Early Literacy Skills at Daycare — How Daisy Days Prepares Regina Children for Reading

# Post 26: Early Literacy Skills at Daycare — How Daisy Days Prepares Regina Children for Reading

**Slug:** early-literacy-skills-daycare-regina
**Focus Keyword:** early literacy skills daycare
**Secondary Keywords:** literacy development preschool, reading readiness daycare Regina, early reading skills children
**Meta Title:** Early Literacy Skills at Daycare | How Daisy Days Prepares Regina Kids for Reading
**Meta Description:** Early literacy begins long before a child learns to read. Learn how Daisy Days Daycare in Regina builds foundational literacy skills through daily activities, books, and play.
**Word Count Target:** 1,200–1,400
**Internal Links:** /our-programs/, play-based learning blog post, child development milestones blog posts
**Pillar Page:** Pillar 3 — Child Development Milestones: Birth to Age 6

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## Early Literacy Skills at Daycare: How Daisy Days Daycare Prepares Regina Children for Reading

Most parents understand that reading is important. What fewer parents realize is that the foundations of reading are built **years before a child ever picks up a book and decodes a word** — and that daycare plays a critical role in this process.

Children who arrive at kindergarten with strong early literacy foundations — rich vocabulary, phonological awareness, love of books, understanding of how print works — learn to read faster, more easily, and with greater comprehension than those who don’t. And much of this foundational work happens during the daycare years.

This guide explains what early literacy is, what skills matter most, and how Daisy Days Daycare weaves literacy development throughout every day for children from infancy through school age.

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## What Is Early Literacy?

Early literacy refers to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that children develop before they can conventionally read and write, which form the foundation for later reading success.

Key early literacy components include:

**Vocabulary** — knowing the meanings of many words; strong vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension

**Phonological awareness** — the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken language; includes rhyming, syllable awareness, and phoneme awareness; the direct precursor to phonics

**Print awareness** — understanding that print carries meaning, how books work (front to back, left to right, top to bottom), what letters and words are

**Letter knowledge** — recognizing and naming letters; understanding that letters represent sounds

**Narrative skills** — the ability to describe events in sequence and tell stories; predicts reading comprehension

**Motivation and love of books** — positive emotional associations with books and reading predict sustained literacy engagement

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## How Early Literacy Develops by Age

### Infants (0–18 Months)
Early literacy begins at birth. Long before words, infants are developing the pre-language skills that underlie all communication and literacy:

– **Responsive conversation** — back-and-forth cooing and babbling is the prototype for dialogue
– **Joint attention** — looking at the same thing together and communicating about it is a foundation for shared reading
– **Book exposure** — being read to even in infancy builds familiarity with book language, narrative structure, and the concept of books as sources of meaning

In our infant room, educators regularly read board books with infants, naming pictures, using expressive voices, and building the emotional associations with books that last a lifetime.

### Toddlers (18 Months–3 Years)
Vocabulary development accelerates dramatically in the toddler years. Children who hear rich language in this period have measurably larger vocabularies by kindergarten.

Key developments:
– **Vocabulary explosion** — children may add several words per day
– **Book engagement** — toddlers begin to “read” familiar books independently, pointing to pictures, recalling phrases
– **Rhyme enjoyment** — exposure to nursery rhymes, songs, and rhyming books builds phonological awareness at an intuitive level
– **Story understanding** — toddlers begin to understand simple narrative sequences

In our toddler program, language-rich environments are a priority: educators narrate daily activities, use extensive vocabulary, read daily, and sing songs and rhymes.

### Preschool (3–5 Years)
This is the critical window for phonological awareness and print awareness — the direct precursors to reading.

Key developments:
– **Rhyme production and detection** — can generate rhymes and identify rhyming words
– **Syllable awareness** — can clap syllables in words
– **Letter recognition** — begins recognizing letters, especially in their name
– **Print awareness** — understands that words on a page carry meaning, that reading goes left to right
– **Narrative development** — can tell simple stories with a beginning, middle, and end
– **Writing play** — scribbling, drawing with intention, letter-like forms

In our preschool program, literacy is woven into play: a restaurant dramatic play area includes menus to “read” and pads to “write” orders; the block area includes signs and labels; circle time includes daily read-alouds, songs, and rhyming games.

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## Daily Literacy Practices at Daisy Days Daycare

### Read-Aloud Sessions
We read aloud to children in every age group, every day. Read-alouds at quality daycares are not passive experiences — educators:
– Use expressive voices and pacing
– Point to words and pictures
– Ask open-ended questions (“What do you think will happen next?”)
– Connect the story to children’s experiences
– Revisit favourite books (repetition deepens comprehension and vocabulary)

The goal is not just exposure to stories but **engagement with text** — building the comprehension and analysis skills that make reading meaningful.

### Phonological Awareness Activities
We integrate phonological awareness naturally through:
– Songs and rhymes (daily)
– Rhyming games (“What rhymes with cat?”)
– Clapping syllables in names and words
– Listening for initial sounds (“What sound does ‘sun’ start with?”)

These activities are playful and child-friendly — children experience them as fun word games, not instruction.

### Environmental Print
Our rooms are rich with meaningful print: labels on shelves, daily schedule in pictures and words, children’s names on cubbies, recipe charts for cooking activities, sign-in sheets for dramatic play.

Children begin to recognize that print is everywhere, carries meaning, and is connected to their world — not just to books.

### Writing and Mark-Making
Drawing, scribbling, and early writing are all precursors to conventional writing. We provide materials for mark-making across all age groups: crayons, markers, chalk, paint, sand trays, finger tracing.

We treat children’s mark-making as meaningful communication rather than correcting their letter formation — the goal in early childhood is establishing that marks carry meaning and writing is empowering.

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## What Families Can Do at Home to Support Literacy

**Read together every day.** Even ten minutes of shared book time is powerful. Follow your child’s interest — they don’t have to sit still and listen to the whole book.

**Talk constantly.** Rich, varied adult language is the primary input for vocabulary development. Name things, explain what you’re doing, narrate daily activities, ask and answer questions.

**Sing, rhyme, and play with words.** Nursery rhymes, silly songs, tongue twisters, and word games build phonological awareness in a completely natural, enjoyable way.

**Visit the library.** Regina Public Library has exceptional early literacy programs. The library environment itself builds positive associations with reading and books.

**Let them see you read.** Children who see adults reading for pleasure develop the understanding that reading is a valued adult activity — which motivates their own literacy development.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Should I be teaching my preschooler to read letters and phonics?**
A: At preschool age, the most powerful literacy activities are rich conversations, reading aloud, singing, rhyming, and play. Formal phonics instruction is most effective after children have the underlying phonological awareness foundation — typically at kindergarten age. Don’t rush formal instruction; invest in the foundation.

**Q: My child shows no interest in books. Should I be concerned?**
A: Some children are less naturally drawn to book-based activities — this doesn’t predict reading difficulty. Focus on finding books that align with their interests (vehicles, animals, superheroes), keep read-aloud sessions short and relaxed, and don’t turn books into a battleground.

**Q: How do you adapt literacy activities for children who are learning English as an additional language?**
A: We welcome children learning English alongside their home language. Multilingual children develop strong literacy skills in both languages; the key is rich language input in each. We work with families to support home language maintenance while building English literacy at the centre.

**Q: Does Daisy Days Daycare use any specific reading programs?**
A: We follow Saskatchewan’s Play and Exploration framework, which integrates early literacy throughout all programming rather than using a stand-alone program. This approach is supported by the research on how literacy develops most effectively in early childhood.

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## Building Future Readers, One Story at a Time

At Daisy Days Daycare in Regina, early literacy is not a program we add on — it is woven into the fabric of every day, from the books in our infant room to the writing centre in our preschool. We are committed to sending every child to kindergarten with a love of language, a curiosity about print, and the foundational skills to become confident readers.

[Explore our programs for every age group](/our-programs/) or [contact us to book a tour and see our literacy-rich environments in action](/contact-us/).

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*Daisy Days Daycare | 2007 Potts Crescent East, Regina, SK S4V 2E5 | 306-807-3233 | info@daisydaysdaycare.com*