Activities for Pre-K Emergent Literacy

In Play Environment

• Pre-K kids do a lot of playing within the classroom environment. This play can revolve around a pre-created real-world setting such as a pretend shop or office the teacher has set up. A teacher can use this space to develop emergent literacy skills by using props laid out around the pretend environment. For example, if the classroom has a play area based on a family kitchen, teachers can leave writing pads for kids to scribble in, with the children imitating what they’ve seen their parents do when making shopping lists, for example. The teacher can make an activity of it with the whole class.

Letters in Names

• This activity helps children to recognize the shapes of letters when they appear in words. The teacher first writes the name of each child in the class on separate pieces of paper, handing them to the relevant child. Then the teacher goes through the letters of the alphabet one by one, presenting each letter in turn on a whiteboard or by holding up a picture. The children attempt to recognize when the letter being shown appears in their name by looking at the shape of the word in front of them. When a child recognizes a letter, he can trace around it with a coloring pencil.

Rhyming Activities

• Rhyming activities help kids to understand how words relate to others. The teacher holds up a set of three pictures at a time to the class. These pictures are selected beforehand because the name of the subject in two of the pictures rhymes while the other does not. For example, the pictures could be of a bat, a cat and a dog. The teacher names the three pictures and asks the class to point to the odd one out based on whether the name rhymes.

Syllable Claps

• This activity teaches oral recognition and aids children in understanding how words are constructed. The teacher stands in front of the class and announces the activity. She says a word, and then describes how the word is broken down into syllables. For example, the word vacation has three syllables. For each syllable, the class must clap along, but the teacher first demonstrates. The teacher then says the word again with the class clapping along.