These free Pre-K reading activities can help your child get an early start on reading!

Print Awareness

• Left to Right, Top to Bottom

It’s important your child understands that when we read, we go from left to right, then from top of the page on down to the bottom. Next time you read a book together, have your child use a small toy, such as an insect, animal or car, and have them move the toy across the page, from left to right, after you read a sentence. Show them how the toy is then moving from left to right, then down the page as you read each word and sentence.

Phonemic Awareness

• Play Guess My Word! Say a word very slowly, like “hhhhhhhhaaaaaaat” and have the child guess what word it is – hat!
• Spring is a time for nature to wake up from its cold winter sleep! Teach your child a nursery rhyme, such as The Itsy Bitsy Spider, to get them rhyming and singing.

The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again

Letter Knowledge

Letters: e, w

• E, e is for egg
  • Read: An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston (nonfiction book about eggs)
    Arrange crayons to make giant letter E.
  • Use Cheerios to make a small letter e.
  • Watch an exciting letter lesson at Starfall.com.
    • This a free educational website for children with quick, engaging lessons.
      • Choose “ABCs” from the menu,
      • Then click on a letter for your child to experience a short two-minute lesson.
      • Your child must then click the letter, word or arrow to move to the next part of the lesson.  (Note: Kids can access all letter practice for this website from a home computer for free, however the app for phones and tablets only offers a few letters to practice. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg library has Starfall.com on all computers, at all branch locations for kids to use.)

• W, w is for wait, water, wet
  • Read: Waiting by Kevin Henkes
    Use Play-Doh to create letters.
  • Can you write in the dough using sticks or forks? Can you roll the dough out to use to make letters?

Writing

Practice painting with Q-tips. Give them a small paint set and let their creativity flow! This activity helps them develop fine motor skills in their writing hand.