Literacy Center Ideas for Preschool

During  learning centers is a great time of the day to place out engaging literacy center activities  to help children build their letter knowledge and phonemic awareness.  These activities need to be meaningful, hands on, flexible and be able to be completed by children independently.
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Set out rich provocations with engaging materials that will draw children into each of the literacy centers to engage in their own learning.  As you introduce and set out language and literacy provocations, you need to remember to scaffold children’s learning.  Start out with name activities and then progress the activities along children’s learning domains.
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How do you teach literacy activities?
Literacy is so much more than one thing, it's a combination of skills that get children to read and write.  It is a combination of listening, speaking, reading and writing all rolled into one so it takes a combination of activities to prepare children for the task of reading.

What are some language and literacy activities for preschoolers?

​Name Activities-A child’s name is the most important first word that a child will learn to recognize. The first letter of their name will be the first letter that they recognize as they shout out the words “Look T that is my name”.  

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​Playdough Letter Cards- Not only is playdough fun but it is also a fun way for children to learn about forming their letters and building their fine motor skills.

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​Pinch and Cover Activities- These kinds of activities are a great way for children to begin to recognize and form letters while they build their fine motor skills.

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​Color the Room I Can Learn My Letters-This activity is by far one of my favorites.  Color the room is a great way to get children up and moving around as they search around the classroom for different picture cards that begin with the same letter sound.  

See how I have my color the room set up here.

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Serving Up Flapjacks- If you have children that like to pretend to cook then they will enjoy playing this beginning sound and letter recognition game.  Children will learn to serve up flapjacks by following an ordering ticket. 

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​Find and Clip Cards-I love clipping task boxes because I can focus on one skill at a time.  Matching letters, letters in their name, matching colors or even matching shapes.

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​Say Find Write Activities- I love having self check activities for the children to engage with during center time.  This Say Find Write activity is a kid favorite but it’s also a teacher favorite.

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​Spin and Color- All children like to play games with spinners, that’s why this game is so engaging for them.  It puts together two activities that children love to do, spin and color.
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​Pinch Find and Write- When you include a sensory bin with any activity children are going to dive right in and start learning.  For this activity add letter or beginning sound picture cards into a sensory bin filled favorite filler.  Have children use tongs or tweezers to pinch out cards.

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​Stamp and Write- All children love using stamps or stickers, sometimes you might find them in places that you wished they wouldn’t have stuck them, but just think they used their little fine motor skills to do it.  Back to the peel stick and write activity.  This activity is really simple to set up, all you need is a sheet of ABC stickers and a sheet of paper  or you can grab the FREE PRINTABLE.  Children pile stickers off of the sheet and place them on the sheet of paper, but they can’t stick another sticker until they have written the letter that they stuck.

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​Journal Writing Prompts- Journal prompt sheets are designed to actively engage your kiddos in the writing process to build their fine motor skills that will result in the progression of the penmanship skills. 

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