How to Teach Preschool Reading

Preschool is a time for teaching pre-reading skills. Most children at this age really aren't developmentally ready to learn to read but you can get them ready by teaching them pre-reading skills and techniques. If your desire is to raise a child with a love of learning and a love of books, there are wonderful ways to teach your preschooler about reading.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Variety of books
• Magazine
• Paper
• Pencils
• Magnetic Letters

1. Read to your child every day--this cannot be emphasized enough. Children who have a lot of experience with books prior to entering kindergarten do better in school. Be sure your child has time to enjoy the illustrations. Talk about what your child see happening in the pictures. This is a great way to build vocabulary, learn to make predictions and to make connections between the book and your child's own life experiences.

2. Encourage your child to retell the story. It's okay to help him out with hints if he forgets major portions of the story. If he gets out of sequence, ask him if it happened before or after other events. learning to retell a story in sequence is a vital pre-reading skill.

3. Let your child fill in familiar phrases in favorite books. He will be delighted to finish the sentence for you as you read together.

4. Encourage your child to tell grandparents or a favorite relative about the story he read.

5. Ask your child to retell the stories he has heard in preschool. Ask clarifying questions if the story is unclear.

6. Praise your child for any art work he brings home and encourage him to tell you about the picture. Ask questions that will require him to think about the message he wanted to convey with his picture. Ask who, what, when, and where questions.

7. Point out familiar letters and words on signs or in stores when you are shopping. Challenge your child to find other words or letters. You may be surprised at how many he will spot.

8. Purchase magnetic letters fro him to play with. Once he has learned them, challenge him to put them in the proper order.Teach him to write his name with the letters. If he asks, you can show him how to write other words too.

9. Set a good example and let your child see you reading for pleasure. He is more likely to want to learn to read if he sees it as something that you enjoy.

10. Let your child see you writing on a daily basis. Make a game of writing a grocery list or a list of his favorite movies. Let him dictate stories to you as you write the words for him. Read the story back to him so he understands that you have written the exact words he has spoken.

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on 6/24/2009 Preschool Website with a lot of useful material and free tips and tools, such as flashcards, worksheets, and free tried-and-true printable teaching games-
Pre K Teaching Tools
www.pre-kteachingtools.com