Reading With Picture Clues
Use pictures to build children's reading confidence.
- Print out the page and read the story together, running your fingers along the lines as you read them. When you get to a picture, point to it and pause, giving children a few moments to chime in. You might underline the word that spells out the image.
- When you’re finished, say something like, “You did a great job reading that story,” or “Thank you for helping me read that story.”
- Next time you read a book together, help kids use pictures to understand what’s happening, like they just did. Younger kids can use this strategy to “read” a whole story (narrating the story based on the pictures alone). Older readers can use pictures as clues to help them read a word they don’t know (for instance, if they’re struggling with the end of a word beginning with “el,” and there’s a picture of an elephant on the page, they get a hint that the word is “elephant”)!
Abby’s Letter Garden
Prepare children for school success by exposing them to uppercase letters, helping them recognize them, and write them themselves.
Terry Crews Is an Artist
Terry Crews, Count, and Abby talk about the word “artist.”
I Know My Letters
A printable alphabet coloring page.
Creating Alphabet-Rich Environments
Alphabet recognition involves learning the names, shapes, and sounds of the letters in the alphabet, and it helps get kids ready for phonics learning. There are so many ways to introduce the alphabet to young children. Adding a little alphabet magic to your environment can be a great place to start.
Building and Rebuilding Language Skills—and Community!
An article about building children’s language skills by enriching your interactions.
Alphabet Art
Alphabet art is a fun, hands-on way to help kids recognize the shapes of letters. It can also provide an opportunity to layer in learning across subjects. Watch this video and think of ways you might incorporate letter crafts into your work with kids and families.
Building a Reader
An interactive course that explores key literacy goals, strategies, and activities to support learning around language and literacy in children ages 2-5.
