Literacy Activities in Kindergarten

Kindergartners are fascinated by the mystery of writing and reading. It is a complex puzzle that is best learned by incorporating a variety of literacy experiences. The four domains of literacy development are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We scaffold the acquisition of speaking skills by giving our students opportunities to speak in front of their classmates. When sharing a book from home or our library, the students get a chance to be the teacher. They speak to their classmates about their book, and then call on friends who are raising hands to offer comments or questions. 

During play, the social interactions are rich with verbal exchanges that increase connections in the brain that are essential for the development of literacy skills. Listening is a complex process that is practiced daily. Our study of the sense of hearing at the beginning of the school year is strategic in the way that we frame conversations around attention with our students. Activities like Morning Meeting, mindfulness exercises, and read-alouds involve the development of comprehension, attention, and physical/emotional self-regulation skills.

We also teach the children how to actively listen to each other during times of conflict resolution. One of the best ways to teach reading in kindergarten is through writing. As the students sound out the words they want to write, they are learning about how the letter sounds fit together to create words and how words fit together to make sentences. During writing activities, the students develop fine motor skills, phonemic awareness, letter formation skills, and the acquisition of sight words. Reading skills are taught daily during Morning Meeting, as we read the schedule together and reinforce short vowel and consonant sounds. We practice tapping out words together to show how consonants and vowels fit together to make words, and we model the joy of reading during story times. Here are some examples of the fun and engaging activities we employ to develop the rapidly growing literacy skills in our kindergartners.