Every Child Ready to Read: Phonological Awareness

At the programs we librarians do for the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, we try to focus on one of the six pre-literacy  skills of Every Child to Read. Pre-literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually can read and write. For next Monday's 2- and 3-year old program, we will be focusing on Phonological Awareness, which is the ability to hear and play with the sounds of smaller words to sound out the words on the page. Obviously, the easiest  way is through rhyming. Rhymes, particulary nursery rhymes and songs present sounds or syllable in each word.

Two Little Blackbirds

Two little blackbirds

Sitting on a hill

One named Jack and one named Jill

Fly away Jack. Fly away Jill

Come back Jack. Come back Jill.

Notice the "ill" in " hill" and " Jill" have the same sound.

Another place children learn about sounding out words in the syllables in their name. In our infant program, we do a game called " Rum-Tum-Tum" where we ask the children to tap out their name on the drum. This is easy to do at home by using an empty can ( such as a Quacker Oats can) and the following rhyme:

Rum-Tum Tum

This is my drum

Rum Tum Tum

This is my drum

My name is ( tap out name)

What your's? ( child taps out name.)

Again, you could also just play with the sounds in your child's name or find words that have the same rhyming pattern.

Here are  some recommended books ( for more information, visit http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-Phono.htm)

• Llama Llama Mad at Mama  -Anna  Dewdney
•  Ten in the Den- John Bulter
• Bless this Mouse-Dianna Hutts Aston
• Goodnight Moon- Margaret W. Brown