I’m always on the hunt for the best literacy ideas to use with my own children and those that I work with on my blog, Growing Book by Book. I’ve come across some wonderful digital resources for building literacy skills. Here are some of my favorite apps, eBooks and websites to help young children grow as readers and writers.
Digital Literacy Ideas
Apps
Short Vowel Word Study and Spelling is a wonderful app for children who are learning to spell. I love that it follows the word study model. It teaches kids to notice patterns in words and to sort words based on those patterns. The app has four levels and each level has four activities.
KidQ aims to help promote family conversations. Each day you get a new question to prompt some fun dialogue. Today our question was, “Why do you think California is called the Golden State?” The answer is included as well as a few fun facts.
Nosy Crow has some amazing story apps. I love that the story drives the technology vs the technology driving the story. Check out The Three Little Pigs which is one of our favorites. The Little Red Riding Hood is another wonderful app where kids can see the story unfold based on their own choices.
eBooks
More and more children’s books are now available electronically. I still prefer the real thing, but I do feel that eBooks have a place in the children’s book world. One of those places is for beginning readers. Young readers devour the short books that are at just right stage. It is often hard to find these easy readers at the library or bookstore. And, children quickly outgrow this level of books. Electronic books can be a helpful and economical way to solve the problem.
Community Helpers: A Read and Do STEM Early Reader by Amanda Boyarshinov is part of a series of STEM books. The vibrant photographs support the easy text. The author is a National Board Certified teacher. Other titles in the series include Snakes and Trucks.
The I Can Read books have been around for quite awhile and now many are available electronically. Check out Snug as a Bug by Amy Imbody or Big Egg by Molly Cox.
Websites
There are some amazing free websites to gather literacy ideas to help young children grow.
Storyline Online is amazing! The Screen Actors Guild has recorded several readings of wonderful books including Harry the Dirty Dog read by Betty White.
Starfall has lots of free online literacy games. It also has easy reader books for kids that models sounding out words and blending them together.
PBS Kids has some wonderful programs for children to develop their literacy skills. One of my favorite shows was Between the Lions. Many of the literacy games are still available on the website. Also check out the Super Why Phonics games.
I hope that these digital literacy ideas will help you nurture the reading and writing skills of a child in your life.
Jodie Rodriguez has a passion for helping caregivers nurture our youngest readers. As a former National Board Certified early-childhood and elementary teacher and administrator she has worked with thousands of families and educators providing best literacy practices. She now stays home with home with her two young sons (ages 2 and 3) and is the creator/founder of Growing Book by Book.
