Activity Promoting Literacy Interest for Young Children

Hello folks! Long time, no post. Thanks for waiting and also thank you for tuning in for another post from APE with children! Today I will be talking about an activity that can help promote literacy development, fine motor practice, and critical thinking/problem solving.

Lately, I have been trying to help the child that I teach become more interested in literacy and to have a better connection with letters in general. I believe I have been going about it the wrong way. Usually, I will provide some sort of activity that includes a specific letter and maybe an array of items that include that letter to help promote an interest in the letter. This approach may work for other children, but unfortunately, the approach doesn't always have great results with others. Although the child that I teach is beginning to recognize letters everywhere, his interest is minimal in these activities I provide.

Instead of providing activities that are not so interesting to him, I decided to try a different approach. He loves matching and sorting so I thought providing activities that include him interacting with letters may fuel his interest more. This could include alphabet magnets or even reading the pictures off of familiar items such as cereal boxes or advertisements (that's literacy too!). The activity I provided was a letter matching activity which I believed may fuel his interest in letters more by helping him become acquainted with letters while also fueling his interest in matching. 

Here were the results:

First, I provided cut outs of every letter of the alphabet, a copy of the alphabet on a piece of paper, and a glue stick. In this picture, he has found some of the letters that are familiar to him and glued them down first.

This is promoting fine motor development when picking up the pieces of paper (which tended to cling to the table due to static), as well as when he presses the pieces down.
        

When few letters were available that he recognized, I began asking questions such as, "Can you find the K?" He was able to use clues from the letters he did recognize to differentiate between the new letters he didn't recognize. This can be defined as problem solving skills or critical thinking!              

Much more than knowing letters goes into literacy/language development, and here is a quick video that shares information about promoting early language/literacy development, but facilitating activities that promote interest in literacy are a plus!

And remember, activities don't always have to be fancy! Children can learn from an array of resources and items, including paper, magazine cutouts, and glue! Do any of you have activities to recommend for children that promote literacy development? Feel free to comment and share. Thanks for reading and enjoy your Saturday!