Pre-K at home · Ages 3 to 5, with a grown-up
Pre-reading games
Letters, rhymes, claps and listening: the games that come before reading. A few minutes at a time, side by side.
For the grown-up
How to play
- Sit together and play one game, or part of one. Five to ten minutes is plenty.
- Say the words with your child. Tap a picture to hear its name again.
- A wrong tap just fades away. Nothing is timed, and there is no score to lose.
- The voice says whole words, letter names and sentences, never single letter sounds. Turn it off any time and read the words yourself.
Away from the screen
- Letters: point out letters on cereal boxes, signs and books. Start with the letters in your child's name.
- Big and small: make letter pairs from paper or magnets, and match them on the fridge.
- Rhymes: read nursery rhymes and stop before the rhyming word. Make up silly rhymes: “cat, hat, zat!”
- Claps: clap the parts of everyone's names at dinner: Ma-ri-a, Ben.
- Same start: gather toys that start the same, like a bear, a ball and a block.
- Listening: say a short sentence and put down a button or a block for each word.
What comes next
When your child knows many letters and enjoys these games, move on to Phonics Practice, Step 1: Letters and sounds, beside Hannah Ward's lessons. There you say each letter's sound yourself, with a key picture to help.
Hannah's Little House Pre-K and Crystal and Shell Pre-Reading Workbook fit well alongside these games.
The six games
- 🔠 Big and smallMatch a capital letter to its small letter, and back again.
- 🔍 Find the letterFind every copy of one letter in a grid.
- 🎶 Rhyme timeWhich picture rhymes with the first one?
- 👏 Clap the partsSay a word, clap its parts, and count the claps.
- 🖼️ Same startPictures whose names start the same, and ones that don't.
- 👂 Listen for wordsHear a sentence: find the word in it, or count its words.
Each child's stars stay in this browser only. The words, pictures and sentences are original to Teddy Rook Book.