Early Literacy Skills

Research shows phonemic awareness “playing with sounds” helps build phonic skills. Children who are strong in phonics are usually more successful at reading. Here are a few quick and easy ways to help your child develop these important skills. Have Fun!

By Katie Smith, WCES 1st Grade

Letter Recognition
Suggested Materials:
● Alphabet Cards
● Milk Lids with letters written on them
● Clothespins with letters written on them

Ideas to Practice
● Match capital and lowercase letters
● I Spy
●“I spy the letter _____”
●“I spy the letter that says ____”
●“I spy the letter that ____________ starts with ____”

Sound Boxes
Suggested Materials:
● Sound Box: Make 3 squares on a piece of paper or outside with chalk
● Toy cars
● Cheerios
● Poker Chips
● Milk Lids

Ideas to Practice:
● Sound Segmentation: Say a word or show a simple picture and have your child push an item up for each sound in the word into a square of the box you drew.
● Sound Blending: Use items that have letters written on them (milk lids) to form words, saying each sound as they build the word and touch each sound box.
● Beginning Sound Deletion: Ask students to say a word without the first sound. For example: what is sit without the /s/? Using the sound box may help students visually see the deletion. Say and push up an object into the box squares /s/,/i/,/t/ "sit". What is the word sit without the /s/ and remove that object from the square.

Sight Word Practice
Suggested Materials:
● Pipe cleaners
● Yarn
● Play doh
● Salt box
● Dry erase marker on window
● Highlighting words in newspapers or magazines
● White Crayons, white paper, paint

Use any of the above materials to practice sight words or spelling words in a fun way.