Literacy Activities for Children Birth through Kindergarten
Complete a literacy activity from this list. Put the number of the activity on a block in your Activity Log. Pick up a log at your library and join in the fun. You may do an activity as many times as you wish. Once your log is full, return to your local Sequoyah Regional Library to claim your prize. Prizes available while supplies last; limit two logs per child.
- Visit the library.
- Read your child a bedtime story.
- Play blocks with your child.
- Encourage your child to retell their favorite story using puppets.
- Read an animal book and make animal sounds together.
- Look at a picture dictionary together.
- Use play dough to make shapes or letters. Be creative and have your child describe what they have made.
- Sing counting songs, such as “One, two, buckle my shoe.”
- Visit the grocery store with your child and talk about the colors you see.
- Sing songs together.
- Read a nonfiction book with your child.
- Attend a storytime or program at your local public library.
- Talk about what is going on around you.
- Let your child make music with various kitchen items: pots, lids, spoons.
- Do fingerplays and action rhymes.
- Make a snack together by using a recipe.
- Dress up and pretend to be a community helper and read a story about the community helper.
- Play “guess what.” Give your child simple clues to guess familiar objects.
- Use shaving cream as finger paint and have your child draw letters and shapes.
- Put a puzzle together with your child.
- Sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” with finger actions.
- Count with your child as you drive in the car: signs, cars, trucks, etc.
- Read a children’s magazine, check your local library for current and back issues.
- At bath time, talk about what sinks and what floats.
- Dance and sing with a friend or grown up. Act silly.
- Go on a color walk together and point out things that are red, green, etc.
- Make and illustrate an alphabet book.
- Read your child a fairy tale.
- Read to your child outdoors.
- Sing the ABC song with your child.
- Dig for buried treasure in a sandbox.
- Read a book and ask questions about the action in the pictures before reading the text. Say, “What do you think happens?”
- Visit a museum, zoo, farmer’s market, aquarium, or festival and talk about what you see.
- Listen to a book on CD or download an e-audio book.
- Have your child make figure eights and rainbow arcs with a scarf.
- Visit a police or fire station.
- Swing at a playground and count how many times you go back and forth.
- Make a letter matching game from milk jug lid/bottle tops and play.
- Cut up various fruits and veggies and use them to paint with, look for different shapes and colors.
- Look for letters and words as you walk/drive down the street.
- Participate in the 1000 Books B4 Kindergarten program. See Children’s Department for details.
- Play an outdoor game.
- Have your child learn about a friend by asking him or her questions about family, pets, likes, and dislikes.
- Talk about the library. What does the word “borrow” mean?
- Clap syllables of words as you sing songs.
- Pretend you are in a jungle. What do you see and hear?
- Play “what would you do if” ex: “you were at the beach and it started to rain?”
- Read a TumbleBook. See Children’s Department for instructions.
- Form letters with cold, cooked spaghetti.
- Read a book written the year your child was born.