While reading a story out loud to your preschoolers is an important part of teaching early reading skills, making the story interactive is also an effective way to build early reading skills. Choose an engaging story and introduce it to your preschoolers by telling them the title. Invite preschoolers to predict what might happen in the book based on the title. Read one page at a time, stopping to ask questions. Allow preschoolers to describe what they see in the pictures. Encourage your preschoolers to participate in sound effects for the story. For example, ask your preschoolers to make animal noises at appropriate times during a story about animals.
Collect several books that focus on teaching the alphabet. Choose books with large illustrations of each letter and preschool-friendly pictures. Introduce the books by singing an alphabet song or reciting the alphabet with your preschoolers. Page through each alphabet book and point out the different letters. Invite students to tell you what sound each letter makes. Ask your preschoolers to think of words that begin with each letter sound. Give each preschooler an alphabet book and provide time to look through the book and become more familiar with each letter.
Book walks build comprehension, which is an essential skill as preschoolers grow and begin to read on their own. Choose a story to share with your students. Provide a copy to each preschooler, if possible. Have your preschoolers look at the front cover. Without telling them the title, ask what they think the book might be about. Discuss the predictions your preschoolers come up with. Flip through the pages of the book, without reading anything, and ask the preschoolers what they think will happen in the story. This builds comprehension by teaching preschoolers to use the pictures as cues to help them determine what a story is about. End the lesson by reading the story.
Choose a story you have read to your preschoolers several times. Read the story again until you reach the ending, but do not read the last few pages. Stop reading and ask preschoolers what happens at the end of the book. After the review, invite your preschoolers to come with alternate endings to the story. Allow them to be creative, but remind them to focus on the characters and events that have taken place so far in the story. Repeat the activity with other books, as time permits. This encourages children to comprehend a story and learn that books have a beginning, middle and end.