Are you looking for ways to encourage TONS of early literacy skills without needing much more than some time together and an activity or two? I have some super simple, fun ways to strengthen early literacy skills with your toddlers and preschoolers, at home OR in the classroom!

Easy Ways to Encourage Early Literacy Skills

1. Read together!

Reading together is probably THE most underrated literacy activity ever. It’s such an amazing way to practice a huge variety of skills and concepts, promotes positive connections to literacy, and is the perfect foundation for SO many essential literacy skills.

There is such a huge amount of value stuffed into any time you have together to read and you can pull TONS of comprehension and literacy skills out of any book.

Many books for toddlers and preschoolers are perfect for practicing skills like making connections to the stories, retelling the important parts of the book, putting the events of the book in the correct order, making predictions about what might happen next, identifying pictures/colors/objects, and learning new vocabulary words. You really can’t go wrong with the books you choose because there’s always SOMETHING to learn from it…even if it’s simply building their LOVE OF READING!

You can simply talk about these literacy skills and practice them verbally or you can work on activities that are related to the books and skills you’re learning about too. These preschool book activities are a perfect way to practice literacy skills with your little learners and connect the learning to a great piece of literature!

There are tons of ways to practice literacy skills, like sequencing and letter identification, as well as some fun, hands-on activities to practice fine motor skills too. My preschooler loves doing these activities together and even ASKS me if we can get them out in the morning. Encouraging a love of literacy as much as possible around here! :)

NEED THOSE PRESCHOOL BOOK ACTIVITIES? CLICK HERE!

2. Tell stories.

Telling stories is a great way to encourage imagination, get the creativity flowing, and teach every little kid that their thoughts and ideas have power! It’s also the most foundational writing skill…the idea. The first step to ANY song, book, movie, or literally ANY story written is the idea. Encouraging young kids to express their ideas and stories aloud is the first step to using imagination, practicing foundational writing skills, and becoming authors.

Encouraging your little ones to tell stories to you, their stuffed animals, or even mimicking other people telling stories is the perfect first step! There are tons of books and stories for kids to listen to using apps and websites like Epic, Vooks, and even some YouTube channels.

If they’re a little older and ready to start drawing pictures to show what’s happening in their story, that’s an awesome next step. The last step is obviously writing those ideas and thoughts down on paper, but that usually happens closer to kindergarten or first grade ages, so no need to rush that part.

I love to teach little ones how to tell stories by telling stories myself, asking them what they think could happen next, and having them retell the stories they’ve heard in books or seen in movies. Even just telling the events of their day (in the correct sequence if possible) or playing pretend with stuffed animals or a play kitchen are all great ways to start telling stories, remembering and expressing details, and strengthening that creativity and imagination muscle.

3. Explore letters.

Oh goodness, letters are just SO much fun, friends! There are literally ENDLESS ways to identify letters and practice letter sounds. You can use stamps, letter beads, play dough, markers, magnets, letter tiles, worksheets, games, letter cards, foam letters, letter cookies, gummy letters…the list could go on forEVER.

The fun thing about letter is that you can incorporate motor skills into letter practice too! Some easy ways to practice fine motor skills and letters is by writing them, coloring them, cutting them out and gluing them somewhere, adding letter beads to pipe cleaners, creating letters with play dough, stamping letters, or completing letter puzzles.

Gross motor skills are also simple to practice along with letters! You can practice by learning the letters in sign language, creating the alphabet with your body, or water painting them. One of my all-time favorite ways to connect letters and gross motor skills is to write the letters on the ground outside with chalk and have my preschooler hop onto the letters I call out or squirt them with water! He gets lots of energy out running around outside and get some literacy practice too.

But, ANY way you’re practicing letter recognition and letter sounds is AMAZING for your learners! Get creative with it, turn it into a game, play Go Fish, work with play dough, build letters with apple slices and then gobble them up? Haha! The sky is the LIMIT!

If you need a couple fun, hands-on ways to practice letters, check out these ALPHABET BUSY BOXES and PLAY DOUGH ACTIVITIES!

4. Practice literacy skills through conversation!

Talking to young kids is way more valuable than we sometimes give it credit for. Little learners are like sponges, soaking up all the things the see and hear around them and storing them inside until they’re so full that these skills start to spill out. So, your conversations with your kids and students are VALUABLE.

So, discussing literacy and comprehension skills like story elements, sequence of events, and making connections is a great way to introduce kids to literacy skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives. Most of these literacy skills can be applied to almost ANY book too! Whenever you read a book together, have a question or two ready to ask your little one to encourage story comprehension and to start teaching them that they should always be thinking about and soaking in what they’re reading.

Of course, they’ll need LOTS of practice and a ton of exposure to these kinds of questions to reinforce their comprehension and literacy skills, but over time you’ll start to see them practice them on their own! My 3 year old makes connections from books to other books, books to movies, and books to things he does in his own life frequently because we talk about those connections all the time. So, talk with them and model what those literacy skills look like and they’ll soak them up, just like they do with everything else! :)

5. Sing songs.

Putting thoughts, skills, concepts, and facts into song form is a really incredible way to help people of all ages remember them. Adding the rhythm and beat to the literacy skills or concepts your kids are working on remembering is a sure-fire way to help them remember it, even when they’re not trying.

When I was super young, like 3 or 4 years old, my mom made up a little song to help me remember my full name, phone number, and address in case I was ever in an emergency and wasn’t with her. Y’ALL…I can sing that song TO THIS DAY. I know my childhood phone number and address because she made it into a song! The best ways I learned to spell words that weren’t spelled phonetically was to add some rhythm to how I said the letters when spelling them. Like, when you spell Mississippi, you don’t just SAY the letters, do you? You kind of sing ‘em…like, M-I-S-S, I-S-S, I-P-P, I! You just sing-song spelled that with me, didn’t you? :)

This concept applies to literally ANY skill. Literacy, math, science, social studies, art, music…you name the skill and I guarantee if you add some rhythm to the facts as you’re learning them, they’ll stick WAY more concretely and for much longer than just saying or writing them.

So, as far as literacy skills are concerned, you can look up or make up songs to practice letter names, letter sounds, rhyming words, digraphs, blends, simple sight words, or even parts of a story! As long as a little rhythm is there, they’ll get stuck in your kids heads and they’ll be practicing their literacy skills without even knowing it. And that’s a win for everyone!

There you have it, friends: 5 easy ways to encourage literacy skills with your toddlers and preschoolers! I hope you found a helpful tip or two in here that you can use at home or in your classroom.

As always, cheering you on!