Next week is National Children's Book Week and in celebration here are activities to help promote children's literacy and a love of reading. This is the second half of the list that was published last Thursday here.Ages 3-5:
1. Check out audiobooks.com where you can inexpensively download books for MP3 players. Use them around the house or in the car.
2. Plan activities that relate to a specific story: look for caterpillars after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar or eat blueberries while reading Blueberries for Sal. Play hide and seek after reading The Runaway Bunny or wear caps while reading Caps for Sale.
3. Place written labels on every day items. "table," "lamp," "chair," "door." Children will learn to understand that spoken words have written symbols.
Ages 6-8:
4. Have your child make out your shopping list and then be in charge of crossing off items as they are found.
5. Ask older children to read to younger children, this benefits both age groups.
6. Plan a book activity where children can see that books help them learn more about activities they love. Check out Sebastian Quigley's books on making Lego characters or books on designing paper airplanes or books on magic tricks. Try Ed Emberley's drawing books or Cooking Art: Easy Edible Art for Young Children by MaryAnn F. Kohl.
7. Put up a map or globe and have a geographic Question of the Week written on an index card and reward those who can find the answer.
8. Using magnetic letters, have a Word of the Week on the refrigerator. Maybe pass out a reward to those who can give the definition or properly use it in a sentence. I knew this idea worked when Grace came home from kindergarten and said, "I don't feel jovial today Mom."
Ages 9-12:
9. Consider magazine subscriptions as gifts such as Sports Illustrated for Kids, American Girl, Zoobooks, Cricket, or National Geographic for Kids.
10. Encourage children to keep a journal.
11. Keep joke books in the car where your kids can get at them. Play Mad Libs on road trips.
12. Plan family trips around book-related places. Prince Edward Island for Anne of Green Gables fans, Cape Canaveral for space enthusiasts or Concord, Massachusetts for Louisa May Alcott fans. This can also work in reverse, where ever you vacation, find a book to read as a family about its history, literature or culture. White Fang anyone?
13. Encourage children to write to an author, usually through the publishing house. Celebrate a favorite author's birthday.
***
Have you entered this month's Write-Away Contest yet? The deadline is November 21st.
Or think about entering the latest group writing project at MamaBlogga, deadline there is this Sunday November 11.
Technorati tags: reading, children's literature, literacy, books
18 comments:
I love the word of the week idea. My husband and I started using higher vocabulary as code (after our kids learned to spell and figured out pig latin). They are catching on, though, so next we will be using Spanish.
Thanks for all the great tips!
My daughter's first favorite book is The Hungry Caterpillar. Sad though that we could not find any caterpillars here in the desert!
I absolutely love this list!! :D
These are great ideas. I need to save them all somewhere. I'm so anxious that my kids grow up to love reading and much as their dad and I did/do.
Great ideas. I especially like the globe idea.
my daughter and I have read together since she was an infant. She is in 2nd grade and reads at a 5th grade level :)
The word of the week is great, even for adults I think! Nothing like a broad vocabulary.
I don't feel particularly jovial today either, but I am having a halcyon day (ha! okay, I just looked that one up...)
My boys love doing the shopping list! And I am still thinking about the Write Away contest... I know I should enter!
Steph
We've always had magazines for the kids--I like that because it shows them a different angle to reading besides just reading novels.
I'd like to amend the one where older kids write an author through the publishing house. Have them email the author, if possible. Many authors have websites now, and links to contact them directly.
Two years ago for Christmas my two oldest daughters each wrote a book to give to grandparents and great grandparents. One book was stories about their ancestors, the other stories about our family. It was a huge hit! I spoke with my grandmother yesterday and she mentioned how she just reread the books my girls had written.
I think I'll start a word of the week.
Great, great list. Encouraging children to read not only helps them in the world, but it builds self-esteem, too.
Great TT!
Or. You could move to someplace that only gets a single channel if the batteries in the translator on the mountain are working. That's what kept us reading!
Thanks for sharing all your ideas! I am excited to try this new word of the week idea. It's a great way to build vocab.
Excellent post.
Great Great Post. My son is a little over one and I have already started reading to him and pointing out word and the such and he will now get his books and be pointing at the words and making noises like he is trying to talk.
Magazines are the best! My daughter isn't a real reader, but she loves her magazines!
It used to be that when I wanted Spaghetti and Meatballs, I would read "Bread and Jam for Francis" to Maya. We both loved the book, and then I would get to see the lightbulb go off over her head, "Hey! We should have spaghetti and meatballs tonight!" "What a good idea honey!" Yum.
Now she wants to go to Virginia to Pony Penning Day, after reading Misty of Chincoteague. :)
Post a Comment