Reading and Writing

Reading, Writing, and Language Early Learning Activities

Reading and Writing

March into Fun with Books, Stories, and Activities #2

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Snow White Inspires Play-of-the-Day

This is a new series of blog posts combining reading with a play-of-the-day. While it’s still winter how about the story of Snow White before the snow is gone? If it’s all melted where you live, it’s okay because we’ll have some fun with apples too.

snow-white play ideasSnow White is the story of a lovely princess who has to run away from the evil queen. She finds shelter with 7 dwarfs until the evil queen, disguised as a witch, tricks her with a poisoned apple. She is revived with the touch of true love, delivered in a kiss from the prince. Because this is a traditional fairy story, books about Snow White are easy to find or you can tell the story. This version has lovely illustrations by Jacqueline East.

Since everyday needs some outside time, once you and your child have shared Snow White, you might be able to go for a walk in the snow. It there isn’t snow, you won’t be able to make snow balls, or snow angels, or play duck, duck, goose. Instead, you could look for little creatures and small homes. The dwarfs house was hidden in the forest, and if we look we can sometimes see homes for birds, squirrels, and bugs.

apple-float-science-experimentBack in the house, here is a fun apple science activity. Will an apple float or sink in water? Run some water into the kitchen sink or just a big bowl or container. You will need enough so the apple doesn’t just sit on the bottom. Have your child guess first what the apple might do, float on the top of the water or sink all the way to the bottom. Step two is to put the apple in the water and check the guess. What did it do? Try putting the apple in sideways and upside down and see if it does the same thing. You could try a banana too.

With such a nice clean apple, the best thing to do is to enjoy it. Apples make a great snack. What else can you do with an apple?

Reading and Writing

March into Fun – Dr. Seuss Day & Read Across America

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Horton Hatches the Egg Inspires Play-of-the-Day

It’s appropriate Read Across America Day happens on Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The celebration can be Pole to Pole if all of North and South America reads too. This will be the first post in a whole series of ways that a story can be combined with another activity so that reading inspires a play-of-the-day.

hortone hatches the eggHow about starting with Horton Hatches the Egg? First, read Horton with your child. (If you can’t find a book, there’s a video included below at the end of this post.) Next, have some fun with eggs. Of course, this story is about hatching an egg, but not all eggs can hatch. Some eggs are for hatching and some are for eating or decorating.

How do you like to eat eggs in your family? Perhaps, you and your child can make some scrambled eggs for lunch. Once adult hands have cracked the egg in the bowl, little hands can stir them up with a fork. Boiled eggs don’t need any cracking and once they have cooked and cooled, you can show your child how a cooked egg will twirl round and round but an uncooked egg doesn’t. Experiment with some different ways to peel an egg and find which one works best. Of course, grownups need to do the cooking part but everyone can gobble them up.

horton hatches egg math funEgg cartons are fun for all sorts of activities too. As long as your child is past the everything in the mouth stage, one of the simplest is to give your child an empty carton and an assortment of little items. Kids can put one item in each empty space. This is called one-to-one matching and is a critical concept for number sense: one number means one thing. Or kids can fill up a space and then count to see how many items a space can hold.

These are just a couple of ideas. For some science fun, name animals that lay eggs. Maybe hatch some dinosaur eggs. For art, squeeze a paper toll just a bit to make an egg shape instead of a round one and use it to paint. Horton had to just sit, but kids don’t. Move around like an elephant and a bird.

Have an egg-citing day!

Reading and Writing

Part Seven: To a Child, Love is Spelled T I M E

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Spending Time Reading Books and Telling Stories to Kids

One of the most powerful activities is to read to kids, but many parents don’t because they are not good readers themselves. Does this hold you back? Reading to kids is not just important to help master language, but makes an enormous difference in the lives of children.

storybook-dads
storybookdads.org.uk/

In this series, I have been sharing the stories of ordinary parents and the simple ways they spend time with their children. Today is a little bit different. Reading to children is one of the very few ways these parents can spend any time with them. And it’s only by recorded voice, not face to face, or even in the same house. Yet, it connects the parents and kids across oceans and years.

Have you heard of the group Storybook Dads and Mums? These dads and mums are in prison and have very, very limited together time. With the help of the group, these parents create an audio recording of themselves reading a book. These cd’s or dvd’s are given to the children along with the book, who listen to their parents voices over and over and over. In the words of Jacob, “I miss my Dad so much. When I feel lonely I listen to my CD and hearing his voice makes me feel better.” This lessens the trauma for the children and helps the family stay in touch. The likelihood of reoffending is 6 times lower for families that maintain contact. Some of the prisoners needed support for basic reading but they didn’t let this didn’t stop them.

kids and booksFrom its start just a dozen years ago, the program has spread to other countries and situations. Some hospitals and hospices help parents to read books and make recordings. This little boy whose dad is in the military listened to a story recorded in his daddy’s voice over and over and over.

For convenience, some books have the recording device built in. There are apps for reading stories on digital devices. Do not let the excuse that you are not a good reader get in the way. Children have lived inside their mother’s voice, and the first voice recognized after birth is usually the father’s. If reading a book to kids is not doable for you, you can also tell stories. Do you agree another way to spell love is R E A D?

Reading and Writing

10 New Year’s Resolutions with Young Kids: #2-Books, Stories

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Would you be smarter if you could download 1,000 books into your brain? Downloading 5,000 books into your child’s brain can be done in minutes a day. Reading to your child a few minutes every day is a super new year’s resolution. The following infographic shows how easy it is for just a few books … Continue reading 10 New Year’s Resolutions with Young Kids: #2-Books, Stories →

Reading and Writing

More Children’s Books and Stories for Fall

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When the nights start earlier and the temperature is cooler, snuggling up with a book and a blankie is so inviting. There are some wonderful books about the fall season to share with young children. Have you discovered the story Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller? The family picks out a squash at the Farmer’s … Continue reading More Children’s Books and Stories for Fall →

Reading and Writing

Ways to Play for Fun and Learning with Letters

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Helping kids get ready for kindergarten includes supporting their need to PLAY and develop their confidence and social skills. Academics are not the priority, even though that’s what most of us think of first. Having some familiarity with letters is important, but this can happen as part of other everyday activities. As we read and … Continue reading Ways to Play for Fun and Learning with Letters →