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

Print Awareness

Your child develops “print awareness” when they understand that the print they see all around them represents spoken word and has meaning.

Have your child help you sort the mail by each family member’s name. See if they can guess what the item of mail is about (a flier for grocery store, an advertisement for a cleaning company, a bill to pay).

How Is My Child Doing?

You can give your child a quick assessment to mark what they’ve mastered and what they still need to learn. This will empower you to fill in the gaps and celebrate when your child conquers a new skill. This can help you target your time to work on the letters or sounds are missing.

• Get Ready to Read Screening Tool, 20 questions, free for families
• Print out this answer form to mark your child’s answers while doing the activity.
• Remember not to help or give them the answers!

This is not a test, but is meant for a quick and easy way to see where your 4-year old is on the road to being ready to learn to read. It will give you a good sense of what your child can do and what your child still needs to learn.

Share the results with their Pre-K teacher and use the information to know your child’s strengths as well as the skills with which they need more support. If, for example, you notice that the child has difficulty with recognizing most of the items with letters of the alphabet, you should choose some activities that will strengthen that particular skill.

Letter Knowledge

Letters: b, n

• B, b is for bear, bee, backpack
  • Read: The Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
  • Write: Make the letter B using blocks. After you have made your letter B, trace it with your fingers.
• N, n is for nose, nut, nurse
  • Read:
    • Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells
    • The Nose Book by Dr. Seuss
  • Write: Use spaghetti noodles to make letter N and other letters you know. After you create each letter, trace it with your pointer finger.
  • Phonemic Awareness: What noises can you make with your mouth open? With your mouth closed? Can you make noises that sound like letters? (refer to letters that you have already taught.)

Writing

• Practice writing your favorite friends’ names.

What letter does each name start with?

• Trace Letters at ABCYa.com, a free educational website for kids

Letter and Number Tracing

(Note: Kids can access all games for this website from a home computer for free, however the app for phones and tablets costs a monthly fee. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg library has ABCYa.com on all computers, at all branch locations for kids to use.)