Literacy Outdoors

Children love the outdoors!  The improving weather provides many opportunities for outside activities which support language development. Children can: 

• Improve their listening skills.
• Develop confidence in projecting their voices in a big space. 
• Engage in messy play on a large scale.
• Develop new vocabulary as they experience the sights and sounds of the changing season.

Here are a few fun ideas for you to try with your child:

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt
Search your neighborhood for things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.  A-animal, B-bark on a tree, C-clouds, D– driveway, etc.

Sidewalk Chalk Words
Gather your chalk and find a sidewalk or driveway to practice some simple words.  Show your child how to write his name if he doesn't know how, practice some of the letters in the alphabet, draw some shapes and turn them into a letter or even a picture.  

Word Hide and Seek
Write some simple words on individual pieces of paper and help your child read them.  Next, hide them in different places in your yard.  Then seek them out!  Give clues if necessary.  Can your child read each word as he finds it? 

Act Out a Story

There are so many exciting picture books that lend themselves very well to being acted out in a back yard!  Read We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and then act out your very own hunt outside, swishing through grass, splashing through water and tip toeing through a cave.  Llama Llama Hoppity-Hop by Anna Dewdney, and Hop Jump by Ellen Stoll Walsh will have your child practicing their jumping, hopping, stamping, and more.