Children do not have to be reading to be exposed to reading skills. When my kids are in preschool we start looking more at the initial letters of different words. All that means is when I read the word “dog” in a book, I ask my child what letter is first.
It is a simple way when we are reading together to connect reading with letter identification. This gives preschoolers more interest in figuring out what letters make up words and what letters they see on the page while they are reading. Reading to our children teaches them a lot!
To incorporate pre-reading skills into our reading time, and make a hands-on activity that my child can do even when I am not able to sit and read with them, I turned a simple ABC book into a pre-reading skills word-matching game. It is so simple! Try it too.
You do not need to get fussy with this pre-reading skills activity! Two supplies will get you going.
Pre-Reading Skills Word Matching Game
Supplies:
- sticky tabs
2. ABC book of your choice
How to set up the activity:
- Read through the ABC book before doing this hands-on activity so that your child is familiar with the letters. Your child should know that there are words on each page beginning with the letter on that page.
- Pick a word for each letter of the alphabet. One word that begins with ‘a’, one word that begins with ‘b’, etc. Write those words on the sticky tabs. You should have one sticky tab for each letter of the alphabet. (If your child is already reading, you can create more than one sticky tab for each letter as a challenge.)
3. Stick the sticky tabs to a table and read them to your child. Explain that they will hunt for the letter that begins each word and stick the tab on that page.
For ‘moon’, we looked for the page that listed ‘m’ and my son stuck that tab on the ‘m’ page. You do not have to go in alphabetical order. Encourage your child to keep picking a tab and looking for the first letter of that word. Hunt for the page with that letter, and stick the tab there.
When all of the sticky tabs are matched to the pages, it is fun (and helpful) to read the book again. You can read each word listed on the sticky tabs to encourage learning.
To store this game for future use, simply remove the tabs from the book, stick them together in a pile, and place the book and tabs together in a ziploc bag.
We store our learning games this way to keep them organized and to use them over and over again.
For more activities to learn the ABCs, check out this list:
How is your child doing with learning letters?
Thanks for pinning this image so others can try this pre-reading activity with their children!
