Early Childhood Resources

Early childhood books—books for two year olds, books for 3 year olds, books for 4 year olds, and preschool books and pre-K books more generally—are the first step on the road to literacy. Early education lays the groundwork for later learning, and when it is time to learn to read, books that facilitate letter learning and boost oral language skills will provide access to crucial skills that young kids will build on through their preschool education and on.

Letter Learning Books

A collection of pre-K books would not be complete without books teaching letter-sound correspondence. Seeing a single word on a page that shows a letter in context, then hearing the sound repeatedly as the words are read throughout the book, will naturally associate the two in the child's mind. The same is true for blend combinations. Our Letter Buddies series provides ample opportunity to build these correspondences, and then expand upon them by seeing the words in sentences.

Oral Language Books

Books that focus on developing oral language are another important type of books for preschoolers—and indeed for all young readers! These books might be wordless to encourage a child to make up their own story for the pictures on the page, or they might be intended to read aloud to children so they can hear and imitate what fluent reading sounds like.

Big Books

Big books for read-alouds are also important in this age group. Who isn't familiar with the scene of a contented group of young children crowded around for story time? They'll get even more out of the session if you use a big book as the source of the story, so they can see the words on the page and get used to making those associations.

When thinking of how to fill the shelves in your early childhood classroom, make sure you include at least some of these three types of books appropriate for preschool, pre-K, and kindergarten. Your students will greatly benefit from the use of these helpful tools!