Literacy Skills: Print Motivation, Letter Knowledge and Print Awareness

This post will be part one of my discussion on literacy skills. Today, we'll cover the last three after we covered the first three yesterday.

Print Motivation:
What is it?
Children who have print motivation like being read to and enjoy books. They may also pretend to write, ask to be read to and enjoy trips to get new books.
How can you help?
One of the simplest ways to encourage this literacy skill is to make reading time a special time through music, activities or a special spot. Make sure that books are easy for children to access and show them that you, too, enjoy reading. It also helps to make examples of reading and writing in everyday life to demonstrate how important it is.

Letter Knowledge:
What is it?
Knowing that letters have different names and different sounds is the foundation of letter knowledge. During storytime, we practice letter knowledge with the letter of the day.
How can you help?
Reading and writing activities can both help with letter knowledge. Pointing out and naming the letters in various applications including books or signs will also increase your child's letter knowledge. For younger kids, drawing the letters or talking about shapes will help them.

Print Awareness:
What is it?
Print awareness teaches children the rules of English such as the directions that we read in (top to bottom, left to right). Being able to point to words on the page on command is an example of print awareness.
How can you help?
Asking your child to point out and discuss the words in books or on signs is a great way to work on print awareness. This will also be a game they are familiar with from when they accomplished letter knowledge.

Literacy Skills: Narrative Skills, Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness

This post will be part one of my discussion on literacy skills. Today, we'll cover three and then we'll cover the last three tomorrow.

Vocabulary:
What is it?
This one is pretty simple. Knowing the names of things is a great skill when children are first learning to read. They can use the pictures as clues but, if they don't know what the picture is of, they'll struggle with the words on the page.
How can you help?
Building vocabulary can be as simple as talking to your child about the things they see around them and reading the books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Narrative Skills:
What is it?
Narrative skills is the ability to describe things and also understand and tell stories. This skill will ultimately help them learn how to read and enhance their conversation skills. Beginning narrative skills show themselves when a child is able to tell about an activity at school or relate a story about going to the store.
How can you help?
There are a few ways to encourage this literacy skill. Ask your child to tell you about the story they just read instead of having them passively sit while you read the story. Having your child relate stories that have a sequence to them will also enhance this skill.

Phonological Awareness:
What is it?
Hearing and manipulating the sounds in words is called phonological awareness. This includes the ability to hear and make rhymes, say words with certain sounds left out or put two sounds together to make a word. Trouble with this skill is where most trouble reading tends to surface.
How can you help?
Words games are a great way to help your child with this skill. Some examples include making up silly words or saying words with a pause in between ("tr" and "uck").

Literacy Skills

I'm sure this skill set is familiar to a great number of you, but I thought it might help to have it handy online.

I've created bookmarks with these listed on it to hand out to parents but there are a number of ways to make parents and caregivers aware of them including signage in the story time or children's area of your library and discussing applicable skills during your reading time together.

• Print Motivation
• Letter Knowledge
• Print Awareness
• Narrative Skills
• Vocabulary
• Phonological Awareness

I'll be going further indepth on each of these over the next few days so make sure to follow up for tips and tricks :)

Story time Warm Ups and Closings

Repetition is very important when children are first learning. Hearing the same sounds repeatedly helps them commit them to memory. It also adds enjoyment because, eventually, the child will be able to anticipate endings or use their imagination to change the story. All of this adds to the level of participation in story time and with at home reading.

For our story times, I like to open and close with the same songs. This allows the experienced children and families sing with me and lets newcomers know what to expect upon their return! Creating this sense of community is largely important when trying to make children feel welcome and encouraging participation.

The opening activity is just a way for us to get the wiggles out. I altered a game that I knew previously and created Bunnies which allows the kids to exert some energy before sitting down for active listening and finger plays. It goes like this:

You place your hands on either side of your head. I say "Bunnies up high!" And the kids raise their arms. Followed by "Bunnies down low!" and "Bunnies to the side!" which are self explanatory. The final instruction is "Bunnies are go!" which is the signal to sit down quietly so that we may begin.

Our opening song is "Clap and Sing Hello!" sung to the tune of Farmer in the Dell which is the same tune that our closing song, "We Wave Goodbye Like This" is sung to.

What songs do you like to use? Do you use repetition or change it up frequently?