MassLiteracy.org. BROWN BEAR,. BROWN BEAR,. WHAT DO YOU SEE? By Bill Martin Jr. Ages 2 and up. SHOULD I SHARE MY. ICE CR
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CELEBRATE FAMILY LITERACY MONTH!
November is Family Literacy Month. Try these fun activities to get your family reading. A new spin on books and poetry Explore the library By JULIE DEFRANCESCO
There’s more you can do with books than just read them during Family Literacy Month – you can use them to create poetry too. Betsy Johnson, a children’s room library assistant at Ipswich Public Library is a fan of Book Spine Poetry. In this activity, children stack books on their sides and read their titles from top to bottom to form a poem. The poems are then photographed so kids can enjoy them later. It’s a fun way to help children practice literacy
skills. “They’re thinking about how to incorporate these titles into a poem,” said Johnson. “So they’re reading, and they’re thinking, and they’re using
their critical faculties to put that together.”
Johnson said what kids like best about Book Spine Poetry is searching for the titles. She recommends they
pick a theme for their poem first, and then look for titles to use. “We had a number of boys who wanted to use sports as their theme. They would find books
with titles that made sense for their poem, and all of a sudden it would click for them,” Johnson said. “So I think that piece of it, the discovery part, was what
they enjoyed the most.”
The activity can also be enhanced by turning it into a contest. Johnson recommends giving out small prizes for different categories that would motivate kids, such as the silliest or most intellectual poem. The best part is that this is a literacy activity that the whole family can enjoy, “It’s really for all ages, adults can have as much fun with it as kids,” Johnson said. Try it at your local public library, and share your poems with Mass Literacy on Twitter #MassLiteracy.
with a scavenger hunt By LINDA CAPPABIANCA
Get to know your local library, and have fun doing it, with a library scavenger hunt. This activity helps kids and parents discover new books to enjoy reading together. Try it as a parent-child pair or in teams competing against each other. Find a book… 1. with an animal that is green (can be fiction or non-fiction) 2. with magic in it 3. about someone who lived at least 100 years ago 4. with just pictures and no words 5. about friendship 6. that shows you how to make delicious food 7. about life in another country 8. that you can listen to 9. that is written in another language (even if you can’t read it) 10. that is a folktale 11. about how plants grow
Great Family Reads
12. about colors 13. with the alphabet 14. with numbers 15. about a sport or outdoor activity 16. with a plane, train or automobile (can be fiction or non-fiction) 17. that rhymes 18. about the state you live in (or one you’d like to visit) 19. that another family member loved when they were a kid 20. with a cover that catches your eye
BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? By Bill Martin Jr. Ages 2 and up
SHOULD I SHARE MY ICE CREAM? By Mo Willems Ages 4 and up
A WRINKLE IN TIME By Madeleine L’Engle Ages 9 and up
HOLES
By Louis Sacher Ages 10 and up
WONDER
By R.J Palacio Ages 11 and up
Compiled by Dennis Quinn, a 2016 Mass Literacy Champion and Director of Mentoring Programs at Reader to Reader in Amherst, Mass. For the full book list, visit MassLiteracy.org.
Visit MassLiteracy.org for literacy news, events and resources.
Linda Cappabianca is the senior children’s librarian at the Peabody Institute Library in Peabody, Mass.
Mass Literacy Champions Video Series See how literacy educators are making a difference throughout the state in our Mass Literacy Champions video series. Watch it at MassLiteracy.org.
