Songs, poems, and finger plays are some of the preschool activities that promote pre-reading skills. These activities help them strengthen their vocabulary, develop memory skills, listen to syllables, gain phonological awareness, learn auditory discrimination, play with rhymes, understand sequences, and hear the rhythm and fluency of language.
You can do a little twist to sing songs.
Play any familiar song but sing each syllable backwards, for example, “Baa, baa black sheep, do you have any wool?” becomes “Aab, Aab kcalb peehs, evah uoy yna loow”. When preschoolers hear the familiar tune, they will recognize the song and preschoolers will find them amusing as they are sung in a fun way that gives them laughter and enjoyment.
Songs, poems, and fingerplays are great activities for preschoolers as they can instill a love of words and language.
Creating books has many benefits;
1. Train them to become readers and writers
2. Learn to apply literacy concepts
3. Learn to associate oral language with written language
4. learn to sequence events
5. Compose your own stories and write at your own level
6. Motivate them to develop their writing skills to higher levels
7. Help them gain confidence to believe that they are great readers and writers.
When preschoolers are given the opportunity to create their own books, foster an atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm by encouraging them to keep and reread their own books. Book making is one of many special and meaningful preschool activities for pre-reading skills.
Dramatic play allows preschoolers to explore oral and written language.
The ideas and concepts they have learned and are familiar with are no longer abstract and arbitrary, but become real when they participate in dramatic works. When they are surrounded by a literacy-enriched environment, learning becomes natural as they can practice, experience, and explore spoken and written language.
During dramatic play, props are often used for their many benefits.
1. To stimulate ideas
2. Learn to interact by encouraging them to communicate their needs and ideas to their peers.
3. Provide unique literacy experiences that develop their creativity.
4. To expose them to impressions of real-life situations and to use these impressions in a meaningful way. Suggested ideas are to create a scene from a doctor’s office where you have a receptionist writing down patient details using sign-in sheets or a scene from a restaurant with waiters or waitresses writing customer orders using order pads.
Skits are fun activities for preschoolers that provide an opportunity to discover literacy concepts in a natural setting or setting.