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Back to School
It’s that time of year again… back to school! This can be a stressful time for parents and children, however it is a great opportunity to make speech part of your new daily routine. There are many ways to incorporate speech into daily activities. One way is during story time before bed. Reading to your child before bed is a fun way to encourage literacy, increase receptive language (listening), expressive language (speaking), increase their vocabulary, and even work on articulation! While reading, ask your child questions about the story (i.e., “what do you think will happen next?”) and encourage them to ask you questions, and actively participate during reading.
A great book to read during this time of year is, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books, by Lucille Colandro.
It is “back to school” themed and always gets a good laugh. To make reading the book even more fun, you can create your own “Old Lady” and have your child feed her the items she eats in the book. Just print out the “Old Lady” and items she eats (links are below). To make the “Old Lady” print and cut out the template, then decorate a tissue box or shoe box with fun paper (or patterned duck tape like I did) and glue her to the box (a picture of my finished product is below). Make sure to cut out her mouth! Then print the items she eats, cut them out and voila, you’ve got a fun game to go along with the book. To make the pictures last longer you can laminate them or glue them to index cards or an old folder. To play, every time the “Old Lady” eats something in the book, your child can find that item’s picture card and “feed” it to the old lady. After reading the book you can take out all the items and ask your child to sequence them in the order the “Old Lady” ate them. Your child can help you make the game too, which will make reading the book even more exciting for them. Instilling a love for reading at a young age can help your child in all areas of his/her life and allow them to use their imagination while increasing literacy skills!
Happy reading!
Laura
Click the links below to access the “Old Lady” and the picture cards.
(Thanks to Katie at: http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2012/03/freebie-friday-feed-the-old-lady-who-swallowed-the-clover/)
(http://lessonpix.com/articles/5/120/I+Know+an+Old+Lady…)
And here is my finished product 🙂
