Tags
Everyday Literacy Activities from Janine Schaub, Family Literacy, Literacy Activities for the Whole Family, Scrabble
Literacy Activities for the Whole Family
- Play with words
- Bake a favourite recipe.
- Tell a story about growing up.
- Tell the story of your birth
- Write out a phone message for a member of your family
- When you are travelling with your parent or guardian, give the directions
- Tell a traditional story about your culture
- Put a message on a sticky note and place it on the fridge for your parent or guardian
- Look at family photographs and tell stories together
- Make up stories when you are travelling together
- Make a scrapbook about something that interests you
- Play cards
- Play board games
- Read poetry/write poetry
- Make up tongue twisters
- Look up words you don’t know in a dictionary or an online dictionary together
- Read a news story out loud and have a talk about what you think about it
- Learn a song and teach it to your parent or guardian
- Write an email together to a friend or family member
- Get some refrigerator word magnets and play with them
- Write a thank you card together
- Watch a TV show together and talk about the main idea
- Watch a movie and see whether you can summarize it in just five sentences
- Read a book together and then watch a movie version. Talk about the differences between the versions
- Write out the family shopping list
- When you are travelling together, point out street signs, ads and other text that is interesting
- Read a computer manual or online instructions together
- Put something together that comes with plans
- Read something while thinking about the author’s message
- Write a letter to yourself to help you think through a problem
- “Read between the lines” and see if you can make an inference about the way someone in your family is behaving. (Example: “Based on the fact that you are rushing around the house frantically looking in every drawer, I’m going to infer that you’ve lost your keys again, Dad.”)
- Make a connection between an idea in a book and something from your own experience
- Go through an old photo album with a family member and take turns telling each other stories. If you don’t know the people in the photos, make up stories that might fit
- Give a five minute summary of a movie you recently enjoyed to a friend but remember not to ruin the story by giving away the ending!
- Translate a “tweet” or text message into full sentences if your mom or dad have difficulty with the language of texting
- Translate a conversation from one language to another for a friend or family member
- Make up a new verse to one of your favourite songs
Janine Schaub 