Isn’t it amazing that the classic fairytales we all grew up with are still much loved by our children? And do you notice how they always come in threes – The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and, of course (one of our personal favourites), Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You’d be surprised […]
Alphabet Snack Matching Game
When is learning fun AND delicious? When it’s also your morning tea, of course! This post is by regular contributor Carrie George of A Little Learning for Two. This ‘memory crackers’ game started out as a bit of a joke to make my kids laugh but it has quickly become one of their favourite snacks […]
Helping Children Learn to Write + 8 Activities to Get Them Writing
I love seeing Immy turn to writing again and again as a means of communicating. As her confidence as a beginning writer grows so do the number of love notes, homemade books and five year old style to-do lists I find scattered around our home. Today I want to share some of the strategies I […]
Literacy for Kids: 50 Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking Activity Ideas
If you are looking for reading, writing, listening or speaking ideas suitable for young children, then these 50 activity ideas provide a great place to start. Follow the link under each picture for more information. Reading & Writing #1: Street Directory Literacy #2: Calendars and Diaries #3: Party Invitations #4: Playing School #5: Alphabet Rocks […]
Literacy Learning Through Creating Books of Their Own
This post is by regular contributor Tricia Hogbin of Little Eco Footprints. I’ve helped my daughter create her own books from when she was only two years old. She’s now five and her little collection of books share the story of many of our most treasured moments and provide a window into the development of […]
Literacy Spot #50: Playing With Puppets
Puppets have to be my favourite resource for encouraging the development of oral communication skills. As children play with puppets, they play with language – alternating voices, creating personas, extending vocabulary, and listening to others. As with many imaginary play resources, puppets also provide children with an open-ended platform to play out their knowledge of […]
Literacy Spot #49: Instructions
When we recently received the Playmobil swimming pool set, Immy and I had a great time working together to assemble it. In fact, Immy is even quite good when it comes to helping with Ikea flat pack assembly! She loves looking at the instructions to see which piece we need next and then matching the […]
Literacy Spot #46: Restaurants, Cafes and Sandwich Bars!
Setting up an imaginative play restaurant, cafe or sandwich bar is a wonderful way to engage children with all forms of literacy – speaking, listening, (pre-) reading and (pre-) writing. Plus it is easy to do at home or at preschool! In fact, this sandwich shop is the latest invitation to play that I have […]
Literacy Spot #42: Old Fashioned Technology
I was very excited to discover that my parents had recently found my old manual typewriter when they were spring cleaning! And even more thrilled to find that it still worked 🙂 I think a good old fashioned typewriter is a fun way for a kindergartner or child in the early grades of school to […]
Literacy Spot #36: Story Cards
Story cards are a fun and easy way to get young children talking, conversing and making stories, and they can be easily adapted to the interests of an individual child or group of children 🙂 While you can source commercial sets of cards (like these Wiggles cards I posted about last year), it is easy […]
