The young child is most closely bonded to her family, so it is natural to use this subject matter in a literacy activity. Take a picture of each student and print out the photos. Give each child their own picture and have them paste it into a "family" page of the literacy album. Instruct the child to draw pictures of the rest of her family. Introduce the child into labeling by printing the "dad," "mom," "sister," "brother" and other typical titles for family members under each picture. The child can then copy the words underneath your labels and put the page in the literacy album.
Four-year-olds are fascinated by animals of all varieties. At this age, they have learned to recognize many types of creatures and are eager to display their knowledge. Give each child a magazine devoted to wildlife or pets. Let the children cut out pictures of five different animals. Give each child a packet of cut-out alphabet letters or small alphabet magnets. Assist children in identifying the initial sound and first letter of the name of the animal. For example, if the child has a picture of a lion, you help the child make the sound and locate the corresponding letter. Save the pictures for the literacy albums and have each child write the associated letter on the cut-out.
An interesting activity to add to the literacy albums of your pre-K students involves emotions. Give each child a page with emoticons drawn on them, such as faces depicting happy, sad, worried, angry, frightened and surprised. Talk about each emotion with your children and allow them to share their feelings. Instruct each student to pick an emotion they want to explore further. Give them a paper plate in which they can draw a face showing the emotion they chose. Assist each student in labeling each drawing with a word describing the emotion, and allow students to present their drawings and words in a class circle.
Acquaint your class with the concepts of verbs by offering an "actions" lesson, which will be added to their literacy albums. Conduct a game of Simon Says in which you call out such things as "Simon says jump" along with giving other commands not prefaced with the magic words. When a child acts without Simon's permission, he will be out of the game. Give the winner a small award such as a box of colored pencils in which he can further explore literacy. Following the game, have the children sit down. Explain the concept of verbs and relate this to "Simon Says." Ask the children to give you more examples of actions. Pick a few of the words such as "run," "skip" and "walk" to display on the board. The children can then practice copying the words in their albums.