Building Language for Literacy

Building Language for Literacy (BLL) is a research-based program that develops children's oral language and early literacy skills, and can serve as the basis for your early literacy curriculum or can be integrated with a current one.

With Building Language for Literacy, you can prepare children for reading success using high- quality literature, songs and poems, rich vocabulary, and language-loving characters. At the same time, you can foster children's awareness in other domains as the program is integrated with science, social studies, math, writing, music, and other curriculum and content areas.

Program Highlights:

• Provides targeted instruction, followed by hands-on activities in oral language, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and print knowledge.

• Built on research from the National Reading Panel and the NAEYC/IRA Joint Position Statement.

• Expands children's awareness of themselves and their community by using real-world places as the subject matter while teaching early literacy skills.

• ESL strategies and vibrant photographs help make this ideal for all English-Language Learners.

• Provides built-in professional development and ongoing assessment.

• Can be easily integrated with a comprehensive early childhood curriculum such as the Scholastic Early Childhood Program. Click here to learn more. (PDF)

• Download the Building Language for Literacy Early Reading First Full Application Toolkit. (PDF)

Your Helpers



Your Helper: Nina the Naming Newt Children need daily opportunities to use language expressively and purposefully in a variety of social situations. Use Nina to help guide your discussion. Click here for a word game.	Your Helper: Reggie the Rhyming Rhino Children are trying to make sense of the patterns and sounds in language. With Reggie, you can help children develop phonological awareness. Click here for a rhyming game.	Your Helper: Leo the Letter Loving Lobster Recognizing letters of the alphabet, along with their sounds, is a critical step for children. With Leo, you introduce letters in context as well as in drawing and writing activities. Click here for a spelling game.	Your Helpers: Nina, Reggie, and Leo To create real meaning and comprehension, language skills must be integrated. Through the book rereadings, children will learn that print carries a message and develop a sense of story structure.

Phase 1 3 and 4 Year Olds		Phase 2 4 and 5 Year Olds		Program Add-Ons
Learn More		Learn More		Learn More