Empowering Special Education Learners: Pre-A Reading Center Activities You Should Introduce Today!
21st June 2024
Reading is one of the most essential skills for students of all ages, especially for special needs students. In today’s world, nurturing the reading skills of early learners requires a blend of playful exploration, sensory engagement, and different kinds of activities that cater to every individual learning style.
In this blog post, we will be sharing some of the most fun and engaging Pre-A reading center activities that will help learners with special needs develop a love of reading in your special education classroom.
So, without any further delay, let’s get started.
Name Related Activities
Recognizing, spelling, and writing names is an essential skill that every student, especially special needs students needs to develop at an early age. They must be capable of recognizing the name written on any of the prints.
Below we have shared some of the fun and engaging to help learners with special needs to learn this skill:
Name Puzzles
In this activity, you can instruct students to form their names correctly on the puzzle board. According to the student’s level, you can conduct this activity with or without the model.
Trace The Name: If you’re seeking to bring the sensory element into a game then Tracing The Name can be a perfect activity for your special needs learners. You can use, finger paints, markers, foam, or shaving creams to make this game more engaging.
Drumroll Please!
In this fun-filled game, you must need to instruct students to sit in a circle, and each student takes the other’s name turn by turn while the drumroll is playing once the drumroll stops, that student either can make a funny pose or say terms like- Rock On!
You can keep repeating this until every student is done.
Bippity, Boppity, Boo!
In this game, everyone stands or sits in a circle with one "It" individual in the center for the game Bippity Boppity Boo.
Then the "It" approaches the other student and says: "Left, Bippity Boppity Boo," "Right, Bippity Boppity Boo," or "Me, Bippity Boppity Boo."
If the “It” individual says "Left, Bippity Boppity Boo," then that student needs to take the name of who’s standing to the left of them before the “It” individual completes saying “Bippity Boppity Boo”.
If that student says the right name then the “It” individual will continue approaching other students or if they fail to take the right name then they become the new “It” individual.
Letter Related Activities
Those students who have Pre-A or aa reading level need constant repetition and practice of letters. To improve the understanding of letters for Pre-A reading level students consider using the below-mentioned letter-related activities.
Letter Matching: In this activity, you can consider hiding the letters to match in sensory bins, around the classroom, etc. This matching task brings the student’s attention and focuses on understanding whether the letter is the same or different.
Sorting Letters: Instruct students to sort different letters via different features to make them understand how the letters are similar and different from each other.
Letter Sequencing: You can involve our students in writing or filling in the missing letters, putting every letter in sequence, etc.
Interaction With Text Activities
Other than interacting with letters, and names, students must also interact with text as well for developing better reading skills.
Below we have shared various interactions with text activities:
Read to Self: You can instruct students to read books and retell the stories that they have heard earlier, or they can even create and narrate stories by looking at pictures or using interactive books during reading.
Books Being Read To Students Platforms: You can introduce various platforms to students that can read the books for students. Some of the free platforms are-
- YouTube
- Oxford Owl E-books
- Epic
- Unite For Literacy
Learn, how to choose the right book according to a special need learner reading level:
Observe The Picture: You can help learners with special needs and Pre-A reading levels to make connections between the text and pictures in the textbooks or any platform. Through this activity, students will be able to point out, match, or label the picture with text.
For example- Students can point out or label the lion picture in the textbook.
Add Sensory & Movement In Pre-A Reading Activities
One of the best ways to keep special needs students engaged in reading activities is by including sensory and movement. Let’s get to know some of the effective sensory and movement activities for special needs learners:
Alphabet Playdoh Mats: It’s one of the best ways which involve the sensory movements of students and help them in forming letters. In Play-Doh, you can instruct students to form either any words or their names.
Find The Letter: In this activity, you must hide different letters around the center areas and classroom. You can tell your students which letters they need to find and however find out which letter first, Wins!
Sensory Bins: You can instruct students to find magnetic letters or letter cards in the sensory bins and then they have to match it with the alphabet chart or sequence all the letters in order.
Use This Pre-A reading Center Activities To Help Your Special Ed. Learners
Reading is one of the essential skills for every learner, especially for special needs learners. The sooner they get involved in learning, writing, and spelling all the letters, the better. It not not helps them in the academic journey but also proves to be beneficial in the future. You can use the above-mentioned Pre-A reading activities, with which you can significantly improve the reading abilities of your special learners.
If you want to learn more effective teaching strategies and methodologies that can help you to serve the different learning needs of special needs students. Then, consider pursuing courses like Bachelor of Education in Special Educational Needs, where you will get guidance from top expert trainers.
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