Jump Into Reading: Word Play

If you have a little one in your life, you’ve probably heard the advice to sing with them. But while you're singing your thousandth rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus," you might start wondering why that is.

Singing with your child—along with other activities like saying rhymes and making animal sounds—helps your child play with words. This ability to play with words by hearing and changing the sounds in them is called phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is an important skill needed to learn to read and kids of all ages benefit from it.

So all the singing and rhyming you are already doing with your child is getting them ready to read! Because phonological awareness is a skill that’s all about hearing words, you don’t need any special supplies to keep working on it. You can practice anywhere--in the car, in a waiting room or while getting ready for bed!  Get inspired with some of these fun activities led by Mr. Josh: 

Of course, reading together also helps develop these skills! I love sharing picture books you can sing. Singing breaks words down into smaller parts and is a great way to practice hearing the individual sounds in words.

One of my favorite picture books to sing is I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! about a boy who paints the ceiling, the walls, the curtains and the floor…and then he starts painting himself! You can sing it to the tune of the classic “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More.” 

Practicing rhyme (words that end with the same sound, like “bat” and “cat”) also helps create strong readers. This is good news because there are so many great picture books that rhyme! I love Sheep in A Jeep, about a bunch of sheep that go on an adventure in a jeep, encountering tons of rhyming words on their journey.

Playing with words comes naturally to children, and picture books that play with language are a great way to encourage this. In Bathe the Cat, the family cat changes the words on the chore list, creating chaos! Will they be able to get the house ready for grandma’s visit? 

For more ways to help your child learning to read, visit Chicago Public Library’s Jump into Reading resources! 

Click here for the Spanish version of this blog post.