think we became Dunno's friends?

Dunno thanks the children for their help and gives them sweet medals.

GCD abstract for reading fiction. Reading RNS "Wolf and Goat" | Plan-summary of the lesson (junior group) on the topic:

Abstract of directly educational activities in reading fiction

Subject: Reading the Russian folk tale "The Wolf and the Goat"

The second junior group

Abstract was:

teacher of the first qualification category

Shokova Elena Mikhailovna

Educational areas:

communication, knowledge, health, musical and artistic activities, reading fiction.

Program content:

  • Continue to teach children to listen to the content of a fairy tale, follow the development of the plot through illustrations;
  • Learn to determine the character of the heroes of a fairy tale;
  • Develop communication skills;
  • Creation of a favorable emotional environment and psychological climate in the children's team;
  • To form in children a keen interest in a fairy tale;
  • Develop children's speech and motor activity, imitative skills;
  • Continue enriching the children's vocabulary with new words.

Preliminary work:

  • Reading Russian folk;
  • watching DVD, listening to audio recordings;
  • looking at illustrations for fairy tales, showing fairy tales on flannelgraph, b-ba-bo, flat theatre, table theatre, etc.
  • outdoor games, didactic games.

Joint work with parents:

  • Creation of a mini-museum “Once upon a time…” in the group, for joint theatrical activities of the educator with children, showing children various types of Russian folk tales, their dramatization;

Equipment:

Mini museum “Once upon a time…”, a magic chest, exhibits from the mini museum: a house-teremok, a toy Gingerbread Man, a chicken Ryaba, Masha, a bunny, illustrations for the fairy tale “The Wolf and the Goat”, kids hats (according to the number of children) a wolf cap, an audio recording of “come a fairy tale”, a tape recorder.

Direct educational activities:

Children stand in a circle.

Educator:

Hello, my relatives,

Mischievous children.

Educator: Guys, do you like to travel?

Children: Yes!

Educator: Then I invite you to visit fairy tales. Do you love fairy tales?

Children: Yes!

Educator: Well, let's go then.

Educator:

The music is playing “Come, fairy tale!”

(Children hold hands, the teacher leads the children in a circle, snake, twists and unwinds the spiral, leads the children to the mini-museum “Once upon a time ...”).

- Guys, look, we came with you to a fabulous house. How beautiful it is here!

- Oh, look, what a beautiful chest there is.

- Guys, I wonder what's in it? Let's sit down and see!

The teacher looks inside.

These are fabulous riddles, listen and guess them.

(children guess the fairy tale and show where she lives in the museum, the teacher puts the exhibits on the shelves)

There is a tower in the field

It is not low, it is not high

Animals live together in it

They sing songs together

(Teremok)

baked his old woman

put on the window

, he lit a little

,

on the path fled

(Kolobok)

Grandfather with Baba

and demolished Yaichko . ..

,

(Ryaba chicken)

0003

The forest with girlfriends went

,

But the mushrooms did not find

on the bear lived

,

pies of pies

and then

(Masha and the Bear)

Leded House stood

,

And in the spring,

,

drove the bunny of the bunny. fox

Very cunning eyes

(Zayushkina hut)

The teacher takes the Goat out of the chest.

Educator: Look, children, this is a goat. She also lives in a fairy tale. And this fairy tale is called "The Wolf and the Goat"

Do you want me to tell you this story?

Children: Yes.

Educator: Sit comfortably, listen and look.

Tells a story, showing illustrations along the way. After reading, ask the children questions.

Educator: What fairy tale have I just told you?

Children: Wolf and goat

Teacher: Where did the goat and kids live?

Children: In a house on the edge of the forest

Educator: How many kids were there?

Children: Many, seven

Educator: What were the kids like?

Children: Merry

Educator: Where did the goat go?

Children: To the forest for grass

Educator: What did she say to the kids?

Children: Don't be naughty, don't open the door for anyone

Educator: What was the wolf like?

Children: Angry, hungry

Educator: Why did the wolf eat the kids?

Children: The kids did not listen to their mother

Educator: Did the goat help her kids out of trouble?

Children: yes

Educator: Did you like the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Goat"

Children: yes

Educator: Then I suggest you play the game "Kids and the Gray Wolf"

Children with the teacher go out on the carpet, the teacher dresses the children caps of kids, and a wolf for himself.


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