Everyday Fun with Literacy

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You can help your preschoolers become ready to read by encouraging them to see themselves as readers when they identify letters or words, draw and label pictures, or recognize symbols, like stop signs.  Everyday, you have opportunities to help your child enjoy being a beginning reader. Here are some ideas.

At Home

• Watch storytime together, and talk about it afterward.
• Put magnetic letters on your refrigerator for children to play with. You can also cut letters out and post them with tape on the refrigerator.
• Post invitations, announcements, and simple labels where children can see them.
• Make pictures of favorite foods and label them.
• Let your child see you use recipes. Point out words to them.
• At snack time, make words out of finger foods such as alphabet soup, or letters with finger foods such as cereal pieces.

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In the Neighborhood

• Look for letters that children know on signs or license plates.
• “Read” street signs together.
• Notice and talk about billboards you see.

Visiting Family or Friends

• Before leaving, draw a map and mark your route.
• After the visit, have your child sent a thank-you note or picture that he or she has drawn.

At the Grocery Store

• Create a shopping list with your child.  Items can be written or drawn.
• Have children identify product names that they know.



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• At the beginning of each aisle, pick a letter of the alphabet to look out for.  Count the number of times you see it an aisle.

At the Park

• Draw letters in the dirt or sandbox.
• Collect leaves along the way.  Then go to the library to find books so that you can identify them.
• On index cards or squares of paper, have your child draw pictures of all the people, animals, equipment or things you saw at the park.  Write the corresponding word on another card. Turn the picture cards upside down.  Play a memory game to see how many the child remembers by showing and saying a word and asking the child to find the matching pictures.

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At the Library

• Have the child spend time looking at books they have picked out.
• Participate in a library story hour and attend the library’s other family-oriented events.
• Get a library card for your child and check out a variety of books.

At the Zoo

• Create a list with your child of the animals you think you will see.  You could also cut animal pictures out of magazines or draw them on the list.  Help the child cross names off the list as you see each animal at the zoo.
• Name each animal you see.  See if your child can guess what letter the name begins with.
• Have the child draw a picture of a favorite animal.  Hang it in a special places.

KBYU 11, Utah’s Family Station

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