Kindergartners may not know how to read books yet, but you can use simple activities to teach them about the structure and function of books. Sit in a circle with a group of children and take turns "reading" a story. Allow each child to choose his own book and use a timer set for 30 seconds to ensure everyone gets a turn. Demonstrate how to follow words with your finger and explain that you follow the words from left to right and top to bottom.
Get your kindergartners moving and reinforce letter recognition with an alphabet matchup game. Line up five children on one side of the room and five on the other. Give each child on the first side of the room a card with an uppercase letter on it and distribute cards with matching lower case letters to the children on the other side. After you say go, the children go search for their matching letter.
One way to reinforce the concept of letter sounds is through rhyming. A rhyming game can be played either in a group or individually with flash cards. If you play in a group, sit in a circle with your kindergartners. Hold up a flash card with a word like "go" or "cat" on it and say the word out loud. The students can take turns thinking of objects in the room that rhyme with the word. If there aren't enough objects, they can choose the first word they think of.
Once kindergartners have grasped basic literary concepts such as letter recognition and letter sounds, they may be ready to start sounding out short words. You can encourage word recognition with flash cards and simple games like fishing for words. Prepare for the game by making about 12 construction paper fish with a short word on each fish. Attach a magnet to each fish. Make a fishing pole for each child out of yarn and attach a magnet to the bottom of each line. Set the fish out in rows on the floor and sit in a circle with your class. Call out a word and let the kids take turns fishing for the corresponding word fish in the pool.