Six Old-School Preschool Literacy Instruction Practices to Let Go Of (and What to Do Instead)
- Melissa McCall
- Jun 8
- 8 min read
Things that make you say, "huh?" as a preschool literacy teacher
A few days ago, I was scrolling on social media when I came across a post that honestly made me chuckle.
The title said: “Outdated Teaching Strategies I’m Still Using in 2026.” The very first one listed? Letter of the week.
Naturally, I clicked “read more.” The explanation was something along the lines of: “I introduce one letter each week so I can make sure all of the letters are covered by the end of the year.”
What?! Letter of the week is the only system that we could use to make sure that all the letters are covered. Nope. That explanation just isn’t enough for me, because our children deserve better.
That post really got me thinking about how many preschool literacy instruction practices have simply been passed down over the years without us ever stopping to ask: Is this actually the best way children learn?
As research around early literacy continues to grow, we have an opportunity to rethink some of the things many of us were taught to do and replace them with practices that are more intentional, engaging, and effective for young children.
So today, I wanted to share a few preschool literacy practices that I think are worth letting go of… and what we can do instead. Let’s dive in!
Six Preschool Literacy Instruction Practices to Let Go Of, and What to Do Instead
1. You Guessed It…Letter of the Week
The biggest issue with “letter of the week” instruction is not exposure. Exposure is wonderful. Children absolutely need to be introduced to letters. The problem is that many children need far more repetition and review than one isolated week can provide.
Simply introducing a letter one time does not mean children have mastered it. In fact, research continues to show that repeated, explicit exposure matters deeply when building alphabet knowledge. Children benefit from seeing letters again and again through movement, songs, games, environmental print, intentional review, and playful instruction across the entire year.
Beyond the importance of repetition, a letter-of-the-week approach can also delay learning. It often takes 26 weeks just to fully introduce the alphabet, which can hold back children’s potential and reduce opportunities for meaningful connection and engagement with letters along the way. For children who already know many of their letters, it can also lead to boredom and limit opportunities for deeper learning and application.
If you are still on the fence, join one of our upcoming webinars HERE where we dive into our letter cycle framework.
2. Worksheets Over Multisensory Learning
Worksheets are not inherently bad. There can absolutely be a time and place for paper-pencil activities in early childhood classrooms. The problem happens when worksheets become the primary way children are expected to learn early literacy skills. Young children learn best through active, meaningful experiences that engage the body and brain together.
Research continues to show that movement, play, sensory experiences, conversation, and hands-on exploration help strengthen learning and memory pathways in ways passive activities often cannot.
Think about how much more powerful it is for a child to jump on letters, build letters with playdough, skywrite with big movements, search for environmental print, or act out sounds with motions than simply tracing a letter on a worksheet repeatedly. These experiences create stronger connections because children are seeing, hearing, saying, and physically experiencing the learning all at once.
Worksheets can sometimes give the illusion of mastery because the page is completed. But completed does not always mean learned. Many children can fill in a worksheet without truly understanding the skill or being able to apply it independently in meaningful ways.
This does not mean we eliminate worksheets completely. It means we shift the priority. Multisensory, playful, intentional instruction should be the foundation, with worksheets serving as an occasional extension rather than the main method of teaching.
Check out our Alphabet Motion Flashcards for a multisensory way that we teach the alphabet!
3. Assuming Free Play is Enough to Build Early Literacy Skills
Play matters deeply. Children learn through play.
But one important shift we need to make in early childhood is understanding that all forms of play are valuable, and different types of play support literacy development in different ways.
Free play absolutely has a place in strong literacy classrooms. During free play, children build oral language, social communication, storytelling, creativity, vocabulary, and opportunities to naturally explore print and writing materials within their environment.
Guided play allows teachers to intentionally extend learning while still keeping children actively engaged. This might look like introducing new vocabulary during dramatic play, asking questions during block play, modeling print concepts, or adding intentional literacy materials into centers.
Games can help reinforce skills children have already been exposed to through meaningful repetition and engagement. Alphabet games, rhyming games, sound matching activities, and movement-based literacy games can all strengthen learning while keeping children motivated and involved.
But some literacy skills require more than exposure alone. Skills connected to learning to read, such as syllable segmentation, phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, and sound-symbol relationships, often benefit from playful explicit instruction. This does not mean worksheets, long lectures, or developmentally inappropriate expectations. It means intentionally teaching children the actual skill in ways that are active, engaging, meaningful, and connected to play.
The goal is to embrace the full spectrum of play and instruction while recognizing that different literacy skills develop best through different types of learning experiences.
4. Keeping Themes Too Surface-Level
Weekly themes can be fun and engaging, but sometimes they unintentionally become a checklist of activities instead of meaningful opportunities for deeper learning and connection.
One week becomes apples. The next week becomes pumpkins. Then spiders. Then transportation.
Children complete crafts, read books, sing songs, and move on before they ever have the chance to deeply explore the topic or connect it to their own lives and interests.
Research continues to show that when children are interested and engaged, learning becomes more meaningful. Children are more likely to participate in conversations, build vocabulary, ask questions, retain information, and make meaningful connections when topics feel relevant and exciting to them.
This is why it is so important to create child-first learning environments instead of feeling tied to a strict list of weekly themes or activities we need to “get through.” If children become deeply interested in a topic, we can lean into that curiosity and expand the learning instead of immediately moving on to the next theme on the calendar.
Instead of simply studying apples for one week, what if the bigger topic became: “How do we get food at our homes?”
Now we can still explore apples, farms, and harvest, but the learning naturally expands into:
grocery stores
community helpers
transportation
family experiences
cooking
restaurants
food packaging
recipes and menus
Suddenly, children are not just completing apple crafts. They are building vocabulary, comprehension, background knowledge, oral language, and meaningful real-world connections.
This also creates natural opportunities to bring literacy into the classroom in authentic ways through grocery ads, labels, signs, logos, recipes, shopping lists, and environmental print children recognize from their everyday lives.
The goal is not to eliminate themes. The goal is to create richer, more connected learning experiences that tap into children’s curiosity while helping them better understand the world around them.
Check out our blog post and free checklist on child led learning below!
5. One-and-Done Read-Alouds
We often feel pressure to constantly introduce new books, rotate themes quickly, and keep classroom materials changing. But when it comes to learning, repetition is incredibly powerful for young children.
When children hear the same story multiple times, they notice deeper vocabulary, participate in retelling, anticipate story structure, strengthen comprehension, and build confidence with language. They also begin connecting story events and engaging more actively during reading.
Repeated read-alouds create natural opportunities to intentionally target literacy skills in meaningful ways. One reading may focus on vocabulary. Another may focus on comprehension. Another may highlight rhyme, print awareness, sequencing, oral language, or story retelling.
Instead of feeling pressure to constantly rotate books, try slowing down and building intentional repeated read-alouds into your week. Books do not need to be “one and done.” They can become launching points for conversation, dramatic play, vocabulary growth, writing opportunities, environmental print, storytelling, and deeper comprehension experiences throughout the classroom.
If you want support creating more meaningful and intentional literacy experiences around books, be sure to grab our Read It Again framework.
6. Hiding Literacy from Our Littles
One thing I have noticed in my experience in several classrooms is that we sometimes avoid intentional literacy experiences with littlest learners (toddlers and two-year-olds) because we are afraid of pushing academics too early.
But avoiding literacy altogether is not the answer. Somewhere along the way, many educators began associating literacy instruction with worksheets, long teacher-led lessons, rigid drilling, and developmentally inappropriate expectations. As a result, songs, poetry, shared reading, alphabet activities, and playful literacy experiences sometimes began disappearing from classrooms serving our youngest learners.
But the issue is not literacy itself. The issue is how literacy is delivered.
Young children absolutely can begin building literacy foundations through experiences that are playful, engaging, movement-based, and developmentally appropriate. In fact, many early learning standards already recognize this. The North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning note that older toddlers begin to “demonstrate an interest in letters by asking about and/or naming some of them” (LDC-12a). This does not mean children need long, rigid circle times or unrealistic expectations. But shared literacy experiences can create powerful opportunities for learning when they are engaging and accessible.
One of my favorite moments each week is watching two-year-olds rush to the carpet when I walk into the room because they know we are about to sing, move, touch letters, and interact with literacy together. They are not being forced into rigid academics. They are participating in playful, meaningful learning experiences that they genuinely enjoy.
When literacy feels playful and meaningful, children respond to it. They sing. They move. They participate! Be sure to read the blog below for more information and to grab our favorite alphabet line to hang in your classroom.
Spark change! Share our Try THIS, Not THAT flyer!
Be sure to share this simple guide with your staff and colleagues. Click each title for links to learn more.
Final Thoughts...
At the end of the day, this conversation is not about criticizing teachers or making anyone feel behind. Many of these practices became common because educators genuinely care and want children to succeed.
One of the beautiful parts of education is that we continue learning, growing, reflecting, and refining our instruction as new research and understanding emerge.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is intentionality.
Children deserve literacy experiences that are engaging, research-informed and developmentally appropriate.
We do not have to choose between play and instruction. We can thoughtfully merge the two in ways that make learning meaningful and help it truly stick.
As you begin thinking about next school year, maybe the question is not: “What themes should I do?” Maybe the better question is: “What practices are truly helping children build strong literacy foundations?”
If you are looking for a simple place to start, know that we are here to support you in the process. Reach out!
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We believe that every child deserves a bright future, and this begins with a strong foundation in early literacy skills. At Moving Little Minds, we are dedicated to providing research-based literacy activities in fun and engaging ways! By merging instruction with play, we ensure that children are reaching their full potential and embark on the educational journey well-prepared for the future! Let's build those KEY emergent literacy skills together.
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Letter of the week really is a tough habit to break, but swapping it for integrated letter play instead makes so much more sense for retention. I've been using https://stl-viewer.org
Letter of the week really is a relic—how can kids truly learn letters in isolation when they need to see them in context? I've been using decodable texts and word walls to make the letters stick. https://3daimaker.com
Letter of the week really is a relic — it treats letters in isolation instead of giving kids the repeated, meaningful exposure they need. I've been using a daily literacy block with cyclical letter review and embedded word study instead. https://aiphotoassistant.com
Letter of the week really is a relic—covering 26 letters in 26 weeks just doesn't build real literacy. I've been using alphabet sorts and word walls instead. https://3dtrellis.com