Here’s a great game that can spark an interest in plot and character. (And giggling and goofiness.) By Jennifer A. Nielsen A great road trip game is called “No, It Wasn’t.” It’s played with partners. One begins telling a story—any story. The other interrupts as often you like with, “No, it wasn’t”—or any […]
Tag: five-minute ideas
Play on Words – literacy action game
By Nancy Miller Here’s a fun activity that can take five minutes, or roll out to 10 or 15. The goal here is to have fun with words — and encourage your kid to get reading! Play on Words This activity uses three major learning styles: • visual: they see […]
Save the Words
Won’t you adopt a word? You don’t normally think of the Oxford English Dictionary people as silly, but they’ve developed a project that’s pretty goofy, and it’s something you can do with your kid to get her thinking about language. They’ve rounded up hundreds of words that don’t get used […]
WORDS, an image-and-word poem
WORDS is a brilliant short (1:54) film that blends images to create a flowing “word poem” that is lovely, fun and thought-provoking. It starts out with “play,” which leads to “blow” and then “break” and “split” and then “run.” The images examine all aspects of the words. For instance, “run” is a person running, and […]
Vote on Munsch’s next book
What’s Robert Munsch going to write about next? You (or your kid) can help him decide. Munsch has three outlines for new books. Kids can pick which one they’d most like to see made into a book by clicking on the voting button. Go to Pick-A-Munsch on Scholastic’s website and […]
Scrabble Flash (Boggle Flash)
Don’t you wish there was a board game that encourages literacy – but which your kid would actually enjoy? Scrabble Flash goes one better… it’s also electronic, which kids love. And it’s completely portable, packing down into a little holder about the size of a small TV remote. (Which parents […]
Write your kid a letter
Have you sent your kid a letter this summer? What a great thing to do! When you’re bored at work – instead of re-checking your e-mail for the tenth time, or surfing, do something that will help your kid… write her a letter. It takes, like, 10 minutes and it […]
License Plate Game
Our family recently took an 11-hour car trip. And guess what we did in the car? Played Julia’s License Plate Game. It was great! First of all, it took our son away from his DS video game (curse you, Pokemon!). Secondly, it did exactly what Julia said it would – […]
Numeracy activities
A few posts ago, I listed some great literacy activities from our school board. Here are some numeracy activities to get kids doing math (same source, TDSB). Again, I’ve put in bold the ones I think are particularly interesting. Estimate speed/distance/time relationships while travelling with your family. What was the […]
Quick and easy literacy activities
Our school board issued a list of great literacy activities. They’re simple and fun, and are great examples of what I like to call “guerilla literacy” – using tons of little tactics here and there that add up to… a kid who likes to read. You may want to print […]
