Let’s Talk About It
Early literacy begins with speaking. Create meaningful conversation opportunities with this engaging activity.
Begin with an interesting but open ended collection. I love the animal tubs from Lakeshore Learning for the attention to detail and realistic nature of the item. During ocean week we will be using a selection from the Lakeshore Best Buy Tub. These Match-A-Sound packs are also fantastic for this purpose although the collections are not themed.
Try presenting the items in an engaging way. Some ideas include:
Hiding them around the room, house, or outside
Freeze them in blocks of ice to be rescued
Place them in a muffin tin and place painters tape over them. Let your child try to rescue them using their hands or scissors.
Bury them in a sensory material such as sand, water beads, dried beans, rice
Get messy and hide them in shaving foam then let your child wash them off in water
As your child finds or rescues the collection talk to them using proper vocabulary. Name the animal or item, discuss the colors, shapes and patterns, and interact with them making noises or actions associated. Don’t be afraid to get silly and play, your child will appreciate it and be much more engaged.
Here are some follow up play ideas for further learning:
Sort the items by initial sounds
Match items to initial letter
Sort items by shape, color, type, number of legs…
Use items to trace over letters or shapes
Look for the animals or items in books and discuss similarities and differences
Count the objects
Play eye spy using initial sounds, descriptions, animal sounds or colors
Play robot speaks with three sound items
Present 4-8 items depending on your child, have them look closely at the set, ask them to cover their eyes while you remove one item. You child has to try and name the item missing. (This is a wonderful game for developing working memory, a skill that can be improved!)
Most importantly…have fun! and follow where your child wants to go with this activity. This is something you can repeat over and over in a million ways. It is glorious for vocabulary, phonemic awareness, counting, matching, sorting (early math and science skills) development. You could use a collection of animals, insects, vehicles, superheroes, flowers…the possibilities are endless!
