Birth to Pre K
The success of children in school and adulthood is highly dependent on their ability to read and write. The early childhood period is essential in the literacy development of a child because the development of literacy and language begins at birth. The key responsibility of language is communication. During infancy, a child uses facial expressions, cries, various gestures, and gurgles to communicate. Therefore, their literacy environment should mainly consist of tools that will improve their language. By age 3, their vocabulary is often made up of 2000 to 4000 words. By age 4, most of the preschoolers make progress in using language to talk about imaginary situations, convey their feelings, represent what they know, interact with others, think about things, and ask questions ( Cunningham, 2010) . In some situations, some may have “writing” skills though it may be unconventional. Nevertheless, some preschool children may be readers already.
Most of the literacy from infancy to preschool occurs at home with parents and guardians. In literate societies, children often interact with written language from infancy. Guardians or parents should ensure they bring their children into contact with print materials when they provide toys with print and when they read to the children. Furthermore, they may see print from computers or televisions. The exposure to print is essential to the process of writing and reading. Preschool programs should have programs that create a climate that supports learning. It enhances their competence to write and read. Furthermore, the literacy environment should utilize children’s play to facilitate writing and reading. Play is a significant and natural part of their world because it engages their symbolic and representational actions and thoughts ( Guo et al., 2012) . Also, the classrooms should be well lit, comfortable, and cozy so that they can easily interact without interruptions from adults. The classrooms should have a variety of books with plenty of pictures.
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Pre K to Grade 3
From Pre K to Grade 3, the students should walk into a literacy environment that encourages them to explore speaking, reading, listening, and writing. It should help them improve their language skills while enhancing their science and math skills. Some of the key elements of the literate environment include an adaptable classroom layout, small teacher work area, and flexible seating. The classroom should be easily changeable and adaptable according to what they are working on. There should be designated space for group discussions, mini-lessons, and read aloud ( Cunningham, 2010) . The flexible seating should allow the students to select what to sit on and where to sit because they are often energetic and have different needs. Furthermore, it should have a small teacher work area so that there can be adequate space for the children and to allow the teacher to supervise the activities of all the children.
Moreover, there should be accessibility to technology and availability of materials. The classroom should have an area for supplies such as glue, pencils, scissors, markers, paper, crayons, and so on. The materials should be properly organized according to the storage options and the size of the classroom. The schools should make technology available to all students. They should have access to chrome books, class computers, iPads, or laptops. They should be accustomed to using the latest technology at an early age while having the correct information at their fingertips ( Anders et al., 2012) . The literacy-rich environment should also have a classroom library that should be properly organized so that the students can use it properly. Also, the bookshelves should have kid-friendly height, and it should be inviting so that it can develop a reading culture among the students. Moreover, the books should be arranged according to theme or genres.
References
Anders, Y., Rossbach, H. G., Weinert, S., Ebert, S., Kuger, S., Lehrl, S., & von Maurice, J. (2012). Home and preschool learning environments and their relations to the development of early numeracy skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 27 (2), 231-244.
Cunningham, D. D. (2010). Relating preschool quality to children’s literacy development. Early Childhood Education Journal , 37 (6), 501-507.
Guo, Y., Justice, L. M., Kaderavek, J. N., & McGinty, A. (2012). The literacy environment of preschool classrooms: Contributions to children's emergent literacy growth. Journal of research in reading , 35 (3), 308-327.
