The effect of the outdoor reading and writing program on the early literacy skills of pre-school children

In this study, "The Effect of Out-of-Class Literacy Preparation Program on Early Literacy Skills of Preschool Children" was examined. The dependent variable in the study was determined as "children's early literacy skills" and the independent variable as "Out-of-Class Literacy Preparation Program". The study group of the study consists of a total of 40 children aged between 60-66 months, including 20 experimental and 20 control groups in two classes determined by "typical case sampling", one of the purposeful sampling methods, among the children studying in the classrooms of an independent kindergarten affiliated to the Diyarbakır Bismil District National Education Directorate. "Test of Early Literacy (TEL)" was used as a data collection tool in the study. This scale was prepared by Tevhide Kargın, Cevriye Ergül, Şener Büyüköztürk and Birkan Güldenoğlu (2015) in Turkey. Test of Early Literacy (TEL) was applied to both the group participating in the program (experimental group) and the traditional education group (control group) before and after the experiment. While analyzing the data obtained from the Early Literacy Test, Mann Whitney-U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test were used. The results obtained from the research are as follows; • The TEL total post-test mean scores of children in the group (experimental group) and traditional education group (control group) participating in the Out-of-Class Literacy Preparation Program differ significantly. • The posttest mean scores of the TEL Vocabulary Subtests of the Vocabulary in Expressive Language test of the children in the group (experimental group) and traditional education group (control group) participating in the Out-of-Class Literacy Preparation Program did not change statistically significantly. But from the Lexical Subtests; There was a statistically significant difference in favor of the children participating in the program (experimental group) in the Vocabulary, Category Naming and Function Knowledge test in the recipient language. Among the Phonological Awareness Subtests; There was no statistically significant difference in the Rhyme Awareness and Deleting First Sound the Words Test. There was a statistically significant difference in the post-tests in favor of the children participating in the program (experimental group) in the Matching According to the First Voice, Matching According to the Last Voice, Splitting Sentences into Words, Separating Words into Syllables, Blending Syllables, and Removing the Last Voice of Words. Among the Letter Knowledge Subtests; While there was a difference in favor of the children participating in the program (experimental group) in the Post-test of Letter Knowledge in the Recipient Language, there was no statistically significant difference in the Post-Test of Letter Knowledge in Expressive Language. Posttest mean scores of the Listening Comprehension Subtest differed statistically significantly in favor of the children participating in the program (experimental group). According to these results, it can be said that the Out-of-Class Literacy Preparation Program positively increases the early literacy skills of preschool children. Keywords: Early literacy skills, preschool education, reading and writing preparation, out of class activities