Child Literature Activity Series: Using Children's Literature to Promote Early Literacy and Reading Readiness

In the article on Approaching Reading Readiness, we discussed five tips for helping your child learn to read. In summary, they were: 1) Read to your child, calling attention to details in the story for comprehension and phoneme awareness; 2) Call attention to letters and the sounds they stand for; 3) Play word games with your child; 4) Help your child learn to take words apart and put them back together; and 5) Introduce new words to your child. All of these steps will promote young children's language and literacy development, and help them to be "ready to read" by the time they enter the kindergarten and early elementary grades.

On these pages, as an accompaniment to its early literacy resources, PreKorner™ presents the Children's Literature Activity Series, consisting of four excellent picture book examples of child literature and an appropriate children's activity for each book. We selected these books because they are readily available at most public libraries, each was written by a notable child literature author, they represent four different child literature genre, and each received prestigious picture book awards. Our first two were both recipients of the ever-popular Randolph Caldecott award, through the American Library Association. The third received the Spur Award - Story Teller Category from the Western Writers of America, and the fourth the American Library Association's Notable Children's Picture Book Award. We'd like to express our appreciation for the work of both the American Library Association and the Western Writers of America—they are two examples of the many associations in the United States that are dedicated to excellence in children's literature. Below, check out each of the new activities. They are free, created for you and your children. Enjoy!

If this is your first time to visit the PreKorner™, or if it has been awhile, be sure to take a look at the PreKorner™ homepage and the Early Childhood Literacy overview page while you are here. If you teach or are interested in K-12 teaching and learning, go to LearningLeads™ to browse similar resources.