One reading strategy is to ensure kindergartners are in a literacy-rich environment. The children should be surrounded by words and books, and the books should be available for the children to look at and/or read on their own. In addition, kindergartners should have numerous opportunities to talk about books and their experiences with reading or being read to. Second, the teacher should read to his students regularly, using teacher-led, shared and guided reading. In addition to formal reading instruction, kindergartners should be encouraged to talk about and retell the stories afterwards.
Learning alphabetic principles is a key reading strategy for kindergarteners. The children should understand the relationship between sounds and symbols, learn to match letters and sounds, and realize that letters compose words. The children learn the letter names and match sounds with the letters. In addition, kindergartners must know basic print concepts. They must understand that written material is presented from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom. The student's eye should track this orientation even with pictures. For example, when the student is shown a picture of a group of apples, her eye movement should follow standard print orientation.
Another reading strategy for kindergartners is phonological awareness. Kindergartners must not only understand that words are made up of sounds, but they must also differentiate the individual sounds in a word. In addition, the children should identify the beginning sounds of words, blend sounds to make words, substitute sounds, and recognize sounds that are missing from words. Kindergartners should be able to rhyme. They must also comprehend both syllable and word awareness. In syllable awareness, the children identify how many beats or syllables are in a word. In word awareness, they understand that words are individual entities. Kindergartners learn how to segment words from print as well as classroom activities that help them isolate words orally. Then they learn to track individual words in print.
A fourth reading strategy for kindergartners is building their sight vocabulary. The children begin to recognize short, frequently-used words on cereal boxes and in books that are read to them. They may also recognize their names. In addition to pointing out short, commonly-used words during reading sessions, teachers can help students increase their sight vocabulary by displaying words around the room. For example, a card with the word "chair" would be taped to a chair.