Pre-Kindergarten 2021/22/23: Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 13 Early Literacy in Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 13

Early Literacy in Pre-Kindergarten

It is often assumed that literacy starts late in Kindergarten or even in first grade and means to teach young children how to read and write.

But actually developing language and literacy skills begins at birth with some arguing that it starts even in the womb, because babies already hear language spoken then.

In our daily interactions we and our children use language: we talk with each other, we read books together, we sing songs, we play and role play and therefore we help our children develop skills to become successful readers.

Playing on a daily basis is an essential tool for children to express themselves, discover the meaning (and power !) of words and learn how to convey their feelings and later tell stories.

(Thank you K2 and Pre-school for playing with us this week !)

Singing can be soothing or exciting, but definitely helps children to learn language in a playful and joyous way through sounding out words, repeating them, discovering new words and moving along to the songs.

Often shy children who can not express themselves very well, love to sing !

Reading to your child should be really a daily routine as it fosters bonding, love for language and love for books.

The Pre-Kindergarten children go to the library every Monday to borrow a new book and they love it.

Please read with your child !

My own children grew up without a TV, but with lots of books and it surely fostered their imagination.

Remember that when you try to teach your child language through watching TV alone that there will be no one to answer their questions or relate to their emotions.

Printed words are all around us, so children are naturally curious about the letters.

In the Pre-Kindergarten class we use a magnet board with magnetic icons for our morning circle and all the children can pick their own name already.

Some have started to sequence the days of the week, very naturally, very playfully and they are only 2 years old !

My motto has always been to nurture curiosity, but everyone at their pace.

Nobody needs to get pushed, but also nobody needs to be held back.

One of our girls, Veronica, is very interested in letters, she points them out everywhere and she is very proud that she knows already many of them.

We share her excitement, so this week the class was given additional opportunities to develop literacy:

The Pre-Kindergarten children eagerly played with letters, matched letters, found letters on their clothing, coloured letters, looked at many books and listened to stories and their friends conversations while playing.