HOW PARENTS CAN HELP THEIR PRESCHOOLERS GET READY TO READ

PRESCHOOLERS

GET READY TO READ

Shining

Stars
PRESCHOOLERS

HOW TO USE 

THIS BOOKLET

You are your child’s first and 

most important teacher. This

booklet gives you ideas on how

to help your young child get

ready to read. 

• Read the story A Boat Named

Lucky on PAGES 1-3.

Watch for ways the parents in

the story help their children

get ready to read. Before you

begin reading, you might

want to look at the checklist

on the back page for ideas.

• Read the page from the story

Anna’s Sails on PAGE 4.

Look at the questions and

activities parents can use with

Anna’s Sails to help their

children learn more about

stories, words, and sounds. 

• Try these ideas with other

books whenever you read with

your child.

• Read the checklist on the back

page for reminders on how to

make reading time more fun

and interesting. You might post

it on the refrigerator, or use it

as a bookmark.
he three most important people in my lifeare my wife Antonia and our two

kids, Lucy and Anthony. Lucy is four, and Tony is three. They’re both in preschool. It seems like only 

yesterday we were watching them crawl. Now they’re on their way into the big world. 

At first, I didn’t think I could help much with their reading. I’ve never been much of a reader

myself. I thought that would be my wife’s job. But she said, “No, we both need to help them. Come

on, we can do it together.” So I gave it a try, and I’m not so bad! I can help my kids with some of the

things they’ll need when they start school, like learning new words, practicing the alphabet, and

writing their names.

Lucy loves to make up stories. Sometimes when we finish reading a book she asks, “What

happens next, Daddy?” I don’t know, of course, so I ask her: “What do you think happens

next, honey?” We read one book about a girl who was trying to find her parents, and Lucy

made up a new ending: “After the girl found her parents, she took them to China because

she loved China and wanted to show it to them.” That got me thinking, so I asked her

questions: how did they get there? How long did it take? Did she know how to speak Chinese? 

Sometimes Lucy pretends to read to her little

brother. She can’t read yet, but she pretends. One day I watched her

show Anthony how to hold a book. 

“See, this is the top,” she said.

“Top!” he said, pointing. 

“Some pages have pictures and words,” Lucy said, pointing to each. “And words 

have letters.”

A Parent’s Story

T

A Boat Named Lucky

PRESCHOOLERS 1

Lucy pretends 

to read.
2

Lucy’s dad asks her

questions about the

stories they read.

“Letters,” he repeated.

Lucy knew the story pretty well because we had read that book many times before. She was only

remembering the story, but she moved her finger under the words as she “read.” Anthony looked

like he was in heaven. 

Later, when her brother was napping, Lucy and I read the book together. I decided to have some

fun with it, so I changed a couple of words. Instead of “goose” I read “moose.” Lucy laughed and

said, “it’s not a golden moose, it’s a golden goose!” 

“You’re right,” I said, and went on reading but then instead of “goose” I said “caboose.” 

“No, no, it’s a goose, you silly Daddy!” She thought I was just teasing but I was happy she

could hear the difference. 

Lucy knows the whole alphabet, and is starting to write it,

too. She asked her mother to help her and Tony make an alphabet book. Antonia got the children

some paper, old magazines, and scissors, and waited for them to ask for help. I’m very hands-on—I

probably would have jumped in and started telling them how to do it. But I saw that this way, Lucy

and Tony could start with what they already know and make the book really “theirs.”

Lucy cut out a picture of a kitten first. I figured she’d use it for K, kitten, or C, cat, but she

said, “Mom, does Gato start with G?” When Antonia said yes, Lucy asked for help writing

GATO to go with her picture. Gato is the family cat, a little kitten from the pound. He was

napping in a patch of sunlight near Tony. 

Tony held up a picture of a boat. “That’s a canoe, Tony, for the letter C, right?” 

I asked. 

“No, Dad—boat,” he said. 

“That’s right, it’s a boat. And this kind of boat is a canoe,” I said. “Canoe starts with C,

Tony,” I said. I wrote out the letters for him and he pasted his picture of a canoe above them.

He asked, “Can we find more boat pictures?”

Tony’s question reminded me that I once built a sailboat when I was a kid, so I said, “let’s

make one!” After supper, we all walked to the library. The librarian helped us find some books on

toy boats. We picked one with a simple boat we could make ourselves. 

PRESCHOOLERS

Lucy and her Dad

play games with

words that rhyme.

Lucy’s mom helps her 

write words.
PRESCHOOLERS

I brought home some scraps of wood from the construction site where I work. I sawed off two corners

of a board for the front of the boat, and saved one corner for the keel. “This is the hull,” I told Lucy

and Tony, pointing to the side of the boat. “The front of the boat is the bow. The back is the stern.”

They took turns sanding the hull. 

When they were finished, I drilled a hole for the mast, and nailed the keel to the bottom of the hull.

“The keel keeps it from tipping over,” Antonia explained. She and the kids glued a pencil in the hole I

had drilled for the mast. 

“Here’s a sail,” Lucy said. She held up a paper sail she had cut out. “Can I put it on the—what

is it? The mast?” Antonia told her she was right and helped her glue the sail to the pencil. 

We were almost ready to launch. Tony wanted to put a picture of his toy cowboy, Curt, in the

boat. Lucy wanted to name the boat. I held the boat steady and Antonia helped Lucy write LUCKY

on the stern with a marker. 

We took the boat to a stream nearby that flows to the ocean. Tony put his drawing in the boat,

and Lucy laid the boat gently in the water. “The bow goes in front, right?” She asked. I smiled and

nodded yes.

Tony gave it a little shove. The boat spun

around once and slipped into the current.

We watched it bob out of sight.

“Bye-bye, Cowboy Curt,” he said.

“Bye-bye, Lucky,” Lucy said.

I felt good as I watched the boat

disappear. Antonia and I had just

showed our kids how to use books

to learn how to do something! The

boat, Lucky, wasn’t the only thing we

launched that day.

3

The End.

Lucy and her mom talk

about the first sound 

in a word.

Every day Lucy and Tony’s

parents teach them new words,

like “mast,” “bow,” and “stern.”
Try asking your preschooler questions

like these when you read together.

4

nna made sails for boats. The sails she

sewed were more beautiful than anyone 

in the village had ever seen. They were

softer than silk and as white as the

moon. No storm was strong

enough to rip them, but they

could catch the softest

breeze and keep any boat

moving. People came from

far away to buy them. One

day, word of Anna’s sails

even reached the King. 

Activity Page

PRESCHOOLERS

Talk about the story

• What does Anna make?

Sails.

• What are Anna’s sails like?

They’re soft and white.

• Why is it important that

sails are strong?

So that they don’t rip in the wind.

• Why do you think people

wanted to buy Anna’s sails?

Because they are strong 

and beautiful.

• What do you think the king

will say about Anna’s sails?

He will probably like them and

say that they are the best 

sails he has ever seen.

Talk about the words 

and sounds

• What sound does ‘s’ make?

Point to the words 

in the page start with 

the letter “s.”

There are eleven. (Sails, sails, sails,

she, sewed, softer, silk, storm,

strong, softest, sails)

• Let’s think of three more

words that start with 

the “s” sound.

Sandwich, super, sidewalk

• Can you think of words that

rhyme with sail?

(mail, tail, rail) 

• If we take the “s” sound

from slip, snip, and strip,

we can make new words.

Can you say the new words?

(lip, nip, trip)

• What words rhyme 

with sing? 

(ring, king, wing)

• If we take the “s” sound

from stall and small, we

can make new words. Can

you say these words? 

(tall, mall) 

Talk about new words

• Anna’s sails are made of

silk, which is a kind of

cloth. What things can you

think of in our house that

are made of cloth?

Shirts, coats, towels, napkins

• How is cloth different 

than wood?

Cloth is soft and wood is hard. You

can make clothes out of cloth but

not wood. (Etc.)

• A village is a small town.

What do we call a big town?

A city.

A

There’s more to reading together than just saying the words. 

Anna’s Sails
This publication was produced under National Institute for Literacy

Contract No. ED-00CO-0093 with RMC Research Corporation. The

views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the policies of

the National Institute for Literacy. No official endorsement by the

National Institute for Literacy of any product, commodity, entity, or

enterprise in this publication is intended or should be inferred. 

The National Institute for Literacy, an agency in the Federal

government, is authorized to help strengthen literacy across the

lifespan. The Institute works to provide national leadership on

literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for

children, youth, and adults by sharing information on scientifically

based research. 

Sandra Baxter, Director

Lynn Reddy, Deputy Director

The Partnership for Reading, a project administered by the National

Institute for Literacy, is a collaborative effort of the National

Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education, and the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to make evidencebased reading research available to educators, parents, policymakers, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to

learn well.

This Partnership for Reading publication describes strategies proven

to work by the most rigorous scientific research available on the

teaching of reading. The research that confirmed the effectiveness 

of these strategies used systematic, empirical methods drawn from

observation or experiment; involved rigorous data analyses to test its

hypotheses and justify its conclusions; produced valid data across

multiple evaluators and observations; and was accepted by a peerreviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts. 

The application of these research-based strategies will increase 

the likelihood of success in reading instruction. Adherence to

scientifically based research in this publication was ensured by a

review process that included representatives of each Partnership for

Reading organization and external expert reviewers. For detailed

information on this review process, contact the Partnership for

Reading at the National Institute for Literacy, 1775 I Street NW,

Suite 730, Washington, DC 20006.

Written by Elizabeth Goldman and C. Ralph Adler, design by Lisa T.

Noonis and Diane Draper, and production by Bob Kozman, all of

RMC Research Corporation.

This brochure is based on A Child Becomes A Reader—Birth to

Preschool, published by the National Institute for Literacy. For a free

copy of the full booklet, visit www.nifl/gov.

For additional copies of this booklet, download PDF or HTML

versions at www.nifl.gov. To order print copies, contact the National

Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs, PO Box 1398, Jessup, Maryland

20794-1398. Call 1-800-228-8813 or email edpubs@inet.ed.gov

2006

FOR PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS

Checklist

❏ I help my child hear and say the

first sound in words (like “b” in

boat), and notice when different

words start with the same sound

(like “boat” and “book”).

❏ I help my child hear words 

that rhyme (like moose, goose,

and caboose).

❏ I introduce new words to my

child, like “bow” and “stern,”

which mean the front of a boat

and the back of a boat. 

❏ I talk with my child about the

letters of the alphabet and notice

them in books, like “c” for canoe.

❏ I point out signs and labels that

have letters, like street signs and

foods in the grocery store. 

Here are some ways you can

help your child “get ready to

read” during the ages of 4 and

5. You can find examples of

many of these in “A Boat Named

Lucky,” the story in this booklet.

❏ I encourage my child to find the

joy and fun in reading. Usually, I

let my child choose the books

we read.

❏ I let my child pretend to read

parts of the book when we 

read together.

❏ I talk with my child about stories

and make connections to things

that happen in our own lives.

❏ I ask “what,” “where,” and

“how” questions when I read

with my child to help her 

follow along and understand 

the stories. 

❏ I help my child write notes or

make books (like an alphabet

book), even if his writing only

looks like scribbles or marks.

This checklist is adapted from 

A Child Becomes a Reader—

Birth Through Preschool. Get a 

free copy at www.nifl.gov.

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