Letter Naming - quickly recognize and name uppercase and lowercase letters
- practice with flash cards
- match uppercase and lowercase letters
Phonological Awareness - manipulate the sounds of spoken words
- play rhyming games - say two words that rhyme (bat, hat) and ask your child to say a word that rhymes with those two words
- take turns thinking of two words that begin with the same sound (man, mop; duck, dog; fat, furry)
- say a word, one sound at a time, and then have your child say the word at the normal rate - for example - you say "/b/ /a/ /t/" then your child says "bat"
Phonics - know all the sounds of the letters of the alphabet
- make a list of CVC words and have your child practice sounding them out and blending them back together to form real words (mat, fan, bet, pen, hid, pod, cod, hut) (CVC = consonant, vowel, consonant)
- write two sets of CVC words on flash cards - play memory
Decoding - read new words by sounding them out and blending them back together to form real words
Book Reading
- Schedule 15-20 minutes a day for reading
- Picture walk - before reading, guide your child in making predictions as he/she looks at each picture
- Talk about interesting and new words while reading
- Model fluent reading - bring your energy and excitement to books as you read them aloud to your child.
- After reading, talk about what happened at the beginning, middle, and the end of the story.
Online Resources, Activities, and Games
Resources to print and practice at home
Star Fall
PBS Kids
Lil' Fingers
Scholastic Interactive Storybook
Adding
ABC Match
A-Z
Alphabet Action
