Reading with your children is a really great way to encourage early literacy skills. Even if they cannot read yet, it’s important to build positive associations with reading and make reading a fun part of their routine.
Though parents might find it a bit boring at times, reading the same book several times can also help your child to recognize words, themes, and help them learn about story structure.
Talking about the books you read, and asking your children simple questions about the content, is also a great way to work on early literacy skills. Talk to them about the author and illustrator, ask them a key question about the storyline, how a character was feeling, or to recount their favourite part of the story.
In the classroom, one way that we encourage thought and discussion around the stories we read is to do activities related to the book’s theme. This is a great way to make learning and literacy fun for young children!
Here are a few recent examples of books we’ve read and the activities our teachers planned to do with them.
1. Snowmen at Night
Snowmen at Night is a magical and fun story that tells the tale that snowmen are out playing while we are sleeping. After reading this story, we asked the kids to draw and explain what they imagine a snowman might do if it came alive at night.
If you are looking for other ideas, here is a simple craft you can do on the snowman theme: Craft Stick Snowman
2. Sneezy the Snowman
Sneezy the Snowman is about a snowman who feels too cold. To warm up, he does things like drinking hot cocoa, getting in a bath, and standing by the fire. However, it turns out that warm things aren’t so great for snowmen because they make them start to melt. After reading this story, the children did a fun craft to depict melted snowmen.
Another idea you could do at home is to make melted snowman cookies. There are many recipes for these online, but here is an example to get you started: Snowman Cookies
