Pre-Reading Preschool Games To Play

Recognizing letters by sight and sound are two important first steps in early reading. You can help your preschooler learn these skills and have fun at the same time. Making a game out of it will keep your preschooler laughing while they learn letter recognition and work towards becoming early readers. Here are five fun games that you can play any time with your preschooler that will increase their pre-reading skills.

Going Fishing

Most parents have played a variation of the fishing game. Cut out small paper fish and place a paper clip on each. Next tie a string to one end of a stick or pole. On the other end of the string tie a small magnet, one that you can use to "catch" the fish by the paper clips. Young children enjoy playing this simple fishing game and parents can easily put together this game without needing a lot of supplies. To make this game more educational you can add letters to the fish. When your child catches a fish have them name the letter on the fish. If they do they can keep the fish, but if they do not know the letter they have to put it back. You could also have them make the sound the letters say or name a word that begins with each letter.

Letter Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be a lot of fun and a great way to learn to recognize letters. Write the letters of the alphabet on 26 small notecards and place them all inside a small bag or hat. Have your preschoolers pull one card and begin a hunt for that letter. Food labels in the kitchen, books, signs, and billboards are all places your child can find letters for the hunt. You can make it more of a challenge by having your preschooler only look for words that begin or end with the letter they have. You can also create labels and place them around the house to have more things for your preschooler to hunt through. Hang signs on the chairs, beds, walls, etc... to give your preschooler words to use in their hunt.

Letter Memory

Memory, where your child flips over cards trying to find a match, can be a great way to remember capital and lowercase letter matches. Write the alphabet on two sets of cards, once in capital letters and the second in lowercase. Your preschooler will then have to match each letter in both it's capital and lowercase forms. Do only a few letters at a time when you play, 6 to 10 cards is usually enough for each game. For children who already know their letters and are working on words you can play this to help them with sight words. Write a simple word on one card, such as cat or dog, and on the matching card have a picture of the sight word to be matched.

Word Bingo

This is a fun way to learn words that can be played with a small group of children. Create Bingo cards with simple words in each square then call out the words on the cards while the children mark off the words. An alternative could be holding up pictures that go with each word on the Bingo cards. Use beans or checkers to mark off each word as it is called.

Odd Word Out

Find 3 or 4 items around your house that begin with the same letter and arrange them on a table. Add one item that does not begin with the same letter or letter sound and have your preschooler try to determine which object does not belong. Sound out the names of each item and encourage your child to learn to sound out and listen to the names also. You can also play a similar game using items that rhyme and encourage your child to find what does not rhyme. This is a great way to learn to hear letter sounds in words.

These five games are all easy to put together and fun to play, and they will help your preschooler learn important early reading skills as well as strengthen those skills that they already have. Play these together with your preschooler and find out how much fun learning to read can be.

(image source - hortongrou )