1000 Books Before Kindergarten

Shared reading is the most important activity to help children get ready to read, whether they’re one month or four years old. 

Activity 1

Find books that have no words and have only pictures and make up the story together. Look at the pictures carefully and discuss what is in them. Take turns telling the story to each other and see how your stories differ.

Activity 2

Pick a story that you both know well and play pretend, retelling it with dolls, action figures, puppets, or other toys. See if your child can guess the story.

Have them pick a story, and not tell you, and retell it with toys.

Activity 3

Take magnet or foam letters and freeze them overnight. Put them in a bucket outside for your child on a hot day and hand them a clean dropper or cup of water and have them watch the ice melt and the letters appear. Name the letters and see if you can make a word or name with them.

Writing involves both fine and gross motor skills, and it requires plenty of practice to develop.

Activity 1

Take popsicle sticks and have your child glue them or place them together to form the ABCs. Next, have them form their name or your name or other family member’s names.

Activity 2

Play a game of finger drawing a letter on your child’s leg or arm and have them guess the letter. Have them do the same to you and see who can guess the most letters!

To make it harder, draw a short word and see if they can guess what it is.

Activity 3

Encourage your child to paint a picture using their fingers and notice how new colours form when the paints mix.

Have your child trace letters with the paint on their fingers and practice getting a feel for them.

Singing slows down language so kids can better hear the sounds in each word. It also helps them learn new words. 

Activity 1

Make your own sequence song about a process, such as leaving the house, sitting down to eat, or going to preschool or daycare (This is the way we…). Think about all the steps involved in the process and add them to the song, singing it every time you begin to do that process.

Activity 2

Have you and your child sing your favourite songs, while dancing at the same time. Stop intermittently and shout FREEZE! And see who can stand still the longest.

Alternatively, have music playing and keep stopping it and shouting FREEZE.

Activity 3

Think of your child’s favourite song and hum it. Have your child guess what song it is! Switch and try to guess what song they’re humming. If it’s too hard to guess, give them a hint with one of the words from the song.

Talking to kids encourages them to understand what they will eventually read; open-ended questions can help, reading and retelling stories, and having open discussions. 

Activity 1

When you go for a walk, bike ride, or park, point out all the different road signs to your child and explain what they mean. Or you can also play I Spy with the different signs and have your child look for different shapes and colours.

Activity 2

When making a meal (like a salad or something else that has lots of components) or playing with a toy that has different parts and pieces (for example Lego or magnet tiles), go over all the ingredients or components. Sort the items as you name them and discuss the similarities and differences. For example, the lettuce and carrots are both vegetables but the lettuce is green and the carrots are orange, etc.

Activity 3

Pick a letter of the alphabet and name everything in your child’s room that starts with that letter. Move onto different parts of the house.

For a harder variation, try to find words that end with that letter.

Play is an integral part of a child’s literacy development as different kinds of play help develop language. 

Activity 1

Close the curtains or blinds so you can make shadow puppets with a flashlight and your hands. Tell a story as you make different shapes, or have your child guess the shapes and have them make their own shapes with their hands.

Activity 2

Use empty boxes as a canvas for art or pretend. Make the boxes into forts or into musical instruments. Use markers or paint to decorate the boxes and pretend they are racecars, or spaceships, airplanes, or trains.

Activity 3

Write a menu filled with your child’s favourite foods and take their order before a meal. Read the menu to them and have them select what they’d like to es, setting the table and serving them like they’re at a restaurant.