Kindergartner – Literacy
Supporting Early Literacy During Kindergarten Years
Chapter 7.11
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Parent: You look upset at what happened?
Child: The teacher did not make a star on my hand today!
Parent: Which activity did you do today?
Child: We made sandwiches and even learnt to button my shirt
Parent: So then what went wrong?
Child: I ate all the cucumber and cheese.
Parent: So, you did not put anything in the sandwich?
Child: No (sadly)
Listen to your child. Follow your child’s lead and talk about things they want to talk about.
Let’s Reflect
Literacy should be something every child can genuinely enjoy learning. It is time to ditch the pen and paper for a while and intertwine this crucial skill into the way kids absorb without really trying. When they play…
Everyday moments, if mindfully harnessed can become literacy rich experiences for young children!
As your child leaves the toddler years behind and gets closer to starting school, learning literacy at home can become more purposeful. Kindergarten is the age when the child begins to engage in and experiment with reading and writing.
As a parent it is important to see the opportunities in everyday tasks and link these with literacy building skills.
How to build up on early literacy in early childhood years?
Children need parents to be their reading role models with daily practice in order to navigate successfully through beginning literacy skills. Early literacy skills are the roots of reading success. Five early literacy practices that will help your child be proficient at reading and writing are:
Talk Sing Read Write Play
Parent Involvement: What Skills Need to be Part of a Daily Routine?
Here are some simple ways you can incorporate literacy activities into your day.
1. Talk: speak to your children in the language you know best.
- Have two-way conversations with your child – children learn language by listening
Eg: Parent: This is called a chimney. It is used to push out the smoke while cooking.
Child: The same chimney through which Santa comes?
- Respond to what s/he says and add words to stretch his/her vocabulary.
Eg: Child: Look mama I can do like this…
Parent: Oh wonderful! You just did a head turn! Can you do it again for me please?
- Talk with your child about the everyday things you’re doing and seeing together. Talk while you prepare meals, do chores, get ready for bed, go to work and school in the morning
Eg: Have your oats while it is still warm. You will find it comforting in this cold weather. Or Look at that dog, it has brown and white spots. That is why his name is spotty!
- Repeat words and speak clearly and slowly to young children – this helps their brains identify sounds, build and strengthen the neural pathways in the brain used for language.
Eg: Can you fetch granny’s yellow um – bre — lla
- Talk about feelings. Use words to describe your child’s emotions. This can help your child understand how others feel too.
Eg: Parent: Oh you hurt your foot! How?
Child: I stepped on the LEGO
Parent: Oh! Come here let me have a look. So, now you know how badly it hurts right?
Child: Yes
Parent: Always clean up after playing with your blocks, so that no one else steps on it and gets hurt. Okay?
Child: Okay mumma.
- Share stories with your child. How about some funny or interesting stories from your childhood or tell your child about your family’s past. You could also take turns creating a story together.
Eg: Parent: These were your clothes when you were a baby.
Child: Baby? When was I a baby? How old was I?
Parent: When you were one month old.
- Emphasise the different parts of words or different letters to help your child understand that words can be broken down into segments.
Eg:, you could say ‘ball’ and emphasise the ‘b’ sound or ‘ba-na-na’ and emphasise each syllable.
- If your child asks a question, give them the chance to come up with answers before you step in.
Eg: Child: What’s 3 plus 2
Parent: What do you think it is
Child: After doing her finger math answers 5.
Parent: That’s right. See you could do it yourself. I told you.
2. Sing:
Singing and listening to music can have a profoundly positive affect on children’s literacy understanding
Songs like – 1,2 buckle my shoe or Clean up Clean up, everybody clean up etc not only teach the child numbers, alphabets but also is great for practise of oral language.
Tip: While singing rhymes clap along to the rhythm for your child to notice the different words of the syllables.
3. Read: make reading enjoyable and fun
Some Strategies:
- Point to each word on the page as you read. This enables the child:
– To follow and make connections amongst the print, story and the illustrations. Eg: Look this is the cave the lion king lives in. The cave is so huge!
– To track from one line of text to the next one.
- Read the title and ask your child to make a prediction. This will not only be fun but will also go a long way to ensure that your child indulges in predicting and previewing his or her own reading practices both now and in the future.
Eg: Parent: Title of the Story: “Bubble is honest”
Child: mumma what is honest?
- Take “picture walks.”: Help your child use the picture clues in most early readers and picture books to tell the story before reading.
Eg: Parent: Look, there is a bunny and he is hooping towards the farm. What do you think the bunny wants?
Child: The bunny likes to eat carrots. I think he is searching for carrots
- Model fluency while reading, and bring your own energy and excitement for reading to your child. Vary pitch, intonation and proper fluctuations when they read aloud.
- Discuss/Ask questions after every story, or help them relate the story to a personal experience. This generates higher-order thinking skills (critical thinking) which the child will need for both written and oral assessments in school.
Eg: Parent: The little duckling hugged mama duck before going to school.
Child: Just like me mama. I also give you a tight hug because I miss you.
4. Write:
- Encourage your child to write/scribble. Spellings need not be correct or even make sense, Lines may be crooked, writing can be uneven. This is the beginning of writing and understanding the purpose of writing.
- Encourage scribbling by providing many opportunities to write and draw. Keep crayons and paper within reach for your child to access it whenever needed.
- How about making a shopping list? Give your child their own notepad and pen and have them make a shopping list. Have your child bring his/her list along, shop with you.
- Penning down names: His/her own names or simpler words like mom/dad/or even the pet’s name ‘Bingo’
- Sensory writing: It is both therapeutic and fun. Have some grains or salt in a tray and let them trace letters/words/shapes on it
- Playdough: Not only excellent way to build fine motor skills but also, fun way to form shapes/letters/words/objects
Talk about what they draw. Have your child build stories or write captions for his/her drawings so they make the connection between written and spoken language.
5. Play:
The most preferred and organic way of learning during early childhood
- Ask them collect objects within the house with each letter/or shapes
- Play treasure hunt. Include words like below, behind, under, beside etc. to increase vocabulary.
- Play memory game with flashcards
- Role Play. Set up a grocery shop, fire station, ice-cream seller etc and have your child serve you. Help them make signs, dress up, make lists and write menus and have all the fun while playing with literacy.
- Puppetry: Another great tool for oral language and can also aid the child to retell a favourite story. Making up stories this way develops narrative skills.
- Play games with their child that involve specific directions (such as Simon Says) or actions like jumping like a frog, or act like a magician.
Beginning and lifelong literacy is transformative and constantly growing, through incorporating repetition, proper skills and modelling. However, the process must be as intuitive to a child as when he or she learned to speak. For this, the learning has to begin early on in life. The sooner the better.
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