"Phonemic awareness is the best predictor for reading success," according to the Kansas National Education Association. Engage students in activities that require them to identify sounds, rhyme and manipulate sounds. Reading Resource.net has activities that students can do at school and at home. There are ideas for segmenting, rhyming and working with syllables. "Phoneme Jumping" is a game students play by jumping from rug mat to rug mat for each sound in a word. The website also has a printable rhyming board game and suggests giving students musical instruments so students can make a noise for the number of syllables in a word.
Phonics is another area in which kindergarten students should have lots of practice. This is when students begin to connect sounds with letters. Students need to complete activities that require them to learn their long and short vowel sounds. They also should practice reading consonant-vowel-consonant, or c-v-c, pattern words that they have the chance to apply their short vowel sounds when reading words. Once students have mastered reading simple c-v-c words, they should practice reading words with long vowels.
Although students are just beginning to read simple words, if they can read words that have short vowel sounds, they can begin reading books. Many students learn to read words from sight word lists, but they also need practice reading words within the context of a story. This requires students to use their phonics skills to sound out words quickly, learn to read from left to right, develop comprehension skills and begin to build fluency. Students will need all of these concepts in upcoming grade levels.
When people think of literacy, many think of reading, but writing is also a component of literacy. Since reading and writing are so connected, both skills should be developed. Give students magnetic letters so they can practice making words. Students also can make words based on a certain word family. Other ways students can write is by requiring them to write in a journal daily about topics that are familiar to them. They can write about their favorite game, TV show or movie. Also have students write in their journals about what they learned each day. Expect for many words to be spelled phonetically and missing letters. Struggling students can participate in shared writing activities. ReadWriteThink states that shared writing gives students the chance to see writing being modeled and still requires students to participate in the writing task.