Fun Activities with Books

Reading with children can inspire fun activities. After you read a favorite book with your child use your creativity and come up with an art project, puppet show, play, or something creative.

Reading a story is important in developing comprehension. Understanding how words make a story is the beginning of teaching the alphabetical principle. Letters make sounds, sounds make words, and words make stories.

I would like to show you two ideas to demonstrate what I mean. A favorite book of mine is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. This book is full of rhythm and rhyming as the letters dance through the pages and take on a life of their own. The pictures in the book are magical. There are bright pictures at the beginning and end of the book where the letters are in alphabetical order, upper case and lower case together. This is a good place to point to the letters and say the ABC's.

When you are through with the book make a coconut tree. Go to your local store where crafts are sold and buy colorful foam letters and stick them all around the coconut tree. You can spell names from your family, Mom, Dad or any words you want. You can do this activity over and over. Children relate to their own name and often these are the first letters and sounds they learn.

Another favorite of mine is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. You can teach: over, under, up, and other words like, youngest, tiniest, first, second, third, bigger, loud and roared. You can use

funny voices as you make the sounds of the Billy Goats and the troll. After you have read the story a few times act the story out. You can take turns being the troll and the Billy Goats.

My Kindergarten children made a puppet show this year. They colored and cut out the troll and the 3 Billy Goats. Then they colored and cut out the bridge and glued it on half of a file folder I had cut in two. This helped the bridge stand up. It was fun to watch as the children told and re-told the story to each other. They used expression and their comprehension was enlarged.

Stories are a great launching board to teach the strategies that lead to reading: vocabulary, comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, literature, and fluency. Be creative in teaching these steps. I hope my blog has given you some ideas.

Make reading an important part of your family. Think of your children saying, "Read to me."