Fun activities to engage children in literacy
World Book Day has been around for 23 years now. It is a registered charity on an important mission to give every child and young person a book of their own. It’s also a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and most importantly, a celebration of reading.
Here are a few ideas to help you celebrate the occasion in your school or setting.
Meet Tom, also known as Mr Brooker to his pupils. Over the next few months he’s going to be writing blogs on anything and everything to help you with your education journey.
Resources: Clipboards Pencils Plain paper or sketchbooks Outdoor clothing including wellies Bug pots Trays Magnifying glasses Outdoor education kit – including first aid kit Learning Outcomes: English – Spoken language Listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers Ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge of […]
Resources: Character and characteristics spinners from Story Spinners Workbooks or paper Writing pencils Flipchart / whiteboard and pen Learning Outcomes: English Spoken Language Listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers Ask relevant questions to extend understanding and knowledge Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions Give well-structured descriptions, explanations […]
Resources: Teeth cleaning props to aid memory Writing frames Pencils Learning Outcomes: English Spoken Language Listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers Ask relevant questions to extend understanding and knowledge Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes Maintain attention and […]
Resources needed: Sentence cards halved into beginnings and endings. A selection of words with their synonyms and antonyms, e.g. big, large, small, tiny A list of Initial clauses for step 4. Begin with some work on connectives. Give all children half a sentence, either a beginning (We […]
Resources needed: Personal dictionaries (one per child) Unusual words written on cards Word meaning chart Unusual word with three possible meanings. Explain to the class that they will be expanding their vocabulary and have a brief discussion with the class as to why that is so important, e.g. to […]
Resources needed: Sentence cards with missing words Pencils Memory cards game using both the infinitive The past simple and the present perfect, e.g. go/went/had gone, do/did/had done Remind the children that the ‘simple past’ tense is used to describe things which were started and completed in the past. […]
Resources needed: Dice Who/why/where/when/how/? stickers List of main clauses Large pieces of paper Packets of Post-it notes Give one of the dice to each pair of children and ask them to stick the little stickers over the numbers. Now show a main clause to the children and ask […]
Resources needed: List of common prefixes and suffixes One dictionary per child Give each group of four children a common prefix such as ‘re’, ‘bi’, ‘dis’, ‘mis’, ‘pre’, ‘over’ and ‘un’. Ask them to list as many words containing that prefix as they can in 5 minutes. No dictionaries […]
