How to Make a Preschool Literacy Bag

Foam letters can help reinforce the abc's.

When children are learning reading readiness skills, practice at home is pretty important. You can make a preschool literacy bag for children to use at home that reinforces these skills.

Things You'll Need

• Simple books that cover different concepts, such as ABC books or books about shapes
• Worksheets
• Laminating machine
• Wipe off crayons
• Manipulatives (shapes die cut from fun foam, puppets to match the characters in a book, etc.)
• Tote bag
• Letter to parents

Instructions

1. Decide on a simple theme for the bag. Some themes to consider are counting, ABC's, or colors. You want to keep the bags very simple, as you are working with young children. They need to concentrate on one concept at a time.

2. Find a good book that matches the bag's theme. For example, Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh is a great choice for literacy bags about color.

3. Choose puppets, flannel board pieces or stuffed toys that match the book's characters. For example, in the Mouse Paint bag, you'd want to add white mice, colored mice, a paintbrush, a small water bowl and a stuffed cat.

4. Find or make some simple worksheets that reinforce the concept. For the Mouse Paint color literacy bag example, you might want to look for worksheets that match colors with color words or a worksheet that requires them to identify all of the purple things on a page.

5. Write a letter to parents explaining how to use the bag, including ways to continue learning the bag's concept in everyday life. For a color bag, suggest having them ask their child to play I Spy colors or ask them to encourage children to choose clothing in one color to wear that day.

6. Laminate all worksheets and the letter to parents on both sides. This way, the literacy bags will be easy to reuse again and again.

Tips & Warnings

• Sign each literacy tote in and out so that you can remind the right child to return a missing bag.

• Make a new literacy bag every few months to renew excitement about this take home activity. If you can, add something new to some of the old bags, too.

• Don't go overboard. A bag crammed with worksheets and manipulatives can completely overwhelm some parents.

Resources

• Usborne books - Excellent literacy resources