Here are some ideas for working at home on early literacy with your child:
Read! Read! Read!--reading books with your child is one of the best ways to improve your child's early literacy skills! Here are some literacy skills that generally occur from ages 3-5 as a child develops his/her early reading skills.
- Talk about the parts of the book--can your child point to the front cover, the back and the spine? Show your child the title and explain that this is the name of the book.
- Name the author and the illustrator--explain that the author writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures. Review this each time you read together.
- Occasionally, with a book that is very familiar to your child that they have heard many times, deliberately make a mistake when telling the story (ex: change the name of the main character) and note if your child notices the mistake.
- Ask your child to point to or name pictures in the story.
- Name actions in the story.
- Listen for rhymes in the story and point them out in the story. Can your child think of another word that rhymes with the word in the book?
- Again, with a very familiar story, leave off the last word or sentence on a page. Is your child able to fill in the missing part?
- Use your fingers to "trail" the words as you read to show that we read from left to right and top to bottom.
- Ask your child to "read" to you a book that you have read to him/her many times.
- Does your child ask about specific words? Take a moment to talk about new vocabulary and explain the meaning of words.
- Describe a scene or part of a picture on a page. Is your child able to listen to the clues and point to the part that you are describing?
- After reading a story, see if your child can recall at least 2 things from the story? Who was the story about (main character)? Where wash he/she? What did he/she do?
- Ask your child to point to a single word on the page. Point to a single letter. Talk about the first letter your child's first name and ask him/her to find that letter on a page.
- Talk about the story... is it real? Could this really happen? Is it fantasy or make-believe?
- As you are reading, ask your child to predict what will happen next in the story. Was he/she right?
Remember.... have fun reading together! |
