Raising Readers: 4-6 year olds
These kids are moving from preschoolers to school kids and are ready to take off into reading. Here are lots of tips, articles and book recommendations to help you help them.
Preschool Storytime
Preschool Storytime is built with exciting picture books, poems, fingerplays, songs, puppets, and occasionally a simple craft or game. Parents and caregivers are strongly invited, but not required, to participate in Preschool Storytime. Ages 4-6. Reservations are required.
Click here for a calendar of Preschool Storytimes and to register.
Picture Books
Good stories with good pictures!
Easy Readers
Here is a great list of books for kids moving from picture books to easy reader chapter books.
Literacy Tips for 4-6 year olds
Read more about the six Prereading Skills every child needs before they can begin to read. Here are some specific tips to help your toddler start to gain those skills.
Literacy Activities
We've paired up some great books with a related activity and a literacy tip. Try some literacy activites today!
Emergent Readers
All Arapahoe Library District locations now have Emergent Readers, which are books that are specifically designed to help our youngest patrons learn how to read.
ABC Fun for Older Children
Alphabet books aren't just for beginners! See if you can figure out the word puzzles in these books.
Again! Again! The Importance of Repetition
Every parent has been there—reading a book, doing a puzzle, or singing a song over and over and OVER again because your child insists on it! Well, the same thing over and over that you find a little boring is actually interesting and exciting to your child. Repetition is how they learn, and they love learning!
Beginning Readers: How Can I Help?
A challenging and remarkable time for children happens in the vicinity of Kindergarten and first grade. This is when they gathers up all of the bits of knowledge about letters, sounds, words and books they’ve accumulated and begin work on the giant puzzle called reading. As parents, we must use patience, enthusiasm, common sense and diligence in order to build a bridge toward independence and success.
Beyond Alphabetical Order
Most children start learning the alphabet by singing the ABC song, which introduces the letter names in alphabetical order. But let's shake that up a bit.
Building Vocabulary with Picture Books
Word books aren't the only books you can share with your children to help build their vocabularies! Any book helps, because children's picture books typically have more "rare" words in them than our casual conversations do.
Choosing Alphabet Books
Sharing alphabet books with children is a great way to help them learn their letters--the names, shapes, and sounds--as well as introduce new vocabulary words.
Everyday Situations and Preschoolers
As toddlers turn into preschoolers, they become more interested in new experiences. This is a good thing, since their lives often become filled with them! Welcoming new siblings, starting preschool, making new friends—preschoolers are very busy! We can help by reading them books that reflect their new experiences and feelings.
Fly into Reading with Mother Goose
Studies show that children who enter school knowing just a few nursery rhymes by heart tend to have an easier time learning how to read.
Hearing Letter Sounds in Spoken Words
Another skill children need to have before they start to read is being able to hear the different sounds in each word.
Kids, Magazines and Literacy
When you're looking for good books to bring home for your preschoolers, don’t forget about magazines!
Learning Letter Shapes
When choosing a book to help teach letter shapes, look for titles that show big, clear letters.
Learning Letter Sounds
If your child can recognize letter shapes and is now working on letter sounds, you might look for a book with alliteration ("bouncing ball") for each letter.
Multicultural Books
Want to learn about different places and different people? Check out some of these books and CDs.
Reading Aloud as a Family
Of course we read aloud to our youngest children—they can’t read yet. But reading aloud is a gift we can give our children even once they take that amazing step and become readers themselves!
Ready, Set, Read: The Look of the Book
Books for beginning readers have come a long way since “Dick and Jane.” But there are so many titles; how do you choose the best ones?
Repetitive Books and Literacy
Toddlers and preschoolers love learning new things and showing off what they know. Books with words or phrases that repeat make it easy for young children to guess what is coming next in the story. Making guesses like this is one of the ways children start to make sense of what they read.
Seeing Print Everywhere!
Long before children can read words themselves, they can learn that words and letters are all around them. This knowledge is called Print Awareness and it’s an important early literacy skill.
Vocabulary Building
Not all alphabet books have big, clear letters or familiar words or obvious letter-sound connections.
What Happens Next?
"Once upon a time..."
"And then..."
"The End."
These familiar words signal the beginning, middle, and end of a story and give us a framework for understanding what we are hearing or reading.
Wordless Books
We want our little ones to start making the connection between reading and the print on the page, so why read books with no words? Because wordless books are a great way to develop a child's language skills!
Summer Reading for the Whole Family...
Children who read with a family member at least three times a week are nearly twice as likely to achieve in the top 25th percentile in reading than those who read less. In addition, kids who continue reading during the summer are more prepared to succeed when school resumes in the fall, while those who skip reading are likely to fall behind.
