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Free Activities-
Skills They Need Before They Can Read
Follow the path-these build from easiest to most difficult.
Where does your little one land on this journey?
Silly ABCs (3 years +)
You can call this whatever you'd like. My daughter likes to call it Silly ABCs. You sing the ABCs but replace a letter with a word that starts with the letter you are replacing. The first few times you do it, you want them to say 'No that's not right!' Or 'Wait, you did it wrong'- you want them to catch your mistake. Once they catch on the the game, they will ask you to do it over and over. Eventually they can do it themselves. (Alphabetical Knowledge)
Count the Words (3 years +)
Have you ever learned a new language? One of the first things you have to do is figure out the sounds and rhythms to the words. One way you do that is by tuning your ear to when one word ends and the next word begins in a sentence.
Count the Words is an early Phonological Awareness activity. The goal of Phonological Awareness is to get our little one's ears in tune to the language. Just like you learning a new language, we are going to practice focusing in on those individual words in a sentence. This will prepare them for a later activity where we listen for each individual phoneme, or sound, in a word. Watch us play and then try it yourself! (Phonological Awareness)
Count the Words is an early Phonological Awareness activity. The goal of Phonological Awareness is to get our little one's ears in tune to the language. Just like you learning a new language, we are going to practice focusing in on those individual words in a sentence. This will prepare them for a later activity where we listen for each individual phoneme, or sound, in a word. Watch us play and then try it yourself! (Phonological Awareness)
Sing to A, B, or C (4 years +)
Raise your hand if you thought LMNOP was one letter? You're not alone. This game will make sure your little one knows each letter separately.
Alphabetic Knowledge is essential before reading. What exactly is Alphabetic Knowledge? It’s knowing the names, shapes, and sounds of letters. Your little one needs to be able to say the name of each letter, be able to recognize them in print, be able to write them, and know their basic sounds.
The ABC Song is probably the most universal tool used to help little ones start down the path to Alphabetic Knowledge. It’s fun. It has rhythm and rhyme- what could be more fun? But for many little ones, they don’t actually recognize the purpose of the song. It’s to teach.
Sing to A, B, or C uses the ABC Song in its favor to teach littles to notice each letter in the alphabet. This game helps them work on letter names.
Instead of singing the whole song, you and your little one are going to pick a letter and sing to it. Watch us play! (Alphabetical Knowledge)
Alphabetic Knowledge is essential before reading. What exactly is Alphabetic Knowledge? It’s knowing the names, shapes, and sounds of letters. Your little one needs to be able to say the name of each letter, be able to recognize them in print, be able to write them, and know their basic sounds.
The ABC Song is probably the most universal tool used to help little ones start down the path to Alphabetic Knowledge. It’s fun. It has rhythm and rhyme- what could be more fun? But for many little ones, they don’t actually recognize the purpose of the song. It’s to teach.
Sing to A, B, or C uses the ABC Song in its favor to teach littles to notice each letter in the alphabet. This game helps them work on letter names.
Instead of singing the whole song, you and your little one are going to pick a letter and sing to it. Watch us play! (Alphabetical Knowledge)
Rapid Rhyme (4 years +)
Rapid Rhyme is quick, as the title states. You say a word and your little one says a word that rhymes. Encourage silly words- it’s really just about rhyming, not vocabulary. Be sure to give some examples first.
My daughter is just about to turn 4 years old in this video. Rhyme is really important at this age because it starts to tune their ears to sound. This skill will grow as they develop and learn to play with sounds to gain phonemic awareness (one of the MOST important skills to have before learning to read). So rhyme rhyme rhyme as much as you can! It will pay off later. (Phonological Awareness)
My daughter is just about to turn 4 years old in this video. Rhyme is really important at this age because it starts to tune their ears to sound. This skill will grow as they develop and learn to play with sounds to gain phonemic awareness (one of the MOST important skills to have before learning to read). So rhyme rhyme rhyme as much as you can! It will pay off later. (Phonological Awareness)
Watch Me Read (4 years +)
Oh wow. I think this is one of my all time favorite videos. I put this type of video under confidence. It’s really important that your little feels confident in their reading skills. One way to start this early is to read books with repetitive text and encourage them to ‘read’ on their own. Yes, they memorize, but to them it’s reading! This is my longest video, but stay to the end. It’s worth it. (Confidence)
Two Halves (4-5 years +)
Parts of words are easier to hear than individual sounds. To start developing their blending skills, play Two Halves. You simply take a word, break it in half, and ask your little one to put it together. Tip: Say the first part, pause, say the final part. Be sure they say it back to you as one word, no pauses. Have fun! (Phonological Awareness)
I Spy a Rhyme (4-5 years +)
This game is one of our favorites and as you can see can be played anywhere! It’s pretty simple. Look around you. Find something (ex: tree) and think of a word that it rhymes with. Then say, ‘“I spy something that rhymes with bee.” Your little one needs to find what you spy. Take turns. If you need to warm up, give a few words that rhyme to get them in the rhyming mindset. (Phonological Awareness)
Syllable Clap (4-5 years +)
Syllable clap! Knowing syllables or parts of words is key for later reading and spelling success. My daughter is spelling multisyllabic words now at age 7, and we use this game all the time to help her focus on spelling each syllable. And reading big words! Having the ability to break down & sound out by syllable is a great tool to have in your back pocket when those words get hard. Try with these words: de-cem-ber; hol-i-day; ba-con; va-ca-tion; hap-py; el-e-phant; (their name). (Phonological Awareness)
Tugboat Speedboat (5 years +)
Before your little one can blend sounds together on a page, they need to be able to do it orally. Tugboat Speedboat is an oral blending Phonemic Awareness game. You are teaching them how to blend sounds together. You say a word slowly like a Tugboat, and your little one will say it fast like a Speedboat. We love playing these games in our jammies. (Phonemic Awareness)
I Read, We Read, You Read (5 years +)
Like "Watch Me Read", this activity is to help boost confidence before they can actually read. You simply follow the routine of I Read, We Read, You Read. Watch us play and then try it with your favorite book. (Confidence)
What's the First Sound? (5 years +)
Ask your little one to listen for the first sound. Say a word like 'chat', then "What's the first sound?" Your little one should say /ch/. Do it with at least 5 words each time you play. Have fun! (Phonemic Awareness)
High Frequency Word Hunt (5 years +)
Pick your favorite book and go on a High Frequency Word (HFW) Hunt. We use the routine- Say it. Spell it. Say it. To learn the word. HFW or Sight Words, are typically memorized because many don’t always follow our spelling rules and come up often. We also like to put them on the wall until they become automatic. Enjoy your word hunt! (Confidence & Fluency)
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