Family Literacy Fun Activities
Instruction for Writers
Beginning this issue, we have added a new section--Literacies Are Fun for the Family (a.k.a. LAFF) and would like to invite you to be part of this "production force." We hope that this section will provide more fun and enjoyable literacy activities for your whole family, as well as an opportunity for you to share insights about your children's language and literacy learning with others.
What literacy activities do your children enjoy doing with you? We are looking for literacy learning activities or ideas which are educational and family friendly, i.e., making use of materials widely available at home, meaningful and fun for both adults and young children, and that help children develop creativity and imagination. Please include, but do not limit yourself to, the following parts:
a. Title of your activities/ideas
b. Purpose(s)
b. Materials or ingredients
c. Procedures
d. Optional: time required, special instruction for safety, appropriate ages, number of participants, etc.
For more information about submitting your work to LAFF, please check our Writer's Guidelines
Hope to hear from you very soon. . .
1. Write Me A Story
2. Making a Biography
3. Looking for the Five "W"s + One "H"
4. Can You Make Me Buy It? Maybe Not
by Andrea Torrey Balsara
The purpose of this activity is to help children understand that there are multiple sign/symbol systems that we use daily. Picture and words are two of them.
Materials
Andrea Torrey Balsara's illustration
Writing tools and paper
Procedures
What does Andrea's illustrated story say to you? Would you like to work with your children and to submit a written story to us, based on this series of beautiful pictures?
1. Click and look at the pictures and discuss with your children the ideas that Andrea wants to express to us through her pictures. If your children are already writing, you can write a story yourself and then compare your story with theirs. For younger children, you may dictate their stories.
2. After you finish story writing, discuss with your children whether there is something that Andrea drew in her pictures, but that your children chose not to put in. Or are there things about which your children would like to write that Andrea does not reveal through her illustrations.
If you would like to submit your children's and your collaborative work, please visit our Writer's Guidelines
Selected stories will be posted in future issue of PCTO.
Back to top
by Mei-Yu Lu
A well-written biography helps children understand how social, cultural, economic, and other factors come into play in one's life. Biography reading also enables children to vicariously experience the life of a particular person. In this activity, parents and children will work together to develop a personal biography, be it of the children themselves or anyone whom the children have known and about whom they would like to learn more.
Materials Needed
Construction paper or colored paper
Stapler
Scissors
Glue stick
Writing tools
Photos of the person whom you want to write about (optional)
Artifact related to the person to be included in the biography (optional)
Suggestions and Procedures
1. Work together with your children to select the person to be included in the biography.
2. Decide what you want to write about this person. You can do this chronologically (from birth to death/present life) or from the perspective of life themes (significant events in life).
3. If your children decide to write a biography about themselves (an autobiography), you may work with them to decide the major sections in their biographies, such as:
"Before I Was Born"
"Hello, World-When I Was Born"
"When I Was a Baby"
"One Year Old"
"Two Years Old"
"First Day of School", etc.
If your children would like to write a biography about other family members, help them generate a list of questions, and then interview the person about whom they are writing.
4. Remember that photos and artifacts enhance the readability and authenticity
Back to top
by Mei-Yu Lu
The five "W"s (what, when, where, why, who) plus one "H" (how) provide a strategy that is often used in news reporting in order to provide the audience a quick glimpse of an event. This strategy can also help children summarize an article they read, as well as organize their thinking. In this activity, the parents and children will be reading a news report and then doing a quick summary of the event described.
The "5 Ws + 1 H" involve the following components:
What: What happened?
When: When did it happen?
Where: Where did it happen?
Why: Why did it happen?
Who: Who was involved?
How: How did it happen?
Materials Needed
A news article
Paper
Writing tools
Suggestions and Procedures
1. Select a portion of a news report, one which is appropriate to your children's age and interest.
2. Go through the "5 Ws + H" with your children.
3. Ask your children to read individually, take turns reading, or they can listen to you reading to them the selected portion of the news article.
4. Ask the children to write down what they heard/read in the news, using the "5 Ws + H".
Alternatively, this activity can be done in the car while your family is traveling. Turn on the radio and tune it to a news channel. Listen to a news story, when that story has ended, turn off the radio, and ask your children to orally report what they heard using the "5 W's + 1 H".
Back to top
by Mei-Yu Lu
Commercials and advertisements, as seen on TV, in newspapers, and on billboards, have long been a part of our daily life. Each year, billions of dollars are devoted to promoting goods and products, some of which may even cause harm to our health and the planet Earth. In this activity, parents and children will work together to critically examine the various commercials and advertisements in our daily lives. In addition, the children will learn how to make judgments as to whether it is necessary or desirable to purchase certain products, and how to resist the urge of buying unnecessary products.
Materials Needed
Promotional materials (newspaper advertisements, ad sheets, flyers, etc.)
Paper
Writing tools
Suggestions and Procedures
1. Work with your children to identify products and services that you would like to examine.
2. Divide a piece of blank paper into two columns-the left column is used for "Why I might buy this product or service?" and the right column is for "Why I might not buy this product or service?"
3. Brainstorm with your children and write down as many ideas as you have for each column.
4. Discuss with your children whether they would or would not purchase the product or service you have studied and discussed, and the strategies the producer or manufacturer used in order to attract people's attention.
Back to top
back to Parents and Children Together Online Issue 7
Comments or Questions?
Parents and Children Together Online
The Clearinghouse on Reading
2805 East 10th Street, Suite 140
Bloomington, IN 47408-2698
reading@indiana.edu
back to Parents and Children Together Online
Copyright Notice: Please note that the contents of Parents and Children Together Online and its associated web pages are copyright 2002 EDINFO Press and are not to be reproduced in any form (including CD-ROM) without the express permission of EDINFO Press.