An important pre reading skill concerns developing awareness of sounds and rhythms. Body percussion (making noises or sounds with body parts) is a fun way to learn to distinguish between different sounds and to build up memory for patterns or sequences of sounds. It also helps to support development of vocabulary about sounds. You could try:
- Singing action songs such as ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ or ‘happy and you know it’.
- Making noises with different body parts and describing them.
- Passing a sound back and forth eg a clap or a click; can you build a sequence?
- Describing differences in sounds – loud / quiet, long / short, quick / slow.
