fun literacy homework

Morning Work

Teaching tips, 35 fun literacy activities to help kids with reading.

Did you know that children who are  read to  at least three times a week are almost  twice as likely  to score in the top 25% in reading compared to children who are read to less often?

Some of the best ways to help children are through some simple literacy ideas that you can do at home or in the classroom. It really doesn’t have to be hard! I promise! Make it easy!

Let’s check out 35 fun literacy activities for kids. There are so many that don’t even involve supplies!

What Exactly are Early Literacy Skills?

Early literacy skills in young children are the fundamental skills they need in order to start reading and writing.

Early literacy skills are all encompassing:

✩ phonological awareness

✩ print awareness

✩ letter recognition

✩ vocabulary skills

✩ comprehension

✩ listening skills

✩ fine motor skills

✩ narrative skills

✩ early writing skills

Let’s even throw in language skills! 

I know what you might be thinking…

… this list of basic literacy skills is LONG!

Parents, caregivers and teachers can all help early childhood ages with these skills by providing a print-rich environment, engaging in conversations, reading regularly and offering activities that promote phonological awareness.

But don’t worry! I’ve got some super simple and fun ideas below that will take no time and barely any supplies to start implementing TODAY!

Starting with the  Kindergarten Literacy Games Pack  for some of my very favorite early literacy activities!

Phonological Awareness Activities for Kindergarten

What is phonological awareness exactly?

Phonological awareness  means being able to recognize and manipulate sounds in spoken language. The sounds that make up a word are also called  phonemes . There are actually 44 phonemes in the english language! It involves skills such as understanding rhyming, blending, segmenting and understanding the different sounds in a word.

There are many different ways to work on phonological awareness skills in kindergarten. Let’s look at some fun activities below to use with children to help improve their literacy skills !

1. Syllable Scoops (FREE ACTIVITY!)

Syllable Scoops

This fun little game is for 2-4 players. Each player will need ten small objects such as mini erasers or pom-pom balls for their “ice cream.” Students will draw a card, count the syllables and cover up an ice cream cone with that number.

Other than that, just print, cut, and you’re ready to play and have fun! We typically used this game during math centers in kindergarten!

You can download the Syllable Scoops game for free! Just add your info below and it will be sent straight to your inbox.

2. Read Picture Books

As I stated above, reading books to kids sets up a strong foundation for making them both better readers and writers.

Set aside a read aloud time in your classroom; I always liked to do this right after lunch time. If you are a parent and looking for literacy ideas at home, read your child’s favorite story to them at bedtime or right when they wake up. Talk about simple words in the story to help them with vocabulary development. 

For example, if there is a tow truck in the story, point to it and label it for your child: “Ooh-I see a tow truck. I wonder where it’s going?”

3. Sing Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes are another great way to easily sneak in a literacy activity in your day. Babies all the way up to kindergartners (and sometimes older) love nursery rhymes!

I bet you don’t even realize how many different literacy skills you can hit with singing nursery rhymes!

They help kids to understand rhyming skills, how to sequence a story because they usually have a beginning, middle and end, plus they also help with recall and memorization!

4. Street Signs & Environmental Print

Environmental print is all the words and signs that you see around you every day – like stop signs, store names and logos.

Think about the golden arches-kids know by a pretty young age that that is the sign for McDonalds. They may also recognize the environmental print for places like Wal-Mart, Target and Chick-fila. They are going to know the environmental print of the places they frequent the most often.

Make sure you are naming places as you drive by or even when in a building, simply point out the restroom or exit signs. These are all ways to practice reading and vocabulary words!

5. Magnetic Letters

Magnets are tons of fun! 

What’s even more fun?! Magnetic letters! Try the  Letter Magnet Cards  in your literacy centers and watch the engagement unfold!

You can also grab  tons  of magnetic letter activities to use in your kindergarten classroom first thing in the morning with  Morning Tubs ! There are a lot of awesome magnetic letter activities and early literacy activities for preschoolers and kindergartners to try!

6. Introduce New Sight Words/ High Frequency Words

In preschool and kindergarten, young children start to be exposed to sight words to strengthen their reading skills. These may also be referred to as high-frequency words . These are simply words that kind of “break the rules” in the english language and maybe don’t follow a specific spelling pattern but are seen frequently in text. Words like: “is, the, saw, little, not” (just to name a few).

It’s important for students to master these types of words at a young age since they are seen in text so often so it will help students be more fluent in their reading as they grow older.

You don’t have to make sight word practice boring:

You can practice in a playful way such as writing them in chalk, rainbow writing or building with magnetic letters.

You could also try to  create sight word mini books  or have students  read and sort their sight words.

Plus-when you read books aloud to students, always point out the high frequency sight words while you are reading!

There are also tons of new sight word activities to use each month in the  Kindergarten Literacy Centers Bundle.

Recognizing rhyming words is a  basic level of phonological awareness.

Start by simply saying two words and having children tell you if they rhyme or not. 

For more ideas check out  43 Rhyming Activities for Kindergarten  from  My Teaching Cupboard  to start or try one of the fun literacy games from the  Kindergarten Literacy Pack   based upon the Science of Reading.

8. Practice Alphabet Letters at Bath Time

If you are a parent reading this, you know how fun bath time can be. Kids are silly, they usually have a ton of things to talk about and they want to play.

Bath time can actually be the perfect time to help children work on early literacy skills.

Use foam alphabet letters to help them distinguish the difference between lowercase letters and uppercase letters. You could just practice naming the letters, naming the letter sounds or putting the letters in order on the bath tile! So many opportunities here!

9. Make Letter Shapes Out of Play Dough

Most all children love play dough!

Why not take something that they are interested in and use it to help their learning?! 

Making letter shapes out of play dough is such fun way to work on  fine motor skills  too!

10. Word Games

For this idea, you can really be creative with it and differentiate it to fit your classroom needs.

There are many types of word games you can play with kids to help their phonics skills:

• Sight Word Bingo
• Word Wall Relay: Students race to the word word wall and tap on the word the teacher calls out first.
• Sight Word Pictionary
• Sight Word Simon Says: Simon says touch the word “the” (have the sight word cards spread out around the room)

11. Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Going on a scavenger around the school is yet another neat idea for a literacy activity. Simply make the clues all having to do with phonics.

Check out some ideas for clues:

• Find an object that starts with the letter B.
• Find something that rhymes with bat.
• Locate a book that has the word  is  in the title.

12. Literacy File Folder Games

Having some simple file folder games to pull for independent work or small group time is another really simple way to help younger children with phonological and early literacy skills.

I used these  Literacy File Folder Games  because they aligned with Common Core standards and there are 24 different games to choose from.

They range from upper and lowercase matching to beginning sounds, ending sounds and CVC words. This makes them perfect for differentiating within groups in your class!

13.  Sound Sorting

This sorting literacy activity for kids is a great fine motor activity as well. Kids should cut the pictures out on each page and sort them under each letter, according to the sound they start with.

This activity keeps little hands busy and having fun as they color, cut and glue while learning! 

14. Everyday Activities

When you think about it, there are actually ways that we can practice literacy skills in everyday activities.

When a child is involved in pretend play, there are so many different ways that you can sneak in learning about phonological awareness:

Make him or her the chef of the kitchen and have them create a restaurant menu.

Write letters to friends and have your child deliver them as the mailman.

Play school and they can be the teacher.

When you take your child to places like the grocery store, look for letters and sight words within the store and on the products. Talk about the letters that the fruits and vegetables you are picking up begin with.

Take the child’s lead and go with their interests on this. It will make it more fun for them and they will want to continue playing longer and be more engaged.

15. Alphabet Songs

Singing alphabet songs are some of the main building blocks of literacy. The more your child is exposed to the alphabet, the better they will know it!

Try having the Alexa play the alphabet song while you are making dinner, sing it during bath time or sing it while you brush your teeth!

16. Labeling Everyday Objects

Labeling everyday objects is another great way to work on literacy development. This is especially important for really young kids like babies and toddlers. It’s important to constantly talk about what we are doing so that kids can help interpret what the meaning of a word is.

For example, if you are mopping the kitchen floor-say that out loud. I’m mopping the kitchen floor because it’s dirty. 

17. Alphabet Puzzles

Alphabet puzzles are another simple activity for kids during anytime of the day. Letter recognition skills become of utmost importance by the time kids enter kindergarten so they have the right tools for reading.

This set is one of my favorites!

18. Letters of the Alphabet Treasure Hunt

Print out some  alphabet letter cards  in advance. 

Hide the letters around the school or classroom in advance. (This is a great after lunch activity!) 

Explain to the class that they are going on an alphabet treasure hunt, and their mission is to find all the letters of the alphabet. They MUST work together to find all 26 letters!

Begin the hunt by providing the child with the first letter. You can hand it to them or give them a clue that leads to the location of the first letter. If you don’t want to give clues for this, you actually don’t have to. They know they are done when they have all 26 letters and that is the beauty of it so if you need a fun activity in a pinch-this could be it!

Once they work together to find all 26 letters, put the letters in order, practice the sounds of each and give them a prize! (a small sucker or special eraser will do! Keep it simple!)

19. Tell a Short Story

A new activity to try is having your child or student tell short simple stories.

Encourage them to tell the family stories at home or do this as a class at school. Try to guide them to have a beginning, middle and end.

They don’t need to write the story down-they can just verbally tell you. They could also draw a picture for their story and then tell you about it.

20. Name Activities 

One of the most important life skills is for young kids to know their name, be able to spell their name and identify which letters are in their name.

Have students rainbow trace their name, outline each letter with stickers or spell their name with magnets to mix it up a bit.

21. Letter Bingo

Grab FREE Letter Bingo Cards from This Reading Mama!

22. Letter Hopscotch

This one is just like it sounds-your classic hopscotch games with letters on the board. For students that need the challenge, try putting sight words on the hopscotch board instead.

23. Salt Tray Writing

Sensory activities are the best! This is located in our  Kindergarten Literacy Bundles Pack .

24. Letter Sorting

I love a simple and timeless literacy activity and letter sorting is IT!

There are so many different good choices for letter sorting! You could have students do this in cut and paste form, making alphabet soup (aka-sorting letters into bowls with a ladle) or just a good old magnetic board. Try the  alphabet sorting mats  if you want!

The other reason I love this activity is because you can easily differentiate it depending on student’s needs:

-sort capital and uppercase letters

-sort vowels and consonants

-sort p’s, b’s and d’s

You can easily change this activity to make it look however you need it to!

25. Dab-it Alphabet Pages

Kindergartners love daubers! Use this to your advantage! They are perfect for keeping little hands busy, engaged and working on fine motor skills.

Use the dab-it pages from the Alphabet Fine Motor Pack and watch the magic happen in your classroom!

26.  Letter-Sound Coloring Pages

If you are looking for a quick and east no-prep literacy activity, simply print these 26 letter-sound coloring pages and watch the magic happen! Students will color the pictures on that page that begin with that letter. Kids stay really engaged and focused during this since their hands and minds are busy.

They work really great for morning work or literacy centers also!

27. Story Sequencing Cards

Sequencing short stories and events is a skill all kids need help with. You can print out pictures yourself or buy some sequencing cards for your home or classroom.

28. Play “I Spy”

Playing I Spy is honestly just a great game to help with vocabulary and comprehension. You can play this as a class or in the car with your child! That is the best part of I Spy- you don’t need anything at all to play!

29. Fingerprint Letters

This fine motor activity idea is from  Happy Toddler Playtime.

You’ll need a washable ink pad, paper and a marker. Start by writing large letters spread out on the paper. Then instruct your child to dip their finger on the ink pad and make fingerprints along each letter. This is a great way for little ones to start recognizing letter shapes even if they can’t quite trace with a pencil.

30. Alphabet Directed Drawing

Alphabet directed drawing is a unique way to let kids practice drawing, listen to directions and work on fine skills all while drawing things that begin with that letter of the alphabet.

31.  Make a Paper Tearing Alphabet Book

Yes every preschooler and kindergarten will probably make al alphabet book at some point in their school career. But have you ever seen a paper-tearing alphabet book?

Paper tearing is a wonderful fine motor exercise and has multiple benefits! It strengthens muscles needed for the tripod grasp.

It can improve coordination skills by working both hands at the same time. For this sweet book, simply give students a piece of colored construction paper and they will tear the paper into small pieces and glue it onto the picture that stands for that letter!

For example: A is for apple, B is for balloon, C is for carrot.

32. Create a Word Chain

This is a fun idea when you have about a 20 minute minimum block of time.

• Start by writing a simple word on the whiteboard or paper (e.g., “cat”).
• Explain to the students that you’re going to create a chain of words, where each word starts with the last letter of the previous word.
• Ask the first student to come up and say a word that starts with the last letter of the word you wrote (e.g., “cat” ends with “t,” so the next word could be “turtle”).
• Write down the new word.
• Continue the chain, with each student adding a new word to the list.
• If a student can’t think of a word, you can provide a hint or allow the next student to take their turn.
• Keep the chain going until everyone has had a turn or until you reach a designated stopping point.

33. Word Family Books

This is a set of five word family books . Students will cut out CVC words and pictures and sort them onto the correct word family page. You can have students work on one word family at a time, or they can work on two or more.

34. CVC Word Games for Older Students

Check out some different options:

Short a CVC Word Games

Short o CVC Word Games

Short i CVC Word Games

Short e CVC Word Games

Short u CVC Word Games

35. Try a Kindergarten Literacy Night at Your School!

Have students invite a family member to come up to literacy night with them to create  8 Make & Take Literacy Activities .

Hands-On Literacy Activities

For an entire bundle of hands-on literacy activities to use in centers for the school year, 

GRAB THE ENTIRE KINDERGARTEN LITERACY CENTERS BUNDLE!

You might also like...

Hands-On Literacy Centers for Kindergarten

Sight Word Sentence Books for Kindergarten (Try a FREE one!)

Alphabet Coloring & Tracing Worksheets for Kindergarten

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27 Fun Reading Activities To Try At Home or In The Classroom

Written by Ashley Crowe

Teachers and parents

Prodigy English is ready to explore! Get kids playing — and learning — today.

Fun reading activities for the classroom

Reading activities for parents & children, activities to try after reading, other educational activities to help kids learn.

Learning to read is a huge milestone in a child’s life. We all know how important a love of reading is for future learning. When children love to read, they can learn anything. 

Make sure your children keep the joy of reading alive by using fun reading activities along with traditional reading strategies .

These fun daily moments can improve reading skills and help reluctant readers find joy in the written word. We’ll be covering reading activities by grade level both for the classroom and at home, as well as some activities to improve reading comprehension after your students are reading independently. 

Though many children begin the basics of reading at home, most solidify their skills and become accomplished readers in the classroom. These activities keep early readers engaged and improving while helping reluctant readers master the basics. Here are our favorite ways to keep reading fun!

1. Find the secret word

Great for: Kindergarten to 2nd grade

Turn a reading lesson into a scavenger hunt! Give each student or pair of students a piece of text, then speak the first secret word. Once they find it, have them circle it in a specific color, or circle and number, then report back to you for word #2. 

Keep this word search up for as long as you like — we recommend choosing about 8 to 10 words for students to find. It’s one part competition, one part scavenger hunt! Choose a prize for each team to receive when they complete the activity. Or celebrate everyone reaching the end with a classroom dance party! It’s a great way to keep your kids moving and learning.

2. Read aloud as a class

Great for: All grades

Kids are never too old to hear a story read aloud. Reading aloud as a class is a great way to keep kids engrossed in a story. Since you are most familiar with the text, you can keep the flow going during the dramatic moments. Then hand it off to your students to take their turns.

Want to add a new element to your classroom read-aloud? Pass around a ball or stuffed animal to indicate the next reader. It’s a variation of popcorn reading to help minimize reading anxiety, and it gives kids the power to pass it on after spending a short time reading. 

3. Partner reading

Great for: 1st to 3rd grade

Sometimes trying to get the whole class to read together is just too much. To encourage more reading time, pair up your students for partner reading. 

During partner reading, each child will get more time to practice their skills. And being corrected privately by one friend may be better for a struggling reader’s confidence. Try to pair a confident but patient reader with those who need some extra help and watch them both learn to succeed.

4. Find the synonym

Great for: 2nd to 5th grade

Once your readers are feeling more confident, take our scavenger hunt game mentioned above and add a new twist. 

Instead of searching for the exact spoken words on your list, give students the challenge to find the word’s synonym in the text. It’s a great way to keep the game challenging for older students.

5. Word searches

For younger students, a word search is a challenging way to encourage early reading. You can do this much like our scavenger hunt-style games, but instead of saying the words aloud, provide a list. 

They can search for one word at a time, with you providing the next word to the team once the first is found. Or provide a full list from the beginning and let them work individually. Add in some color matching (marking the word in the same color as printed on the list) to keep this game fun and engaging.

6. Keyword bingo

Looking for a calmer alternative to the secret word game? Have each child work individually in a game of reading bingo. Choose a grade-level text and compile a list of words found in the passage. 

Read each word aloud, giving about 15 seconds before moving on to the next. It’s a race against your clock to find the words, or they can try to remember them while looking for the others. When they find the words, they can mark them out. Once the list is done, allow 20 more seconds to wrap up any remaining words, then pencils down and count. Whoever finds the most words, wins!

7. Decoding games

Decoding games focus on letter sounds and phonemic awareness. A favorite game for pre-readers is to say a letter and have students find an object that starts with that letter. As they bring the object back, reinforce the sound that letter makes.

Other decoding games can focus on the mechanics of reading — such as reading a word or sentence from left to right. This is a great time to utilize finger puppets, following along with a finger as you sound the words out together.

8. Thumbs up, thumbs down

Great for: Kindergarten to 5th grade

Thumbs up, thumbs down (or the higher energy variation — stand up, sit down) is a great game to keep your students engaged. 

Check reading comprehension when you ask students to give a thumbs up if a statement about a recently read story is true, or a thumbs down if it’s false. Help them grasp grammar concepts by having them stand up when you say an adjective word or sit down if you say a noun. 

It’s a fun way to keep their bodies and brains working. 

9. Discover the missing letter

When you’re teaching letter sounds, it’s fun to get creative. In this game, you’ll call your students to the front of the class by their names — minus the first letter. For example, Stacy becomes tacy and Roland becomes oland. Let the kids guess who you’re calling up, then have them decode the missing letter. 

You can do the same thing for objects, or drop middle letters for older children. Just be sure to prepare your words ahead of time to avoid any slip-ups!  

10. Guided reading ball game

Great for: 2nd to 7th grade

Grab a few beach balls from your local dollar store and get your classroom moving. Take a sharpie and write a discussion prompt on each colorful section of the ball. What is the setting? Who is the main character? What happened after…? 

Toss or roll the balls around. Students answer whichever question their thumb lands on when the ball heads their way. This is an exciting way to mix things up, practice reading comprehension and get kids thinking outside of their seats.

Not all reading happens in the classroom! Parents can play an active role in helping their children learn to read. Here are a few activities to try with your kids.

1. Reading together

Great for: All grades and ages

There’s something special about listening to a book being read out loud. It can capture your attention in a unique way. Whether your child is a baby or fully grown, it’s always a good time to read together.

Take turns reading chapters from a favorite story, or just read to your child. Enjoying good stories is a huge motivator in learning to read.  

2. Silly voices reading

Great for: Kindergarten to 4th grade

Kids love to laugh and joke, so play into this with a crazy story and silly voices. Get really high-pitched, speed it up like a chipmunk, and then pitch your voice low. 

Your kids will love seeing these stories come to life with your words, and you’ll all share a good laugh. To get them involved in the fun, ask them to do their own silly voice!

3. Dialogic reading

The word dialogic means to have a dialogue, and that’s exactly what this activity is designed to do. Instead of reading to your child while they passively listen, invite them into the story. Ask them what they think may happen next, or at the close of the book invite them to create a completely different ending. This is a great way to stretch your little storyteller’s imagination.

4. Reading outside

Kids thrive outdoors. They can run, climb, and dig in the dirt. Outside is also a great place to practice reading and letter writing. Invite your child to help you create words in a sandbox or take a stick and dig a letter into the dirt. 

Older kids can simply take their reading outside. It’s amazing how refreshing a change of setting can be. 

5. What word starts with…

Great for: Kindergarten to 1st grade

Letter sounds are an essential early reading tool. With this game, ask your child to think of words that start with “B” (or any other letter).

 Give an example, like b-b-butterfly, then think of more “B” words together. Choose your child’s favorite things to keep the game fun and exciting. Early readers especially love to talk about the letters in their names.

6. Try nonfiction

Great for: All ages

You never know what a child may love to read. Though many kids enjoy a good princess or dragon story, others will prefer non-fiction books. 

If your attempts at fiction are met with indifference, try a book about their favorite animal (sharks, dinosaurs, or lemurs are popular here), learn about space or strange weather events. Whatever your child is into, and whatever their reading level, there’s a book for them.

7. Create a “book nook”

A cozy spot dedicated to reading can add joy to the activity. Load up a corner or top bunk space with comfy pillows and blankets, make sure it has good lighting, and include some sticky notes and a dictionary. All your child needs to bring is their favorite book! Even better, snuggle in together and discover a new favorite with your child.

8. Who’s coming over?

This game can be played in a couple of different ways, and both are great for reading comprehension. First, try giving clues so your child can guess their favorite characters. These favorites can be from books or TV. You can mention physical characteristics, some of their best friends, or things that happen to them. Keep giving clues until they guess correctly.

The second way to play is to invite a favorite character over and then discuss what you’ll need for their visit. A special kind of bed, their favorite foods, or a place for their pet to stay are all things to consider. This is a fun way to create your own story around your child’s favorite characters.

9. Take turns reading

As your child begins to read you can invite them to read to you. Don’t push if they don’t want to, but as their confidence builds they’ll be excited to share their new skill with you. 

This may look like you both taking turns reading a new chapter book, or they may want to share all the creature descriptions from their favorite new computer game. No matter the topic, do your best to listen intently and congratulate them on their reading skills.  

10. What happens next?

Keep reading fun and active when you step outside the book and asking your child what happens next:

• What do they think will happen?
• What would you like to see happen? 
• What’s something funny that could happen?

Any question that gets them thinking through the story on their own is both fun and helpful for reading comprehension. 

11. Talk about the pictures

Pictures are a great way for kids to follow along with a story. When your child is beginning to read, have them look at the pictures and ask what they think is going on. As they unravel the story, point out the words they are discovering in the text. Or just let them enjoy creating their own unique version of the story based on the pictures. 

12. Try new reading apps and websites

There are some amazing reading apps for both reading instruction and digital reading libraries. If your child enjoys spending time on their tablet, give some of our favorite reading apps a try and watch them learn while they play.

After your child is reading on their own, there’s still plenty to learn. Reading isn’t effective if they’re struggling to understand the words on the page, or how they all fit together to create the story. Here are a few activities for children to practice reading comprehension.

1. Summarize the text

Once a child is done reading a text or section of a book, have them revisit the main ideas by highlighting or taking notes on the text’s biggest themes. Once students identify the main themes, ask them to break them down further and quickly summarize the story.

2. Book reports

Great for: 2nd to 12th grade

Book reports are a classic reading activity. Have the child analyze the book, highlighting the most important themes. Older children can present arguments pertaining to the story, and provide passages to support their theories. 

Keep book reports even more engaging when you invite kids to give a presentation, complete with dress-up and drama. 

3. Review the book

Ask children to rate their most recent reading. They can assign it a number of stars, but then they must also explain why. Was it too scary? Not funny? What were their favorite parts? What would they do differently?

Not only does this help students think critically about what they’ve just read, but it can also help parents and teacher identify what they might like reading next.

4. Extend the story

Great for: Kindergarten to 12th grade

“And they lived happily ever after…”

Maybe so, but what happened next? Ask your child to keep the story going. Where do they go next? Who do they meet? Favorite characters can continue adventuring when your child takes over the story. This is a great writing prompt , or just a fun dinner conversation!

5. How could it have been better?

Everyone has an opinion, so ask your child for theirs. How could this book or story have been better? Would a different ending be more fun? Or maybe they just think the main character should be named after them. 

No matter their critique, listen and discuss. Then encourage them to create their own tale.

How reading activities help kids embrace learning

Reading keeps kids learning for the rest of their lives. When a child can read, they can take more control over their education. And that’s a wonderful thing!

Fun activities are the best way to keep a child interested in the world of books. Learning to read can be a frustrating journey for some. Others may simply find it boring (especially if they’re being made to read about topics they care little about). These activities are designed to get kids moving and thinking beyond the page. Because when reading is fun, learning happens naturally.

When teaching starts to feel like a drag, or the kids are fighting their instruction, revisit this article. Mix in some fun activities and keep the learning going. Getting up, moving around, or enjoying a laugh together can help stimulate everyone’s mind. 

Looking for even more great learning activities to engage your kids? Here are some of our favorite activity posts for reading, math, and more!

• 21 Classroom Games
• 15 Geometry Activities
• 20 Exciting Math Games
• 30 Virtual School Activities
• 36 Fun Word Game for Kids
• 15 Free Multiplication Games
• 37 Quick Brain Breaks for Kids
• 27 Best Educational Games for Kids
• 25 Social-Emotional Learning Activities  

Get more ways to help kids love learning with Prodigy English , a brand-new learning adventure! Whether you're a parent or a teacher, create a free Prodigy account to access tools that help you support reading and language learning in the classroom or at home.

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30 Brilliant Reading Activities That Make Learning Irresistible

Learning to read can be a blast!

Reading in the classroom can be so much fun. We all work hard to plan robust literacy instruction, but who said we couldn’t have a little fun with it? Check out these engaging and enriching reading activities, ranging from preschool to upper elementary and beyond. We guarantee both you and your students will appreciate these outside-the-box ideas and games to help readers practice and strengthen their literacy skills.

Reading Activities for Preschoolers

1. sing songs and nursery rhymes.

Rhyming is part of phonological awareness, which is one of the essential building blocks of early literacy . Nursery rhymes are entertaining to sing and learn, while they encourage students to listen closely to the sounds in words. English-language learners will also benefit from the extra vocabulary practice and repetition.

Learn more: 30 Popular English Nursery Rhymes for Kids in English at Bilingual Kidspot

2. Read Aloud

This tried and true activity never gets old, and it’s one of the most valuable activities we can do with kids. With so many wonderful picks for the preschool audience, you’ll make your students laugh and help them learn valuable lessons about the world and their lives.

3. Goldfish crackers alphabet tracing

Effective and delicious! These printables will get preschoolers excited about learning how to form their letters while they get ready for snack time too.

Learn more: Goldfish crackers alphabet tracing at Totschooling

4. Dot the syllables

Understanding that words are made up of syllables is an important concept for early readers to grasp. Preschoolers can have some fun practicing identifying and marking how many syllables there are in familiar words.

Learn more: Syllable worksheets – dot the syllables at This Reading Mama

5. Alphabet play dough

Play dough is an ever-popular activity for the younger set. Encourage letter recognition with this hands-on activity that will keep them endlessly entertained while they learn, a win-win!

Learn more: Alphabet playdough – alphabet for starters at No Time for Flash Cards

6. Name recognition soup

Building names is one of our favorite early reading activities, and the possibilities are endless ! This alphabet soup version will be a hit with your littlest learners who need a little extra practice.

Learn more: Name Recognition Soup at Play Teach Repeat

Reading Activities for Kindergartners

7. alphabet swat letter game.

Letter recognition is a very important skill for setting up early readers for success. Students will adore swatting letters to practice automaticity and identifying letter names at lightning speed.

Learn more: Alphabet SWAT! Tabletop Version at The Kindergarten Connection

8. Sight word fluency practice

With the right touch, sight words can be super fun . These printables make teaching them a breeze.

Learn more: Sight Word Fluency Practice at Natalie Lynn Kindergarten

9. Fish and build CVC words game

We love this creative way to practice CVC words. Mastering CVC word blending is an important kindergarten literacy skill and students will want to do this one again and again.

Learn more: Fish and Build CVC Word Game at Planning Playtime

10. Beginning sounds mail sort and song

Who doesn’t love sending and receiving mail? This beginning sound activity is perfect for practicing hearing initial sounds while pretending to be a mail delivery person. The rhyming song is a fun little bonus!

Learn more: Beginning Sounds Mail Sort and Song at Growing Book by Book

11. Picture sorts

This picture-sorting activity for hearing sounds can foster vocabulary development too, making it double the fun! With a little guidance, students can practice new and familiar words while working on distinguishing sounds in words, like beginning blends.

Learn more: 5 Simple Vocabulary Activities for Kindergarten at Sweet for Kindergarten

12. Snowflake phoneme segmentation

No matter the season, this hands-on activity that practices segmenting phonemes is sure to be a hit. Students drop a snowflake for every sound they hear in different words.

Learn more: Snowflake Segmentation Printable Mat at Fantastic Fun and Learning

Reading Activities for First Graders

13. find the fish.

This may be our favorite game for its versatility and ease of prep. Check out these suggestions from Susan Jones (the second half of the video focuses on literacy) for how to reinforce important literacy skills. Students search for a hidden fish behind words, letters, or picture cards. Great for practicing sight words, letter identification or sounds, decoding skills, and phoneme isolation.

Learn more: 10 Skills To Play With the Game Find the Fish at Susan Jones Teaching

14. Picture the Character

This comprehension activity is both fun and informative for first graders. Encouraging readers to use simple pictures and words to think about a character from a beloved book is a great way to boost comprehension skills. It’s always a good idea to get them started early thinking critically about books!

Learn more: Comprehension Activities for Your First Grader at Reading Rockets. Find the Picture the Character organizer on the list of student center activities at the Florida Center for Reading Research.

15. Magic E wand

Learning the magic E is a very important first-grade reading skill and takes some practice. We love this fun activity to reinforce the idea that the “e” at the end of a one-syllable word changes the vowel to its long sound. Students will love to use “magic” to change these sounds back and forth.

Learn more: Magic E Wand at Playdough to Plato

16. Watch a phonics music video

These videos from a talented husband-and-wife duo will make tricky phonics and spelling rules especially memorable. Students will request these super-catchy and fun tunes over and over again, and you might just find yourself singing along too.

Learn more: Mrs. Siravo’s YouTube Channel at YouTube

17. Echo reading

As students become more proficient in decoding, it’s also important to focus on their fluency skills. Echo reading, or repeating what someone else has read, is an effective strategy to increase fluency. Check out this video from Reading Rockets to see echo reading, as well as partner reading and repeated reading, in action. All great ways to boost fluency.

Learn more: Fluency: Activities for Your First Grader at Reading Rockets

18. Decodable texts

Decodable texts help students put the pieces together and apply what they are learning. There are so many great resources out there these days , making it a highly effective activity you can differentiate for any student.

Learn more: Kindergarten and 1st-grade Reading Activities at Literacy With Aylin Claahsen

Reading Activities for Second Graders

19. reader’s theater.

If you’re looking for a fluency-boosting activity students will love, reader’s theater is a fabulous choice. With many repeated readings and plenty of opportunities for working on expression, reading a script is a high-value activity that will engage just about any reader. It can also be adapted based on the reading level and specific needs of your students.

Learn more: Reader’s Theater at Reading Rockets

20. Learn the six syllable types

Understanding the six different types of syllables is an important part of explicit phonics instruction and helps readers decode unknown words. By the end of second grade, students should be familiar with all six. These types of syllable sorts are fun, effective ways to review and informally assess whether students are grasping the concept.

Learn more: How and Why To Teach the Six Syllable Types at Mrs. Winter’s Bliss

21. Book Clubs

While the idea of a book club might sound daunting, they can be so valuable for newly independent readers. We love this how-to guide for making the most of book clubs for your students. Plus, check out our favorite chapter books for second graders for some extra inspiration!

Learn more: Getting Started With Book Clubs at Two Little Birds Teaching

22. Word hunt

Finding specific word patterns in books and passages is one of our favorite go-to activities. Connecting word work to real text is an effective way to reinforce new phonics concepts and make them more meaningful for students.

Learn more: How To Choose Word Work Activities That Are Actually Effective at Learning at the Primary Pod

23. Fact or opinion football

Read statements and decide if they are facts or opinions. Get it right and score a field goal!

Learn more: Fact or Opinion Football at Florida Center for Reading Research

24. Popper syllable division

Kids just can’t get enough of these poppers and they add so much value in the classroom. Practice syllable division, another important decoding and spelling skill, by pushing down one popper for each syllable you hear in the word. Then, write the word syllable by syllable.

Reading Activities for Third Graders and Up

25. book trailer.

Book trailers are one of our all-time favorite reading activities for older students. With instant buy-in and engagement, this fun assignment can also serve as a valuable tool for assessing comprehension.

Learn more: Book Trailer at Literacy Is Everything

26. Spin a suffix

Understanding morphology, or the study of the structure of words, becomes increasingly important as students read more advanced text. Use the suffix spinner to create new words by adding a suffix to the end of a word.

Learn more: Morphology Activities for Grades 4-5 at Teaching With Jennifer Findley

27. Newsela

Discover engaging nonfiction news articles with varying degrees of difficulty at Newsela. You can sign up for a free account for access to so much content and resources for assessing and getting the most out of the news stories.

Learn more: Newsela

28. Creative reading task cards

Boost comprehension and spark creativity by asking engaging and original questions about stories.

Learn more: Creative Reading Task Cards at The Secondary English Coffee Shop

29. Read aloud

Reading aloud, even to middle and high schoolers, is so important that we just had to include it on our list twice. Talking about books is essential at any age, and we guarantee that with the right books, your students will love listening to stories. Reading aloud can even help reduce anxiety .

Learn more: 8 of the Best Middle Grade Books to Read Aloud at Book Riot

30. Explore genres

Use a chalkboard to keep track of who in your classroom is reading what genre. Once students become more proficient and are reading more advanced material, the possibilities for exploring different types of genres increase tenfold .

Learn more: Teaching Reading Genres at Raise the Bar Reading

More Reading Activities

Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities for Young Readers

Fun Phonics Activities and Games for Early Readers

Unique Reading Comprehension Activities Your Students Will Love

Kinestic Reading Activities to Get Kids Up and Moving

What are some of your favorite reading activities? Come and share your ideas in our  We Are Teachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook.

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Boost reading skills in small groups. Continue Reading

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You are here, 14 activities for building literacy at home.

Literacy is more than just reading.

Developing literacy, especially in young children, also means helping a child learn to engage with the world: How to ask questions, form knowledge, imagine the (im)possible, and reflect on their experiences.

With many young children spending more time at home due to COVID-19, Penn GSE Reading/Writing/Literacy doctoral student Daris McInnis offers these 14 activities that will help parents build these literacy skills with their children and have fun in the process.

These activities are all meant to be personalized to work with what you have at home or around your neighborhood.

Two ideas are at the heart of every activity.

The first is inquiry. One of the best ways to teach children is to ask a child questions, McInnis says, and to encourage a child to ask questions when they are curious or want to explore more.

The second is respect. It’s important we treat kids as the cosmopolitan intellectuals that they are, as Penn GSE’s Gerald Campano and Columbia professor Maria Paula Ghiso remind us. When we treat their ideas and questions with respect and engage them in meaningful dialogue, children will want to explore more.

Create a schedule

 One of the first things kids see when they walk into a classroom is a schedule with pictures of what they will do for the day. Whether you are providing care for your child every day or only occasionally, a schedule can help orient both you and your child.

You can ask your child to draw pictures for each activity, which gives them some ownership over the schedule. 

Remember, you can be flexible after you write in those times. Some activities will be shorter, some will take longer. That’s fine.

Looking for more advice for families?  Subscribe to the Educator’s Playbook for Parents .

Chart the weather

 Start the day by stepping outside and asking: what does it feel like and what does it look like?

Creating a meteorology chart to track the temperature and the forecast allows children to use their knowledge, senses, and curiosity to explore the weather and its effects.

Invite your child to draw the day’s forecast or weather. Or if this is an everyday activity, they could create a series of drawings representing different forecasts to swap in and out of your chart.

For slightly older children, around age 5 and 6, you can ask ‘why’ questions, like: why do you think it’s hot today? You can start to explain bigger concepts like the relationship between the sun and the earth and how seasons work, depending on your geography. 

Tune up fine motor skills

 Young kids love sorting things. With your child’s help, you can create a sorting activity that will help them notice similarities and differences and also develop their fine motor skills.

Collect objects from around your home of different size or shape, like a grain of rice, a bead, or a remote control. Ask your child to sort the objects into different piles. You are introducing the math concept of categorization and opening the door for powerful inquiry.

Ask the child why they put the grain of rice into this pile instead of that pile. Are they organizing by size, shape, color, or something else? 

While they are thinking, you’ll be helping your child build their dexterity while they practice gripping with their thumb, index, and middle finger – this is important for pencil grip and writing activities in the future. 

If a child is physically unable to sort the items without assistance, you can move the objects for them and still ask the rationale behind their choices.

Scavenger hunt!

 You don't have to buy any new stuff to use your home as a play space.

When you create your scavenger hunt, you can show your child what a list is and why we would use one. You can ask them to find something that is a circle or a triangle. Find a letter S. Find a clock. Find something with the color green. The possibilities are limitless.

For slightly older kids, you can let your child do the hunt themselves and give them a time limit. Be sure to use a timer they can see, to keep them on task.

This is a way to encourage your child to notice details in their everyday environment and also build their vocabulary. For example, your child might identify an iron as a triangle. This is a chance to explain what an iron is and why someone would use it. 

Bonus idea: Create some cutouts of letters and hide them around your home. 

Have more ideas? Let us know. Tag us on Instagram or Twitter @PennGSE on your neighborhood walks, experiments, weather reports, home cooking, and art! 

Plant a seed

You can create a really nice gardening activity with materials you have around the home, like reusing an egg carton, paper cups, or an old two-liter bottle.

You can show a child how to plant a seed. You can tell them about watering and sunlight needs. Have them start a plant journal where they can draw what they notice about the plant bed every day. This can open a conversation about the life cycle of the plant.

There’s even a behavior element to this lesson. How do we use our bodies around the plant? For instance, it’s probably not a good idea to play with or throw an object near the plant, because we might knock it over and hurt it.

  Kids are innately brilliant, and books are a way to spark a child’s imagination and develop early literacy skills. As you are reading the book, make sure the child can see the pictures. Ask them what they notice, in both the narrative and the pictures, especially about details like characters’ facial expressions.

When you finish the story, encourage them to respond to the text. Maybe that’s drawing a picture of their favorite part. Or asking them to explain why they like or dislike a particular character in the story. You are providing opportunities for your child to explore their own ideas, extract information, form opinions, and infer.

Don’t forget, many libraries have created touchless pickup or have digital borrowing options to help families through COVID.

Readers’ theater

 Building on a read aloud, have your child act out a favorite story, or act it out with them. For slightly older children, encourage them to make a costume from items around your home. 

You are testing their comprehension, but it’s also super cute. If you’re able to, record their production on a mobile device, and let them see themselves as a writer, actor, and director.

Remember: Cardboard boxes make great set pieces, like vehicles or clubhouses. 

Make some goo

Find a recipe online to make your own version of Gak or Play-Doh. It might be a good idea to try this activity on your own first. When you do get to the lab together (probably the kitchen area), start by going over the safety rules, and orient them to the materials and the ingredients.

Once your Gak or Play-Doh is ready, create letters and numbers on a piece of cardboard or tin. Have your child shape the material into the letters. This helps kids recognize their name, which they will need to do at day care or pre-school.

Added bonus: Because it can take 30 minutes to an hour just to make the material, this can be good for a rainy day spent inside. 

Collage time

Collages are a great way to introduce kids to creating art. They can be figurative or abstract, and they can feature letters, shapes, colors, story characters, or any other theme you and your child might want to try. Found objects like bottle caps, pipe cleaners, and feathers make great additions — but think twice before opening glitter.

Don’t forget to ask your child to sign their piece, since they are, in fact, the artist. Then display it. Running out of gallery space? Try a memory board, which will let you slide pieces in and out. Save special pieces in a scrap book or an accordion file, which makes a meaningful gift when your child reaches a milestone like graduating high school. 

When we treat their ideas and questions with respect and engage them in meaningful dialogue, children will want to explore more.

Take a virtual tour

 Because of the pandemic, many museums and zoos around the world have expanded their virtual offerings.

Virtual tours are fun activities themselves, but they also offer another chance to invite your child to do some critical thinking. Say you tour the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum . You might learn that in our solar system, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, but Venus is the hottest. Ask your child: why do they think this the case? You can explore comets or share dialogue about how gravity might work on other planets.

Inquiry is a great way to keep your child interested and engaged in learning, based on what they already know and things they care about, McInnis says. The discussion and exchange you have about what they learned, or what they liked, or what they want to know more about, can help you plan your next virtual tour.

Give them an apron

 You can do two things at once: Engage your kids AND keep them busy while you prepare a meal.

If your family has a particularly cherished recipe you can tell you child how it’s been passed down from generation to generation. Or you can describe the part of the world where this meal originated. You can also write out a recipe with your child, having them add words or drawings as they go. Eventually you could design and publish a family cookbook with your child as a significant contributor.

You can give children basic, age appropriate tasks, like rinsing food, or tearing up herbs or lettuce. It’s also a good opportunity to talk about the importance of following steps when preparing meals and teaching them about food safety. 

One more hack: The slow cooker is your friend. Take turns with your child measuring ingredients and filling the pot. You can start dinner early in the day, avoid using a stove, and still enjoy a nice hot meal.    

Take a stroll

Nature or community walks are a great way to get out your home and into your community space. It's also an opportunity for you to talk about nature, perhaps naming some trees you see, birds overhead, or flowers in your window box. 

If there isn't much green around your community, there is an opportunity to talk about environmental print. Stop signs are octagons and other street signs have different shapes; use the world around you to engage in discussions around shapes, colors, and letters we see every day.  

Introduce an experiment

  People often assume science lessons are for older children. But thanks to their natural curiosity, younger children are great scientists too.

Try a game of sink or float for your first experiment. Create a chart, help the child write or draw objects, and then have them predict if the objects will sink or float in a bowl of water.

Kids will often pause if you ask about an egg, because of the shape. Or you can ask about a piece of tinfoil folded like the hull of a boat versus a ball of aluminum foil. This can lead to a conversation about buoyancy and water displacement.

For the next experiment, the child can find objects to test. Note: Your smartphone will sink. Don’t test that. 

Freeze dance!

Dance parties are fun, and as your kids learn songs, they can help you write out the lyrics or names of songs in a playlist. Or open the recycle bin to find materials to make your own drums and maracas, and make the music yourselves.

Jam out to your favorite tunes or dance while playing your homemade instruments — and when you pause the music, it’s time to freeze your body!

And remember, if you and/or your child are working virtually for an extended period of time, dance parties are a fun, simple way to take a break.

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8 Great Ways to Make Reading Comprehension Fun for Students

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I hope your teaching days are bright and cheerful and full of reading comprehension fun – yes, FUN! If teaching reading comprehension and fun don’t go together for you, things don’t have to stay that way! Read on to start your journey of making reading comprehension a little bit more enjoyable with these eight fun ideas!

8 Ideas for Reading Comprehension Fun

1. Set up a reading scavenger hunt. Give each student a list of questions or tasks related to the text they’re reading, then have them try to find all of the answers. Not only does this get students up and moving, but it makes reading comprehension fun rather than agonizing!

2. Make Cereal Box Book Reports . Provide students with guidelines for creating a unique cereal box book report. They can demonstrate their reading comprehension in a creative way by completing this fun reading project. Check out the details on Cereal Box Book Reports here .

3. Divide students into teams and let them compete against each other in a quiz-style game . Using questions from the text, allow students to have some fun with a little friendly competition to test their comprehension! You could tailor this activity to mimic really any game show! I could definitely see it being done as reading jeopardy .

4. Develop an interactive role-playing game . Based on the book they are reading, allow students to explore and discover different characters, plot points, and themes while playing. This is a great way to make reading comprehension fun because students feel as though they are playing or acting, rather than recalling what they are reading. It’s also a great way to get students to really connect with the story!

5. Try a Reading Escape Room Challenge. Add some fun into your reading block with a Theme Park Reading Escape Challenge . Students have to complete 5 reading tasks, including a reading comprehension passage with questions, in order to successfully complete the challenge!

6. Have students create a board game based on the text they are reading . Divide students into groups and have each group design a board game based on the text being read. Allow students to test their games before sharing! At the end of game creation, you have another built in activity by allowing all the groups to play each other’s games – score!

7. Read passages of the text out loud in class and have students engage in active listening. Ask them questions related to the passage or have them summarize what they heard after you read it aloud. You could mix in some drawing or verbal summaries as well for a variety of reading comprehension fun .

8. Have students draw what they imagine while reading the text . Allow them to explain their drawings to each other. This is a great way to allow students’ imaginations to run wild while they listen to the text. They are free to connect with the book and explain their thoughts, which is so important to mix in!

4 Fun Reading Comprehension Resources

With these eight fresh ideas for reading comprehension fun, I hope you’re feeling excited and ready to take on the rest of the year with your students. I know the days get long, the standards get old, and we certainly all get tired, but I’m wishing you all the best with your instruction and classroom environment. With some activities in your tool box, I believe in your ability to have some fun even while teaching reading comprehension! Your students are sure to follow suit and find some enjoyment as well. Happy teaching!

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Shelly Rees

Hi, I’m Shelly! Thank you for being here. I love helping third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers with fun and engaging activities that require no to little prep! Let me help you by taking some of the stress and work off your plate.

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How to Make Reading Fun: 25 Ideas Kids Will Love

By jean reagan.

You might wonder what expertise I have. Nope — I’m not a trained teacher. Rather, I personally struggled to learn how to read, and so did my son. Also, when my kids were little, I fussed at them more than I care to admit. But when we sat down on the couch with a stack of books, we entered a magical world together. All the “shoulds” melted away, and “time” became suspended.

So, in no particular order, here are some random suggestions of how to make reading fun that I hope you’ll find helpful. Some are from my own experience; others are from my librarian and author friends.

• Change where you read. When my kids and I read an Antarctic survival story ( Mawson’s Will ), we bundled up and read outside in the snow. Brrrrrr. Halloween books we read in the dark with a flashlight.
• Have the child read a stack of wordless books aloud to you. Mark Pett (author/illustrator of The Boy and the Airplane ) says he creates wordless books in part because they empower kids. Kids are just as competent at reading them as adults, perhaps even more so!
• Show pre-readers how to recognize a particular letter or simple word like and. Then have them find the word in magazines or newspapers. (My friend was given The Wall Street Journal !) Give them stickers to mark each find.
• Start a tradition of reading the Sunday comics together. (An author friend cherishes the memory of poring over the comics with her dad, who died when she was just six years old.)
• Make treats mentioned in books. Because How to Babysit a Grandma  mentions snickerdoodle cookies, a grandmother asked me for my recipe. Sadly, I had to explain that I’d changed “oatmeal” to “snickerdoodle” simply because it was more fun to read. Sorry, no recipe.
• Read aloud books with words you find difficult to pronounce. Barbara Joosse included Inuit words in Mama, Do You Love Me ? partly because she saw value in kids watching adults struggling with new words. Kids learn that reading isn’t about being perfect.
• With older kids, try a book club . Book clubs should be fun, not “highbrow.” Our mother-daughter book club giggled uncontrollably when we extended the book discussions with questions like, “When have you lied and not gotten caught?” Hilarious confessions erupted.
• Keep book characters “alive.” As your family faces different situations, ask how Olivia, the Pigeon, Batman, or the Little Snowplow would handle this.
• Plan field trips as extensions of your shared readings. Visit construction sites, museums, festivals, music events, or perhaps something somber and soulful. After reading My Brother Has AIDS  by Deborah Davis, my family went to an AIDS quilt exhibit.
• Kids love to voice opinions. (Don’t we all?) After a book, do a simple thumbs-up, down, or in between. Or be more elaborate with a book review notebook and star stickers. Also ask, “Would you change the story at all? What should happen next?”
• Let kids read “below” their age. My adult daughter, who has a master’s degree, still requests picture books for her birthday.
• Expand the list of adults who regularly read with your kids. This exposes them to a wide variety of reading interests, quirks, and styles.
• Don’t forget all kinds of nonfiction! One child morphed from a reluctant reader into a voracious reader thanks to Popular Mechanics.
• Attend free storytimes at public libraries and bookstores. If you’re lucky, they may host author visits, too. Most libraries sponsor summer reading programs with tie-in activities and awards.
• This deserves its own spot on the list: read Calvin and Hobbes ! Mischievous imagination. Befuddled parents. Authentic emotions. Can’t beat that!
• Audiobooks on car trips are great, in and of themselves. But if you have to stop mid-story, make sure to have the book version for the already hooked kid to continue reading.
• An author friend who worked with a reluctant reader often intentionally stopped reading aloud at an exciting part. The child then couldn’t resist finishing the book on her own.
• Let your kids read widely and wildly, their choice. Comic books. Nonfiction. Magazines. Cookbooks. The same book over and over . Whatever. I let my son read fighter-pilot books even though they strained my pacifist sensibilities.
• Help readers celebrate their skills by reading to a younger child. Or to pets or stuffed animals.
• (You may want to skip this suggestion.) Joke books . Yes, they can be annoying and tiresome to adults, but kids love them. Jokes offer quick payoffs, especially for struggling readers.
• Start a tradition of “reading chocolate.” Grown-ups nibble chocolate while we read, so why not kids? In our family, chocolate was for our scheduled reading time only. In other words, you didn’t score chocolate every time you picked up a book.
• Read books that are both familiar and unfamiliar. There’s comfort in feeling, “Oh, I do that. I know that.” But it’s also rewarding to expand your sense of wonder and surprise. “Wow. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know you could do that.” Discussions about diversity in children’s literature poetically describe books as “mirrors or windows” for readers. Even in my own How To books , I always mix activities kids will recognize with new activities they may want to try.
• Use gifts of books as treats and rewards for your kids, not as tasks and assignments.
• Help your kids share the joy of reading by donating books to kids who lack them. Have them select books from their own collection (ones they’ve outgrown or their favorites). Or purchase new or gently used books. Donate them to homeless shelters and Head Start centers.
• Read and chat about books in front of your kids. I love my childhood memories of a friend always greeting Dad with “Whatcha reading now?” or of Mom laughing out loud while reading.

What suggestions have I missed? Please share your ideas for how to make reading fun in the comments below. Thanks! And happy reading!

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Literacy Activities At Home

Reading and Writing Time Each Day

Some fun ways to start writing can be as easy as doing little snippets of writing with your child and then reading them together. Here are some activities and snippets to get your child writing.

• What Can You Remember? Memory Snippets † Write about a special day.
• Write about a holiday.
• Write about the first day of school.
• Write about your birthday.
• Write about a sports event.
• Write about learning how to ride your bike or swim. 
• Writing a letter or note to a family member or friend.
• Write to congratulate someone on an accomplishment.
• Write to someone about a celebration.
• Write a birthday card and note.
• Write a holiday card and note.
• Write a postcard or letter while traveling on vacation.
• Add special touches like your child’s handprint, “selfie” photos, or a collage made from magazine pictures that fits the theme of the note.
• For young children, it is a good idea for them to dictate their stories or writing to you. As they tell you what they want on paper, write it down. This can serve a way to model writing as well. Children can then read back what has been written.
• For older children, have them write a review of their favorite musician’s latest song or a movie they have seen. Have them write a letter to the editor about a recent topic in the newspaper or a community issue that interests them. This is especially good for helping kids build argument and persuasion skills.
• Send your child a lunch box note and ask for a reply. 

Finding the Evidence Game

Print this Finding the Evidence Game board and these Fiction Cards and Non-fiction Cards for a fun literacy game.

Talk to Your Child About Their Literacy Interests

Use the interest below tracker to learn more about what interests your child when it comes to reading and writing.

Literacy In The Kitchen

The kitchen is a great place to enhance family literacy as the space draws us together for meals, snacks, conversations, food preparation, and much more. Meals are the perfect time to have conversations about the day. Planning meals together is a great way to introduce interesting words to your child. Looking at cookbooks and letting your child plan a meal encourages creativity and interaction with a specific kind of food language. The kitchen is also a place to promote healthy eating, which can bring in additional literacy activities. Kids can do research on organic vs. nonorganic foods, the effects of consuming too much sugar, and other inquiry topics. Getting your child to read and think critically to make informed decisions is an important life skill, and the kitchen offers numerous opportunities. Here are some things you can do:

• Keep a bulletin board in the kitchen to post family activities, a calendar of events, weekly menus, and other important family dates or notes.
• Find a space (wall or cabinet door) to highlight food vocabulary—appetizer, sandwich, jalapeño, balsamic, zucchini, polenta, cantaloupe, marshmallow— and have fun talking about these words and using them in your conversations and meal planning.
• Plan holiday meals and other meal celebrations with your child. Have lots of conversations about what goes into the planning of the meal and what is needed.
• Make grocery and planning lists with your child. Post them in the kitchen.
• Post menus and recipes, and discuss them with your child. Let your child develop and create meals.
• Keep a chore list in the kitchen to show how all family members contribute. Have your child participate in the making of the list.
• For fun, keep a box or basket of pots and pans and other kitchen utensils for your young child to play with. Encouraging play with household kitchen items will elicit conversation, pretend play, and interest in cooking.

Ideas for Younger Children:

• Food and product labels: Help children recognize environmental print around them and realize they have meaning.
• Grocery lists: Model writing shopping lists and share them with your child; cut out food pictures and logos from advertisements or food labels, and have your child create a grocery list using the pictures and labels.
• Playing with print: Use store ads for different sorting activities, such as cutting out words and pictures to be sorted into baskets or bowls by type of items.
• Recipes and cookbooks: Use print and pictures in cookbooks and recipes to start vocabulary discussions.

Ideas For Older Children:

• Have your child find a recipe and read it to you as you cook.
• Have your child put the ingredients in the correct sequence of use.
• Have your child measure the ingredients.
• Have your child plan meals, find recipes, and research nutrition and health benefits of foods.

Be A Literacy Role Model 

Be literacy role models at home by showing your love of reading and creating reading spaces and an environment rich in print:

• Let your child see you reading and writing at home often.
• Make a special effort to talk to your child about the purposes of your reading and writing. (“I’m reading the newspaper to find out …” or “I’m looking up a recipe for …” or “I’m writing a letter to ….”)
• Stress the importance of literacy in daily life activities (e.g., banking, driving, shopping, paying bills, etc.).
• Use free time or make time to read on long car, plane, bus, or train rides.
• Talk about the books you are reading with your child.
• Talk about reviews of books that you hope to read, sending a message that this is a continuous process and you’re always interested in reading more.
• Have lots and lots of conversation within your family. 

Finding Literacy in Nature 

Seasons and nature walks let you explore literacy outdoors. The fall is a great time to collect leaves and identify them by tree name. I have many great memories of doing this while growing up and also with my own children. Leaves can be saved and preserved by pressing them in books and ironing them between wax paper. These make nice bookmarks as well. Spring is a time to observe signs of new plant or flower growth. Planting seeds is a nice way to help children anticipate and predict at the non-print level. Ask “what do you think will happen next?” and read books on plants and flowers to enhance the important skill of prediction. Winter walks turn into a magical wonderland when snow appears. Investigating how a snowflake or icicle is formed adds important information to a child’s background knowledge. Summertime is perfect for spending hours outside observing the clouds in the sky, birds, insects, sandy beaches, and more. Oceans, lakes, rivers, and even small streams let your children observe fish, ducks, and other creatures. Discuss and research the life cycle from a tadpole to a frog, or learn how shells form. Here are a few more ideas from nature:

• While out on nature walks, take photographs of the same place, object, or scene over time and compare the changes. These photos are a way to document changes in seasons.
• Check out clouds, take pictures, and label the type, such as cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altostratus, and others. Study cloud formation, fog, and other aspects.
• Make a book out of the photographs, and write about the nature walk. Add artwork to the book along with pressed flowers and leaves.
• Make a rubbing of tree bark, and identify and label the tree on the rubbing. Make it into a book.
• Use white colored pencils and black construction paper to draw a picture of a winter wonderland. This is great for capturing trees after a snowfall. Write a story to go along with the pictures.
• Build a bird feeder with your child, and place it where you can observe it all year round. Pay attention to the feeder with your child and keep track of the birds that come. This is a nice way to study different kinds of birds. 
• For older children and teens, encourage ways in which they can be involved in nature, sustainability, and the environment, such as getting involved in community and neighborhood events.
• As a family, talk about how you appreciate all that nature has to offer on a daily basis. Discuss your favorite parts of your favorite seasons.

Take your nature walks a step further and start a collection:

• Collect rocks and study the patterns, textures, colors, and sizes. Research the different types of rocks in your geographic area.
• Collect seashells and describe the colors, shapes, and locations where they were found.
• Collect leaves and make a leaf collage, labeling the different types of leaves. 

Family Book Club

Book clubs are a great way for families to enjoy reading and discussing books together. Book clubs involve people meeting to discuss a book they have read and expressing their opinions, likes, dislikes, and other types of responses.Book club integrates reading, listening, speaking, and thinking in authentic ways that make sense to children and parents. To get started with family book clubs:

• Pick a day and time that works for the family. If you have young children, picture books could work weekly. Chapter books for older children might require more time between club meetings.
• Let your child pick out the book club selection. You might consider providing a list of book club possibilities to choose from. Use this document  to help with book club picks. 
• Let your child pick snacks and drinks. Consider meeting at a restaurant or a favorite family spot.
• Invite friends and neighbors to join your book club.
• Set some ground rules, and highlight respect for each other’s responses.
• Book club selection can also include informational text, nonfiction, newspaper articles, and magazines.
• Have your child keep a book club journal and write down things he or she wants to remember to bring up during book club.
• For older children and teens, encourage them to start their own book club with their friends.

Once you get your book club off and running, you might consider planning a family dinner around the theme of a book. You can have your child help you create a menu, decorations, and activities that are based on the book.

Play with Literacy

Games help children learn how to follow directions and take turns and can strengthen reading and critical-thinking skills. Below are some great ways to make literacy part of play and games. 

There are many educational games that focus on language and literacy, along with critical-thinking skills, such as Boggle and Scrabble, which both promote spelling, vocabulary, and sight words. Here are some ways you can use games to focus on literacy:

• Make a game out of your child’s weekly spelling or vocabulary words (match synonyms and antonyms, words with definitions, etc.).
• For younger children, look for “junior” versions of games like Scrabble and Boggle.
• Play travel versions of games while on vacation.
• Check out garage sales and resale shops for games.
• Set aside a time for family game night.
• Watch a video on how to play hopscotch.
• Watch a video on jump rope rhymes. 

Online Game Resources for Families

• MindFun : Trivia games, word puzzles, brain games, and more
• Printable Board Games : Free printable game boards and word cards that can be used for any grade level and skill
• Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker : Create your own free puzzles online

Building A Home Library

Creating a special place for books shows your children the importance of reading. Creating a home library can be a fun, simple project that will produce endless learning opportunities for your family. 

When selecting books for your home library, it will be important to choose a wide variety of books that meet your family’s interests and ages, and not all of the books need to be brand new. Places to purchase used books include garage and yard sales, public library book sales, used bookstores, resale shops, and online sites. 

Possible Collection Ideas

• Picture books
• Realistic fiction: books on diversity and world
• Cultures, animal stories, sports stories, mysteries
• Folktales, fables, myths
• Fantasy and modern fairy tales
• Historical fiction
• Science fiction
• Nonfiction books: concept books, picture books
• Specialized books, craft books
• Biographies
• Magazines and newspapers

Technology and the Home Library

Technology supports literacy and should be an important component in the development of the home library. This space should be a place where children can access electronic text. This will be especially important for older children and teens as they read on e-readers and computers and use cell phones to access the world. Technology has become an important part of learning and should be promoted in the home. 

The Bedtime Story Library and Collection

One way to encourage nightly reading is to provide access to books near your child’s bed. A bedtime story library doesn’t need to be elaborate. Rather, it should have enough space to make nighttime books available.

• Tuck some books under the pillow in the morning, and surprise your child with a different selection each night. 
• Keep a basket of books near the bed for easy access.
• Set up a small bookcase that is dedicated to bedtime reading. ° Include big and little books, fiction, and nonfiction. 

For more information on creating a Home Library, read Living Literacy at Home: A Parent’s Guide

Backyard Activities and Literacy 

Newspapers and Literacy

Newspapers are a great way to foster family discourse or discussions about the world. They can spark real debates about important current issues and events. Instructional shifts include students reading at least 50 percent informational and complex text. Newspapers provide the perfect way to combine your child’s interests with current issues in an informational text format.

• With younger children, start with an article title (making sure that it is appropriate for your child’s age) and discuss predictions of what the article might be about. Use the pictures to predict and/or infer what the information will be about.
• Point out the different sections of the newspaper, and see if your child shows an interest in a particular category of news. Many newspapers have sections written especially for kids.
• Talk about how reading the newspaper is a different kind of reading experience and has a different purpose from reading books.
• Get into the routine of reading some sections or headlines out loud and other sections silently. Your child will no doubt find an area of interest to read silently.
• For older children, ask questions about information within the newspaper and request evidence in the response.
• Debate and discuss an article to show how you don’t always have to agree with an author. Editorial sections of the newspaper are great for starting these kinds of discussions.
• Focus on the photographs within the newspaper, and discuss their alignment to the article.
• Use the newspaper as a way for your child to keep up with current events in the world and your local community.
• Ask questions about a particular feature and make connections to your family. Ask for reactions from your child.

Online News Sources and News Magazines

• Dogo News (kid-friendly site with stories, pictures, videos, world events, sports, music, entertainment, and more)
• Newsela (online news for kids specifically intended to build reading comprehension)
• Sports Illustrated Kids (sports for kids)
• TIME for Kids (a news magazine just for kids)

Family Stories

Telling family stories is a terrific way to share and preserve your family history. These stories help children understand their past and make meaning from their present life. Stories you tell to your own children can include what you remember from growing up, along with stories your parents and grandparents may have shared. Some possible story starters for transmitting your family story could include: 

• Share what you know and remember about your grandparents’ lives growing up, including where they were born and raised.
• Talk about where you were born and raised.
• Tell a story about your first day of school and other school-related experiences.
• Share a story about how you celebrated holidays growing up.
• Tell about a special day that is dear to you from growing up.
• Tell about a special birthday that you celebrated when you were young.
• Tell about your first time learning how to ride a bike or swim.
• Tell stories over time about your life growing up, and include how you have gotten to where you are now.
• Use pictures and artifacts to begin a story or to add details about an event. 

Tips and Suggestions for Establishing the Bedtime Story Routine 

Reading every night is an important goal in establishing strong home-school partnerships. Here are a few tips for the nightly routine:

• Start with classics and favorites, and go back to them whenever you want. It is fine to read a book over and over. Children love repeated readings and never seem to tire of the old favorites like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
• Be sure to point out the author and illustrator, and make a big deal about the front cover of the book.
• Read every night. Establish a routine by reading at the same time each evening. Always turn off the TV and limit other distractions.
• Make a bookmark with your child that is just for bedtime reading. Write on the bookmark to keep track of stories read. Write “What do you think is going to happen next in the story?” on the bookmark as a reminder to ask this important question.
• Mix up the reading materials and include nonfiction informational texts.
• Ask simple prediction questions as you read, such as “How do you think the characters will solve the problem?”
• Keep books near the bed, and establish a bedtime story shelf or nook. ° Keep favorite books under the pillow for easy access. 

Songs and Literacy

Singing songs can be a nice way to have fun with your child before bedtime. Traditional songs, play rhymes, and nursery rhymes work well. Songs work especially well when you are transitioning from one routine to another, such as after dinner or homework to bath time. Teaching your child the song first makes it very easy for them to then read the words in print. Here are some classic songs to listen to and print out the words for reading and singing:

• “London Bridge Is Falling Down” 
• “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” 
• “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” 
• “The Alphabet Song”
• “The Farmer in the Dell”
• “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” 
• “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” 
• “Yankee Doodle” 

Five Tips For Reading Aloud to Your Child

• Be interested in and excited about the book or materials you read with your child.
• Select fiction and nonfiction stories and informational text that includes content about the world, nature, science, and other topics of interest to your child.
• Use different voices and change volume when you read so that your child learns about what reading with expression sounds like. Whisper for a soft message, and raise your voice for a loud thought. Read as if you are the character and be as animated as possible. Use facial and vocal expressions. Exaggerate your speech when appropriate. Use props for extra fun.
• Keep the book wide open when you read so your child can see all the illustrations. Point out the title, author, and illustrator on the book’s front cover. Stop and talk about the illustrations on the cover and on each page.
• Highlight words as you read. Stop and talk about an interesting word and use it in context for your child to understand the meaning.

Acting Out Stories

Dramatic play or pretend play is a way of representing the story or narrative. Pretend or dramatic play can be based on a made-up story or a spin-off from an existing story. Pretending is a critical dimension to language and literacy development because it takes children out of the here and now and allows them to use their imagination. Imagination is necessary for both reading and writing. You can encourage pretend play by doing the following:

• Keep a box of props—hats, bags, accessories, and other dress-up items—so your child can act out and pretend play.
• Make puppets from socks and small brown paper bags to have fun with when reading, making up stories, and acting out stories.
• Make a flannel/felt board, and cut out characters and scene pieces to align with stories you have read and made up.
• Have your child retell stories you have read and listened to. 

Documenting and Literacy 

Keeping a daily journal at home is a great way to promote authentic writing. For younger children, encourage them to draw pictures and add more text to their pictures as they progress. For older students, encourage a more detailed journal with more frequent entries or a blog written on the computer. Making a journal with a notebook and supplies for decorating it (glue, stickers, scissors, and pictures) can be fun for your child. Here are a few journals you can encourage at home: 

• Appreciation Journal: Teach your child the importance of appreciation, and model your own appreciation for everyday life. Ask your child to write about one thing he or she appreciates each day.
• Art Journal: Drawings and paintings can be a great way to communicate ideas and feelings. Use colored pencils, special paper, finger paints, and different types of brushes for a variety of techniques in this image-based journal.
• Online Journal or Blog: Blogs can provide an interactive outlet where older children and teens can post journal entries, links, pictures, and more. A blog can invite others to participate in the conversation as well.
• Collage Journal: Tear or cut out pictures from magazines or other sources to create a collage representing an experience, a future dream, or something more abstract. Make a collage entry from a vacation, a trip, or an experience that includes artifacts from the event (tickets, photos, maps, etc.). 
• Photo Journal: Using photographs with text is a great way to document an experience. Children can also paste and write about photos from magazines. This can be a precious keepsake for your child.
• Sports Journal: Children can write about a sport they are learning or a sporting event they attended. Mementos like ticket stubs and scorecards can be pasted in the journal.
• Travel Journal: Chronicle the events of the trip, and include photos and artifacts. 

Books Written in Diary Format:

• Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari (Macmillan, 2011)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books, 2007)
• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002)
• Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm (Simon & Schuster, 2011)
• The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 133⁄4 by Sue Townsend (Puffin, 2009)
• Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipovic (Penguin, 2006) 

Helping with Homework

Homework can help foster greater understanding and communication between teachers and families. Parents gain insight into what is being taught in the classroom, and teachers learn about the family dynamics of their students. Parents should view homework as a positive experience and model a confident attitude toward the value of completing work and succeeding in school. Consider these homework guidelines: 

Set up a Homework Center

• Create a homework center where your child can study quietly at the same time each day without distractions.
• Be close enough to the homework space in order to monitor and be available for help and support.
• Have access to computers and printers at the homework center.
• Set up a homework center supply box that includes all the necessary things to complete homework assignments and projects; replenish often.
• Use bright lighting and ensure a low noise level in the homework center.
• Organize homework assignments at the beginning of a homework session.
• Use an age-appropriate assignment notebook and plan adequately for short- and long-term assignments.
• Hang a homework calendar in the kitchen, and post assignment due dates as soon as they are assigned.
• Have wall hooks near the homework center. This will keep the workspace less cluttered and also allow for a place to store backpacks. 

Helpful Hints 

• Take homework seriously, and be sure to make it a family priority.
• Get an assignment notebook for your child, and teach him or her how to use it.
• Set aside time each day for homework and assume that there will be assignments to complete. Plan a homework schedule/routine.
• Talk about homework assignments with your child, and let him or her know that you have high expectations. Encourage your child to ask questions and be an advocate for him or herself, especially when unsure of how to complete a homework assignment.
• Use homework as a way to teach your child about time management. With your child, estimate how long assignments will take to complete and plan accordingly. Often, children will underestimate the time needed to complete a homework assignment.
• Provide feedback and watch for any signs of your child getting frustrated during the homework assignment.
• Provide guidance without taking over your child’s homework.
• Turn off the TV during homework time.
• Be sure to provide breaks and free time during homework.
• Don’t give answers; rather, provide clues and information to help your child seek out the answer or solve the problem.
• Don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if your child experiences difficulty in understanding an assignment. This happens to many children, and teachers are happy to help.
• After-school playdates can include getting the homework completed.
• Try to get homework done at a reasonable time, so your child can still relax and have some downtime.
• Develop a plan for getting homework if your child is absent from school. A homework buddy can be a big help so your child does not fall behind.
• Consider ordering a set of textbooks to keep at home. Often these books can be purchased used and at a reduced price. This will help if your child forgets a book needed for the assignment. 

Online Homework Resources

• Britannica Kids: Offers a free online encyclopedia with articles, pictures, facts, topics, and more
• HomeworkSpot: Homework resources organized by subject and grade level
• KidSource: Daily tips, homework helpers, articles for parents, advice, and ideas

Simple and Fun Daily Activities

• Sports: Attend or watch games on TV or listen to them together on the radio. Try attending a sporting event and learning something new with your child. Sporting events are perfect for follow-up activities, including more reading and writing about the event, making a book, or keeping a scrapbook of artifacts collected. Research the different histories and heroes of sports. Read biographies and autobiographies about sports heroes. Read the newspaper sports section, and check out sports magazines at the library or subscribe to them.
• Entertainment: Check out community theater events for families and children, or find one to livestream. See a play, puppet show, concert, or musical. Read the book and then watch the movie or ballet and discuss with your child which one you liked better with detail, evidence, and comparisons. Write about the event, including a review of the performance.
• Travel and Recreation: Plan a vacation, and let your child help make decisions and choices. Get travel information and brochures, and spend time reading and having conversations about the destination. Look at maps and study the area of the destination. Plan your vacation around special family events at your destination. Talk about your modes of transportation (air, car, train, or boat). Have fun looking into different options and daily schedules for your trip.
• Household Chores: Teach children early on about taking responsibility for household chores. Make lists of chores for your child to accomplish, and teach him or her related words as you go: vacuum, dust, mop, make your bed, laundry sorting, and folding. Let your child add chores to the list. Be sure to make a list of the cleaning supplies you will need to accomplish the chores.
• Turn Your Favorite Book into a Game: For suggestions, check out the book Journey to Game Land: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children’s Book by Ben Buchanan, Carol Adams, and Susan Allison.
• Frequent the Library: Make a big deal out of going to the public library and especially getting a library card for your child. Set aside time each week for the library visit and make sure it goes on your family calendar. When traveling and on vacation, stop by the local library. Many public libraries are charming places to visit and photograph.
• Nature: Take advantage of the outdoors and utilize every aspect as a literacy opportunity. Follow the seasons of the year and use nature as a springboard for authentic learning. Explore the outdoors and model inquiry questions for your child, such as “Where does a raindrop come from?” Use these experiences to align with books about nature and the natural world.
• Family Game Night: Set aside a night to have fun playing games with your family. Let your child know that this is a special time to have fun. Make the learning indirect.
• Drawing and Art: Use drawing and other art activities to promote literacy. Use drawing and art with writing, and add illustrations to the text. When reading a story, keep a dry-erase whiteboard close by so you can ask your child to draw the answer to questions, such as “What do you think is going to happen next in the story?”
• Go on a Reading Picnic: Pack your lunch, add some books, and head outdoors for a reading picnic. Use this time to read aloud or read to yourself while your child reads.
• Tents and Forts: Rainy days are a perfect time to get out all the blankets and sheets and let your child make a tent or fort in the house. Bring a flashlight and books inside for a fun place to read.
• Celebrations: Celebrations are something that families should document through photos, scrapbooking, journals, and more. Celebrations can be both small and big and elicit many different kinds of literacy activities, including through social media.
• Family Calendar: Keep a large family calendar in the kitchen or family room as documentation and a planner for all family events. Refer to it often and have conversations about upcoming events. Encourage your child to add events to the calendar, check off completed events, and more.
• Scrapbook: This is a great way to document experiences with your family using photographs and other artifacts, collections, and more. Have your child write about the experience and add it to the scrapbook. Create a space in your home for this special activity, and make it an ongoing and authentic part of your family.
• Puzzles: Utilize the crossword puzzle in the newspaper daily. Engage the entire family in solving the word puzzles together. Leave it out on the kitchen counter with a note to “Take a turn.”
• Love and Label Your Environment: Label a few objects in your environment to help your child learn new words. Some examples might include “mirror,” “bathtub,” and “shower” in your bathroom. Have fun with the words, and give your child time to learn the words before adding more. Two or three words at a time are just fine.
• Build a List of Favorite Books: Begin a list of favorite books read by family members and add to it. Keep this list where everyone can see it and contribute to it. Talk about the books as you are reading them.
• Humor: Read funny stories and laugh. Post a joke or riddle of the day in the kitchen.
• Comic Books and Comics: Don’t forget to include comic books as another way to engage your child in a variety of types of reading pleasure. Comics are fun and tell a story, and your child will infer through context and pictures. Include classics like Archie and Spiderman. Check out the comics in the newspaper as well.
• Collections: Collect objects and artifacts of interest. These can start with a trip, a visit to a museum, or just a walk along the beach. Collections can turn into hobbies and be a terrific way for children to inquire about the objects.
• Start a Neighborhood Book Club for Kids: A neighborhood book club can be for both young children as well as for older children and teens. Younger children will need the organization and structure to decide what to read and where to meet. Older children can manage this by themselves and make decisions about what to read.
• Get a Globe: Place your globe in a space where there is easy access for the family to explore. Help your child learn geography by pointing out the countries in the world. Extend the activities to a map.
• Swap Books: Start a program, like a Little Free Library, in your neighborhood, church, school, or other places where you and your family have read a book or where you can exchange books. These can function with little management.
• Read to Your Pet: If you have a pet, this can be a great way to encourage your child to read. Reading to a dog, cat, or fish can give your child an opportunity to read aloud for fun and use expression without having to worry about reading every word correctly. The purpose of this activity is fun, but it also builds confidence by reading aloud.
• Buy Books as Presents: Every time you or your child needs a gift, think of buying a book as the present. Holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations are the perfect way to show your child that reading is so important that you give books to others as gifts. 

Online Literacy Resources

• ABC Teach : Free printable activities for kids.
• American Library Association : Great resource for checking out award- winning books like Caldecott Medal and Newbery Medal winners.
• Between the Lions: Get Wild about Reading : Companion site for the PBS television series that includes more than 70 illustrated online stories, activities, interactive games, printable text, and much more.
• Boys Read : An organization of parents, educators, and librarians whose mission is to transform boys into lifelong readers.
• BrainPOP : Animated curriculum content that engages students.
• Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site : Resources for both home and school that include books for children and activities for using them.
• Center for Parenting Education : Offers parenting support by building off of families’ strengths so that children thrive academically, socially, and behaviorally.
• Children’s Book Council : An organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging the enjoyment of children’s books. You can find resources about authors and illustrators and information on National Children’s Book Week.
• Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) : A link to 50 multicultural books every child should know.
• Family Education : Resources, quizzes, games, after-school activities, and much more.
• Fun English Games for Kids : Great resource for learning English that includes games, activities, videos, and more.
• Imagination Soup : Features comics, games, graphic novels, information about authors, and more.
• International Literacy Association : Professional organization (formerly the International Reading Association) that announces Children’s Choices books (100 titles), Teachers’ Choices books (30 titles), and Young Adults’ Choices books (30 titles).
• Kids Comics : Helps you find a kid-friendly comic book store in your area; features new comics, upcoming comics, and links to graphic novels.
• Multicultural Children’s Literature : Covers multicultural literature and summarizes the books in an annotated bibliography.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) : A professional organization promoting high-quality learning for all children from birth through age eight by connecting policy, practice, and research.
• National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) : Works to strengthen and broaden approaches to family literacy, building on advancements in education and technology as well as the changing needs of families.
• National Summer Learning Association: Provides resources, guidance, and expertise to the summer learning community.
• New York Public Library Digital Collection : Includes a database of more than 600,000 images from art, humanities, sciences, performing arts, and more. The collection includes podcasts, videos, animated talking books, and much more.
• Parent Teacher Association (PTA) : This association provides information to help families get involved in their child’s school. Also includes many other issues relevant to today and raising children.
• Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) : Organization that provides free books and literacy resources with the mission of motivating children to read by working with parents and the community. Site includes extensive resources for parents, including booklets, articles, brochures, and multicultural resources.
• Smithsonian Virtual Field Trip : Take a panoramic, room-by-room, virtual tour of the Smithsonian Museum.
• The Idea Box: Community-driven website that provides literacy activities that can be done at home with your child.
• TOPICS Online Magazine for Learners of English : An online magazine where English language learners can participate and express opinions and ideas on topics of interest. Students share with others who are learning English.
• White House Virtual Tour: An up-close and personal look at one of the most famous places in the world. You can click on any room that you want to visit. 

That Fun Reading Teacher

Fun early literacy and social-emotional learning tips, resources, and more!

How to make reading homework FUN!

2014-11-12 By: That Fun Reading Teacher 3 Comments

“Why does my son keep bringing home books that are too easy for him? How will he learn anything if he isn’t challenged?”

Make reading homework fun for k-3 students, so they’ll become lifelong readers! Reading homework in kindergarten and the primary grades is usually familiar reading.

Books that kids have read more than once are considered ‘familiar’ text, and are an important piece of the early literacy journey.  Reading books that are easy over and over again help kids practice reading fluently, which means that reading sounds smooth, not choppy.  It should sound like talking, with expression and intonation.  Children need to practice familiar books many times before their reading  sounds quick, expressive and like spoken language.  Good fluency leads to good comprehension, an easier transition to the next reading level and confidence.

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OUT OF FAMILIAR BOOKS:

1)       Take a sneak peek yourself before you read it together

This will enable you to give the child a brief overview of what the story is about, the characters’ names and activities and a sense of where to direct the pre-reading conversation to ‘activate’ related vocabulary and / or any prior life experiences that will help your child connect on an emotional level to the book.

2)       Have a quick look through the pictures together before reading the book, then ensure that your child knows to glance at the picture on each page before reading the words, and look back at it when needed.

Looking through all of the pictures prior to reading will give the reader a reminder of the entire story, from the beginning to the end, and will help him or her to predict what is coming up as he or she tackles the words and phrases on each page.  It also helps refresh the reader’s memory for new vocabulary and character’s names to avoid stumbling on them in the middle of a sentence.

3)       Take turns reading by alternating pages. 

Your reading sets an example and the pace for your time together.  It also helps you get through more stories in less time!  Another perk? Reading comprehension.  An experienced reader can bring characters to life with exaggerated voices, sound effects and expression.  Check out this video of master storyteller Robert Munsch for example:

Another perk of shared reading is that both partners can be listening to ensure that what is being read  makes sense .  Want to jazz it up with a little humor? Check if your little reader is paying attention by throwing in something bizarre at the end of a sentence when it’s your turn to read something…

i.e. Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. The first little pig lived in a house made of gummy worms…

4)     Keep it short and sweet!

A parent knows their own child best.  Goal number one is to ensure that kids think of reading homework as a fun time and maintain an enjoyment of books and stories.  Lighthearted fun, praise for a great time together and some laughter is a positive outcome.  For four to eight year olds? Five to twenty minutes per session, max! (And for goodness sakes, move around!)

5)      Brag.

Tell everyone you know how much fun you had reading together (in earshot of your little reader).

Would you like to print a free guide of these tips? See below!

What are your best-kept secrets for making reading homework fun with kids? Please share in the comments!

Copyright: kolinkotanya / 123RF Stock Photo

How to make reading homework fun – link to a free printable for parents, volunteers and other reading mentors!

2014-11-16 at 8:03 am

Thanks for this great post. I linked it for my parents to read. Michelle

2014-11-23 at 7:34 pm

Thank you so much, Michelle. I hope they enjoy it! Have a wonderful holiday!

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Fun literacy games: an engaging way to learn, 15 fun literacy games for students.

Literacy skills are fundamental in learning how to communicate effectively. Reading opens the world to students so they know more and can grasp complex concepts.

The process can be challenging for some kids, but incorporating fun literacy games in the classroom setting can help. Using games when educating kids can build their confidence and motivate them to take risks.

Read on to learn about other benefits of teaching with literacy games. This article also provides age-appropriate games for each developmental stage.

Benefits of Teaching with Literacy Games

Teaching with literacy games is a fun way to engage students and make learning enjoyable. Literacy games can help students develop an understanding of the English language and improve their reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills. By playing literacy games in the classroom, students can be exposed to various new words, learn how to spell, and practice their handwriting.

There are many benefits of teaching with literacy games, including:

Greater Motivation

Children are more motivated to learn when they’re having fun. They are more attentive and willing to pay attention to what’s happening in the classroom. Students also show more enthusiasm, participate in class, and are more engaged.

Comprehension and Language Development

Understanding is as important as learning to read. This ensures readers can interpret what they’ve read. They should be able to answer questions based on the content. It’s a fundamental skill that helps in other areas, including math.

Playing games also helps with language development by building vocabulary and reinforcing phonics.

Collaborative Learning

Playing facilitates interaction and sharing of ideas. In some cases, teams often have to strategize to succeed. By using each other's strengths while playing, students can learn from one another. This can also help them grasp concepts faster.

Identifies Student Challenges

Playing games in a classroom setting, especially ones involving reading card games, can help teachers identify student challenges. This can include learning challenges or difficulties with vision or hearing. Children tend to be uninhibited while playing. They’re usually focused on achieving successful results, making it easier for teachers to recognize students' issues with reading.

The 5 Best Literacy Games for Kindergarteners

Early childhood is the most critical development stage. Reading to an infant can enhance their social and reading skills. Participating in a preschool reading game can build students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills and improve their reading capabilities. These skills can be further boosted when they play any of the following games:

1. Alphabet Woods

Alphabet Woods helps to reinforce learning the alphabet in a fun way. Playing their cards alphabetically allows students to grow trees for the forest animals. Each card played will enable students to collect a forest animal. The goal of the game is to collect the most animals.

2.  Rooby's ABCs

In this game that fosters lower and uppercase letter recognition and alphabet sequencing, players take turns drawing a letter token from the bag and identifying its match to determine where on one of the five alphabet boards it should be placed. When a player places the last letter token and a board is complete, they collect a Rooby token. The player with the most Rooby tokens at the end of the game wins!

3. Clover Leap

This game uses special dice with symbols. You want to look out for the sheep and the clovers. Revealing either of these determines if a player gets to move sheep across the game board or collects a clover tile. Players can use the words on their clover tiles to create sentences to earn points. It doesn’t matter if the sentences are silly as long as you win points. The player with the highest number of points wins.

4. Is or Isn’t

A roll of the die moves players' pawns around the gameboard, where they can land on word cards or challenge spaces. All players can try to identify the matching synonym or antonym on their bingo boards when anyone lands on a word card. Once identified, they cover the corresponding square with a token. After landing on a challenge square, the player can choose any open square on their bingo board and place a token in the space. The objective of this bingo-style game is to fill a row or column with four tokens to win.

5. Pickles’ Pig Tales

This is similar to some of the kid book games that provides an excellent outlet for kids to hone their storytelling skills. On each player’s turn, they move Pickles along the gameboard and draw a card to tell the story. Players who tell the story correctly receive the card. After that, each player tells the story from the beginning and adds one sentence based on the card content they’ve drawn. The player who collects the most cards wins when Pickles reaches the castle.

The 5 Best Literacy Games for Elementary Students

Here are some fun literacy games for kids in the five to ten age group. They include reading board games for elementary students and fun reading games for elementary school.

1. ARTributes

You can use teams or individual students to play this game. Each takes a turn, chooses a descriptive word, then draws a picture based on the word. The other players try to guess the picture before time runs out. Each point is awarded to the artist and guesser if they’re correct. The first team or player that reaches 15 points wins.

2. Word Bits

The category card determines the specific category and number of matching letters a player needs to spell the word. The letters can be used in any order based on quick thinking and speed. The fastest player collects the card used in each round. The winner is the player with the most cards at the end of the game.

3. Get 4 & Score

Players choose the category from a stack of cards. They write four answers based on the category, each starting with a letter on the letter cards. Players then reveal their answers and will receive points for each letter completed before the time runs out. The highest-scoring player wins.

4.  Letter Slide

Spell as many four-letter words as you can using the two letters shown on the card that has been turned over. Place one letter tile from each correctly spelled word onto a corresponding letter space. Cover all the letter spaces on your slide board first to win!

5. The Reel Script

Players read aloud the script they’ve created to the other players, who vote on the best story. Players earn points along the way, and the one with the most wins. It’s one of a few reading intervention games encouraging students to read aloud. This can alert you to any reading challenges your students might be having.

The 5 Best Literacy Games for Middle School Students

Here are a few literacy games for middle school students you can introduce to your class. They may not include reading games middle school students might expect, but these still test their comprehension skills.

1. Do You Know Shakespeare?

It’s a great way to reinforce your students’ knowledge of Shakespeare. Players must determine which answers are accurate by placing their pawns next to them. Players are awarded a shilling for every correct answer.

The player who starts chooses a letter on one of their cards and says a word beginning with that letter. The second player must quickly play their card and say words associated with the word given by the previous player. The first player to play all their cards wins.

3. Bid-A-Letter

You can bid a letter during each round. This allows the player to add a word to an existing chain. The goal is to use all your letters before the other players.

4. Gumball Words

Players collect tiles as they go, follow the directions, and move around the gameboard accordingly. They can use the letter tiles to build as many words as possible. The player with the best words, wins.

5.  Chalk-A-Word

Players use the letter cards they’ve been dealt to create words or add letters to existing words in the play area. Each letter used earns points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Learning Through Play with SimplyFun

Reading is a fundamental skill that opens the doorway to other areas of education. Fun literacy games can help make reading more manageable. Finding ones suitable for your student’s developmental stage and age is easy with SimplyFun .

We have various fun literacy games for every age range that help in math and English. Browse through all of them  to find the best game for your young learner!

• Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
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Phonics worksheets and free printable phonics workbooks for kids

Fun Fonix is a phonics warehouse of resources and materials that are designed to move quickly through phonics rules. These are ideal for teachers with limited time for phonics instruction or for teachers or parents who need additional materials for learning and practice.

The Fun Fonix Workbooks: Below is a quick list of each workbook, but for more information about the series, please see the Fun Fonix Workbooks page.

Fun Fonix ABC : letter introduction and alphabet worksheets - letter tracing activity, vocabulary and lettter association, uppercase and lowercase recognition, writing skills builder

Fun Fonix Intro : hard consonants and short vowels worksheets - letter writing practice activity, phonics rule practice, fun exercises for solidification, final review section with a few additioanl activities per letter

Fun Fonix Book 1 : midvowel vowels, cvc worksheets - sound recognition activities, phonics rule practice section, build a word exercises, mid and final review sections and more

Fun Fonix Book 2 : consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, ck, ng, qu, wh - sound recognition activities, vocabulary building exercises, tracing and reading pages,a writing section and more with each unit.

Fun Fonix Book 3 : long vowels with silent e worksheets - sound recognition activities, trace and read activities, a game with each unit, reading comprehension exercises, a writing practice section and more

Fun Fonix Book 4 : vowel digraph and diphthong worksheets - long vowel vs. short vowel sound recognition activity, short reading quiz, writing exercises, reading comprehension passages and more with each unit

Make your own custom phonics worksheets ! The phonics worksheet generators are 100% customizable and you can choose from hundreds of images from the phonics series to make the perfect worksheet for your students. The templates can be used in many different ways. Check each worksheet's main page for details.

build a word

read and choose

reading and writing

spelling and writing

matching worksheets

printable bookmarks

Printable Certificates

There are also some phonics game templates you can use to make supplemental activites and exercises for your students

word searches

phonics mazes

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These games are the 'light' version of MES Games. If you like these games, I have made a more comprehensive online learning app that you may find useful: MES Games which has spelling activities and additional vocabulary and grammar exercises.

These are free resources to print and you may provide them to your students for free. I made these available for individual teachers to use as private use in their classes of for parents to use with their children. Institutions or persons requiring more than 50 copies per year of any book or part there of must pay a one time licensing fee of $49.99 per teacher and per location. The license is non-transferable. That will also allow you to charge up to $10 per year to each student as a resources fee. You will receive PDF copies of the books to be downloaded with a price of $10 written on the cover. For more details please contact MES .

Happy teaching, Mark Cox (Fun Fonix author, artist, webmaster, and admin)

For more MES phonics resources:

- MES Phonics : phonics flashcards, handouts, posters, alphabet activities and more

- Tools for Educators - Phonics : more phonics worksheet and phonics game makers

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10 fun writing activities for the reluctant writer

  10 FUN WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR THE RELUCTANT WRITER

No doubt about it – writing isn’t easy. It is no wonder that many of our students could be described as ‘reluctant writers’ at best. It has been estimated by the National Association of Educational Progress that only about 27% of 8th and 12th Grade students can write proficiently.

As educators, we know that regular practice would go a long way to helping our students correct this underachievement, and sometimes, writing prompts just aren’t enough to light the fire.

But how do we get students, who have long since been turned off writing, to put pen to paper and log in the requisite time to develop their writing chops?

The answer is to make writing fun! In this article, we will look at some creative writing activities where we can inject a little enjoyment into the writing game.

COMPLETE DIGITAL AND PRINT FUN WRITING UNIT

25 FUN and ENGAGING writing tasks your students can complete INDEPENDENTLY with NO PREP REQUIRED that they will absolutely love.

Fully EDITABLE and works as with all DIGITAL PLATFORMS such as Google Classroom, or you can PRINT them for traditional writing tasks.

1. Poetry Scavenger Hunt

The Purpose: This activity encourages students to see the poetry in the everyday language around them while helpfully reinforcing their understanding of some of the conventions of the genre.

The Process: Encourage students to ‘scavenge’ their school, home, and outside the community for snippets of language they can compile into a piece of poetry or a poetic collage. They may copy down or photograph words, phrases, and sentences from signs, magazines, leaflets or even snippets of conversations they overhear while out and about.

Examples of language they collect may range from the Keep Out sign on private property to the destination on the front of a local bus.

Once students have gathered their language together, they can work to build a poem out of the scraps, usually choosing a central theme to give the piece cohesion. They can even include corresponding artwork to enhance the visual appeal of their work, too, if they wish.

The Prize: If poetry serves one purpose, it is to encourage us to look at the world anew with the fresh eyes of a young child. This activity challenges our students to read new meanings into familiar things and put their own spin on the language they encounter in the world around them, reinforcing the student’s grasp on poetic conventions.

2. Story Chains  

The Purpose: Writing is often thought of as a solitary pursuit. For this reason alone, it can be seen as a particularly unattractive activity by many of our more gregarious students. This fun activity exercises students’ understanding of writing structures and engages them in fun, creative collaboration.

The Process: Each student starts with a blank paper and pen. The teacher writes a story prompt on the whiteboard. You’ll find some excellent narrative writing prompts here . For example, each student spends two minutes using the writing prompt to kick-start their writing.  

When they have completed this part of the task, they will then pass their piece of paper to the student next to them. Students then continue the story from where the previous student left off for a given number of words, paragraphs, or length of time.

If organized correctly, you can ensure students receive their own initial story back at the end for the writing of the story’s conclusion .

The Prize: This fun writing activity can be used effectively to reinforce student understanding of narrative writing structures, but it can also be fun to try with other writing genres.

Working collaboratively motivates students to engage with the task, as no one wants to be the ‘weak link’ in the finished piece. But, more than that, this activity encourages students to see writing as a communicative and creative task where there needn’t be a ‘right’ answer. This encourages students to be more willing to take creative risks in their work.

3. Acrostic Associations

The Purpose: This is another great way to get students to try writing poetry – a genre that many students find the most daunting.

The Process: Acrostics are simple poems whereby each letter of a word or phrase begins a new line in the poem. Younger students can start off with something very simple, like their own name or their favorite pet and write this vertically down the page.

Older students can take a word or phrase related to a topic they have been working on or have a particular interest in and write it down on the page before beginning to write.

The Prize: This activity has much in common with the old psychiatrist’s word association technique. Students should be encouraged to riff on ideas and themes generated by the focus word or phrase. They needn’t worry about rhyme and meter and such here, but the preset letter for each line will give them some structure to their meanderings and require them to impose some discipline on their wordsmithery, albeit in a fun and loose manner.

4. The What If Challenge

The Purpose: This challenge helps encourage students to see the link between posing interesting hypothetical questions and creating an entertaining piece of writing.

The Process: To begin this exercise, have the students come up with a single What If question, which they can then write down on a piece of paper. The more off-the-wall, the better!

For example, ‘What if everyone in the world knew what you were thinking?’ or ‘What if your pet dog could talk?’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat. Each student picks one out of the hat before writing on that question for a suitable set amount of time.

Example What If Questions

• “What if you woke up one day and found out that you had the power to time travel?”
• “What if you were the last person on Earth? How would you spend your time?”
• “What if you were granted three wishes, but each one came with a terrible consequence?”
• “What if you discovered a secret portal to another world? Where would you go, and what would you do?”
• “What if you woke up one day with the ability to communicate with animals? How would your life change?”

The Prize: Students are most likely to face the terror of the dreaded Writer’s Block when they are faced with open-ended creative writing tasks.

This activity encourages the students to see the usefulness of posing hypothetical What If questions, even random off-the-wall ones, for kick-starting their writing motors.

Though students begin by answering the questions set for them by others, please encourage them to see how they can set these questions for themselves the next time they suffer from a stalled writing engine.

5. The Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World

The Purpose: Up until now, we have looked at activities encouraging our students to have fun with genres such as fiction and poetry. These genres being imaginative in nature, more easily lend themselves to being enjoyable than some of the nonfiction genres.

But what about descriptive writing activities? In this activity, we endeavor to bring that same level of enjoyment to instruction writing while also cleverly reinforcing the criteria of this genre.

The Process: Undoubtedly, when teaching instruction writing, you will at some point cover the specific criteria of the genre with your students.

These will include things like the use of a title, numbered or bulleted points, time connectives, imperatives, diagrams with captions etc. You will then want the students to produce their own piece of instruction writing or procedural text to display their understanding of how the genre works.

 But, why not try a fun topic such as How to Make the Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World rather than more obvious (and drier!) topics such as How to Tie Your Shoelaces or How to Make a Paper Airplane when choosing a topic for your students to practice their instruction writing chops?

Example of a Most disgusting Sandwich Text

The Prize: As mentioned, with nonfiction genres, in particular, we tend to suggest more banal topics for our students to work on while internalizing the genre’s criteria. Enjoyment and acquiring practical writing skills need not be mutually exclusive.

Our students can just as quickly, if not more easily, absorb and internalize the necessary writing conventions while engaged in writing about whimsical and even nonsensical topics.

if your sandwich is entering the realm of horror, be sure to check our complete guide to writing a scary story here as well.

Daily Quick Writes For All Text Types

Our FUN DAILY QUICK WRITE TASKS will teach your students the fundamentals of CREATIVE WRITING across all text types. Packed with 52 ENGAGING ACTIVITIES

6. Diary Entry of a Future Self

The Purpose: This activity allows students to practice personal writing within the conventions of diary/journal writing. It also challenges them to consider what their world will be like in the future, perhaps stepping a foot into the realm of science fiction.

The Process: Straightforwardly, after working through some examples of diary or journal writing, and reviewing the various criteria of the genre, challenge the students to write an entry at a given milestone in the future.

This may be when they leave school, begin work, go to university, get married, have kids, retire etc. You may even wish to get the students to write an entry for a series of future milestones as part of a more extended project.

Example of Message to Future Me Text

The Prize: Students will get a chance here to exercise their understanding of this type of writing , but more than that, they will also get an opportunity to exercise their imaginative muscles too. They will get to consider what shape their future world will take in this engaging thought experiment that will allow them to improve their writing too.

7. Comic Strip Script

The Purpose: Give your students the chance to improve their dialogue writing skills and to work on their understanding of character development in this fun activity which combines writing with the use of a series of visual elements.

The Process: There are two ways to do this activity. The first requires you to source, or create, a comic strip minus the dialogue the characters are speaking. This may be as straightforward as using whiteout to erase the words in speech bubbles and making copies for your students to complete.

Alternatively, provide the students with photographs/pictures and strips of cards for them to form their own action sequences . When students have their ‘mute’ strips, they can begin to write the dialogue/script to link the panels together.

The Prize: When it comes to writing, comic strips are probably one of the easier sells to reluctant students! This activity also allows students to write for speech. This will stand to them later when they come to produce sections of dialogue in their narrative writing or when producing play or film scripts.

They will also develop their visual literacy skills as they scan the pictures for clues of tone and context before they begin their writing.

Keep It Fun

Just as we should encourage our students to read for fun and wider educational benefits, we should also work to instil similar attitudes towards writing. To do this means we must work to avoid always framing writing in the context of a chore, that bitter pill that must be swallowed for the good of our health.

There is no getting away from the fact that writing can, at times, be laborious. It is time-consuming and, for most of us, difficult at the best of times. There is a certain, inescapable amount of work involved in becoming a competent writer.

That said, as we have seen in the activities above, with a bit of creative thought, we can inject fun into even the most practical of writing activities . All that is required is a dash of imagination and a sprinkling of effort.

8. Character Interviews

The Purpose: Character interviews as writing activities are excellent for students because they encourage creative thinking, character development, and empathy. The purpose of this activity is to help students delve deeper into the minds of the characters they are creating in their stories or reading about in literature. By conducting interviews with these characters, students gain a better understanding of their personalities, motivations, and perspectives.

The Process of character interviews involves students imagining themselves as interviewers and their characters as interviewees. They can either write out the questions and answers in a script-like format or write a narrative where the character responds to the questions in their own voice.

The Prize: Through character interviews, students learn several valuable skills:

• Character Development: By exploring various aspects of their characters’ lives, backgrounds, and experiences, students can develop more well-rounded and authentic characters in their stories. This helps make their fictional creations more relatable and engaging to readers.
• Empathy and Perspective: Conducting interviews requires students to put themselves in their characters’ shoes, considering their thoughts, emotions, and struggles. This cultivates empathy and a deeper understanding of human behavior, which can be applied to real-life situations as well.
• Voice and Dialogue: In crafting the character’s responses, students practice writing authentic dialogue and giving their characters unique voices. This skill is valuable for creating dynamic and believable interactions between characters in their stories.
• Creative Expression: Character interviews provide a creative outlet for students to let their imaginations run wild. They can explore scenarios that may not appear in the main story and discover new aspects of their characters they might not have considered before.
• Critical Thinking: Formulating questions for the interview requires students to think critically about their characters’ personalities and backgrounds. This exercise enhances their analytical skills and storytelling abilities.

Overall, character interviews are a dynamic and enjoyable way for students to delve deeper into the worlds they create or the literature they read. It nurtures creativity, empathy, and writing skills, empowering students to become more proficient and imaginative writers.

9. The Travel Journal

The Purpose: Travel journal writing tasks are excellent for students as they offer a unique and immersive way to foster creativity, cultural awareness, and descriptive writing skills. The purpose of this activity is to allow students to embark on a fictional or real travel adventure, exploring new places, cultures, and experiences through the eyes of a traveller.

The process of a travel journal writing task involves students assuming the role of a traveler and writing about their journey in a journal format. They can describe the sights, sounds, tastes, and emotions they encounter during their travels. This activity encourages students to use vivid language, sensory details, and expressive writing to bring their travel experiences to life.

The Prize: Through travel journal writing tasks, students will learn several valuable skills:

• Descriptive Writing: By describing their surroundings and experiences in detail, students enhance their descriptive writing skills, creating engaging and vivid narratives.
• Cultural Awareness: Travel journals encourage students to explore different cultures, customs, and traditions. This helps broaden their understanding and appreciation of diversity.
• Empathy and Perspective: Through writing from the perspective of a traveler, students develop empathy and gain insight into the lives of people from different backgrounds.
• Research Skills: For fictional travel journals, students might research specific locations or historical periods to make their narratives more authentic and accurate.
• Reflection and Self-Expression: Travel journals offer a space for students to reflect on their own emotions, thoughts, and personal growth as they encounter new experiences.
• Creativity and Imagination: For fictional travel adventures, students get to unleash their creativity and imagination, envisioning fantastical places and scenarios.
• Language and Vocabulary: Travel journal writing tasks provide opportunities for students to expand their vocabulary and experiment with expressive language.

Overall, travel journal writing tasks inspire students to become more observant, empathetic, and skilled writers. They transport them to new worlds and foster a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. Whether writing about real or imaginary journeys, students develop a deeper connection to the places they encounter, making this activity both educational and enjoyable.

10. The Fairy Tale Remix

The Purpose: A fairy tale remix writing activity is a fantastic creative exercise for students as it allows them to put a unique spin on classic fairy tales, fostering imagination, critical thinking, and storytelling skills. This activity encourages students to think outside the box, reinterpret well-known tales, and explore their creative potential by transforming traditional narratives into something entirely new and exciting.

The process of a fairy tale remix writing activity involves students selecting a familiar fairy tale and altering key elements such as characters, settings, plot twists, or outcomes. They can modernize the story, change the genre, or even mix different fairy tales together to create a wholly original piece.

The Prize: Through this activity, students will learn several valuable skills:

• Creative Thinking: Students exercise their creativity by brainstorming unique concepts and ideas to remix the fairy tales, encouraging them to think imaginatively.
• Critical Analysis: Analyzing the original fairy tale to identify essential elements to keep and areas to remix helps students develop critical thinking skills and understand storytelling structures.
• Writing Techniques: Crafting a remix requires students to use descriptive language, engaging dialogue, and well-developed characters, helping them hone their writing techniques.
• Perspective and Empathy: Remixing fairy tales allows students to explore different character perspectives, promoting empathy and understanding of diverse points of view.
• Genre Exploration: Remixing fairy tales can introduce students to various genres like science fiction, fantasy, or mystery, expanding their literary horizons.
• Originality: Creating their own narrative twists and unexpected plots encourages students to take ownership of their writing and develop a unique voice.
• Storytelling: Students learn the art of compelling storytelling as they weave together familiar elements with innovative ideas, captivating their readers.

By remixing fairy tales, students embark on a creative journey that empowers them to reimagine well-loved stories while honing their writing skills and imaginative prowess. It’s an engaging and enjoyable way for students to connect with literature, explore new possibilities, and showcase their storytelling talents.

MORE FUN WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR YOU

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10 Fun Classroom Writing Games to Improve Literacy Skills

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17 Fun First Day Of School Writing Activities

Short Story Writing for Students and Teachers

10 Easy and Effective Literacy Games For The Classroom

Teaching literacy is a huge undertaking. Reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, and more are all elements of literacy instruction. Sometimes we just need to give the students a little bit of fun. Literacy games are great for improving comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and even sight words! Take a look at this awesome list of 10 fun literacy games to use today!

10 Fun Literacy Games

These 10 games are perfect for students who need to have a little fun or if you’re looking to add a little gamifying to your classroom lesson plans.

Doodle Challenge 4 of a Kind

To start, I have this great game for Morning Meetings that really wakes up our students’ brains and gets them to start thinking critically. Students will use language skills and develop an understanding of similarities. Pictures appear, and students figure out how they are connected! This fun literacy game will get those brains ready for even more learning!

Lego Words and Sentences

Grab those Duplo blocks and make a literacy game out of them! This could work with little Lego blocks too, but Duplo are probably best for the younger kids. Add words to the blocks (sight words or vocabulary words), and then let students create sentences or even a story using blocks. Stack them up and read them from top to bottom!

Trash Ball for Vocabulary

This is a really cool, fun game for teaching vocabulary. Have students stand in a line, or they can play during stations. Students have to define the vocabulary word. Then they get to shoot a ball of paper into the garbage. Most points win! Who doesn’t love trying to make garbage baskets?!

Free Reading Game

 Of course, there are some great online literacy games for kids. PBS Kids Storybook Adventure or Story Creator is one of those free literacy games that kids will love using. Students get to choose their adventure in reading in the storybook adventure or create their own story in story creator. Easy to use and lots of fun!

Retell Through Pictures

Have some artistic students? Have students retell the story that was read aloud with pictures. Students can draw pictures or make it a game with pictures around the room and students have to race to get the pictures to retell the story first. This would work great as a relay race! Sequencing is a great literacy skill to master!

Rhyming Memory

All kids love the game of Memory. Grab some index cards and add rhyming words. Students play memory, but instead of finding picture matches, they have to find rhyme matches! So easy and fun!

Vocabulary Jenga

A good game of Jenga can’t be beat! Add vocabulary words or definitions to the Jenga blocks, and students have to define the word or say the definition of the word when they pull the block. If they get it wrong, they have to pull again! The rules for this one can be changed to work for you! This would also work great for sight words! They pull a block and have to say the word!

Puppet Shows

Who doesn’t love a good puppet show? Have students create brown paper bag puppets and retell stories, or create their own stories using puppets. Everyone will have fun playing or watching these puppet shows. This is really fun for reading comprehension!

Bingo Sight Word or Rhyming

Print out some blank Bingo cards, or prefill them for students and have a whole class game of Bingo. Instead of numbers, students have to mark if they have the sight word called or if they have a rhyme for the word that is called.

Fluency on Target

Here is a great one for small groups or stations. This literacy game has you print out a picture of a bullseye. You may want to laminate it. Then you have students read for fluency. If they read the passage fluently they move their game piece towards the target. You can definitely add in sight words or vocabulary or even comprehension questions to the target game to make it more fast-paced or change it to your needs!

Having fun while learning is always to the student’s benefit. Looking for reading activities can sometimes be daunting so you have to the right place for all of your literacy needs! If you are looking for even more fun literacy ideas, check out this blog about Writing Workshop or this one with Funny Read-Alouds ready to go! Have some fun with these 10 literacy games and watch your students’ literacy skills increase!

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At Starfall, children have fun while they learn.

Starfall was founded by Dr. Stephen Schutz, who had difficulty learning to read as a child due to dyslexia. He was motivated to create a learning platform with untimed, multisensory interactive games that allow children to see, hear, and touch as they learn. read more...

Starfall was developed in the classroom by teachers and opened in August 2002 as a free public service to teach children to read. Since then it has expanded to include standards in language arts and mathematics for preschool through fifth grade and above. The program emphasizes exploration, play, and positive reinforcement—encouraging children to become confident and intrinsically motivated. Due to the engaging content that “feels like play,” Starfall serves as an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children. read more...

Starfall activities are research-based and align with state learning objectives for English language arts and mathematics. Its emphasis on phonemic awareness, systematic sequential phonics, and common sight words in conjunction with audiovisual interactivity is especially effective for teaching emergent readers, children of all ages with special needs or learning difficulties, as well as ELL (ESL) students. It is widely used in schools and homeschools.

Starfall’s low-cost membership program expands the free content to include additional animated songs, mathematics activities, and reading. Membership supports the production of new books, educational games, and movies.

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November 18, 2023

8 top holiday literacy resources your students will love + freebies.

December is often a busy time not just in the classroom, but in our personal lives as well. That coupled with the holiday excitement that the students bring to school each day, it can feel overwhelming to manage everyone and everything. I found over the years that when I bring the holiday fun into the classroom with purposeful, engaging activities, things seem to feel a bit less chaotic. So I say let’s bring on the Polar Express, holidays around the world, and reindeer by including holiday literacy activities in lesson planning.

Today I want to share some of my favorite holiday literacy resources to add some holiday cheer to your literacy block. Additionally, many of these resources also make great displays for the hallway or your classroom.

Why I Love Integrating Literacy and Holidays

During a busy season like the holidays, you can make more time to do fun holiday activities and crafts when you get creative with how you fit them into your day. Through read alouds, shared reading, interactive notebook activities, writing crafts, and themed centers, we can easily integrate reading and writing through the season to bring holiday cheer in our classrooms while improving literacy skills.

I also love any opportunity to sneak in extra practice with writing conventions, reading comprehension, and word work. When we do activities that are truly engaging, my students don’t always realize that they are learning and practicing important skills at the same time.

Top Holiday Literacy Activities

These are some of my favorite holiday literacy activities for kinder, first, and second grades. I also sprinkled in some freebies , so be sure to check them out!

December Literacy Stations

One great way to bring holiday literacy activities to your classroom is through literacy centers. Holiday-themed literacy stations always bring cheer to your reading block time! The December Literacy Stations has seven centers for you to use this month:

• Book Making
• Sight Words
• Pocket Chart

With simple-to-prep stations, you and your students will all love these engaging activities!

Get December Literacy Stations HERE!

Gingerbread Writing Craftivity

The Gingerbread Writing Craftivity is perfect for your students to self-assess their own writing! For each writing convention, the students earn a part of their gingerbread kid. It’s a great way to integrate some meaningful writing and be purposeful with an adorable craft! Plus, the finished activity makes a great display for the holiday season.

Get the Gingerbread Writing Craftivity HERE!

Gingerbread Man Activities and Literacy Activities

With 18 different reading and writing activities for everything gingerbread, this Gingerbread Printables resource will bring a ton of fun to your literacy time! The gingerbread holiday literacy activities include retelling, sequencing, comparing different gingerbread books, a mini book, writing activities, and everything you need for a gingerbread man hunt!

Get the Gingerbread Printables HERE!

FREE Mouse and Movie Retelling Activity

After reading the book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies , use this FREE Mouse and Movies Retelling activity for students to practice sequencing. My students and I loved any chance we could to make a purposeful craft! For younger students, they can draw what happens in the book. First and second graders can write (and draw) the events.

Get the FREE Mouse and Movies Activity HERE!

Holiday Flip Books

These 19 Holiday Flip Books are perfect for your social studies or science interactive notebooks. They can be used after reading The Polar Express, after an elf visits your classroom, or as you learn about reindeer! They are also a great fit for teaching about Christmas Around the World and are a great way to integrate literacy!

Get the Holiday Flip Books HERE!

Christmas Around the World Flip Up Book Bundle

Do you teach Christmas around the world, but struggle to find a way for students to document their learning and keep up with each country’s traditions? The Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books are for you!

They are the perfect little activities for your students to be engaged as they learn about Christmas Around the World! Each flip book includes reading, sorting, and writing! It is easy to create with the printing instructions that are included.

Get the Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books HERE!

Winter Word Making Freebie

This little activity has three mystery word making activities for you to do whole group, in a small group, or even to drop in a word work center. You could also make it a competition during your holiday party. Students will use the letters provided and see how many words they can build. This activity is always a hit!

Get the Winter Work Making Freebie HERE!

Holidays Around the World Bundle

This Holidays Around the World unit helps students compare and contrast Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas. It makes it simple to learn about Kwanzaa , Hanukkah , and Christmas as you celebrate them all! You’ll easily integrate reading and writing with social studies with each of these resources.

Each resource has graphic organizers, vocabulary cards, sorting activities, and a craft. You’ll be set for social studies for the whole month with packing in lots of literacy at the same time! I bundled them together so you get all three units for the price of two!

Get the Holidays Around the World Bundle HERE!

I know the month of December can feel a little chaotic in the classroom. That’s why I like to harness the holiday excitement and integrate holiday fun into reading and writing as much as possible. All of these holiday literacy activities do just that! You can also shop my whole shop’s Christmas and holiday section of resources HERE .

Happy Teaching,

• freebie , Literacy

EASILY PLAN YOUR K-2 READING SMALL GROUPS​

Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This  FREE  guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!

Hi, I'm Amanda

I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students  love  and that are  easy to implement  for teachers.  Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!

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The Moscow Free Library and Reading Room opened in March of 1901 in one room of the Brown Building in downtown Moscow. The library was open two afternoons and two evenings a week and was operated by the Pleiades Club and the Moscow Historical Club. In 1903 members of the two clubs formed a committee to secure funding for a library building from the Andrew Carnegie Library Endowment. The Endowment granted the group $10,000. In 1904 Moscow residents approved a special tax to raise money for the building’s operation. A lot was purchased on the corner of Second and Jefferson Streets and Boise architect Watson Vernon was hired to design the library in the Mission Revival style, unique for northern Idaho. The building was completed in 1906 for just under $9,500, making it one of the last Carnegie libraries funded. The first major building improvement was made in 1931 with an addition that doubled the available space. In 1938 the front steps were rebuilt, replacing the curved stairs which had been a feature of the original architecture. In 1964 the basement was remodeled into a children’s library. Construction started in August 1982 to remodel and add to the original Carnegie building. In April 1983 the building was opened to the public, with the Carol Ryrie Brink Reading Room in the historic Carnegie building designated a special place for the children of the community. This addition more than doubled the space again. The Moscow branch serves as headquarters of the Latah County Library District, housing the administrative, adult services, youth services, access services and technical services departments. The Moscow Carnegie Library was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. More information about the library may be found on the Society of Architectural Historians’ “Archipedia” website.

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Babytime : Come share rhymes and songs, board books, and bell and shaker time at this fun bonding opportunity that helps your baby get ready to read.

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Solar eclipse 2024: Follow the path of totality

Solar eclipse, how to help your kids enjoy the solar eclipse.

The NPR Network

Getting your kids ready to enjoy the eclipse? If you've got curious kiddos enjoying the eclipse today, here are some resources from the NPR Network to help get the most out of the experience:

Eclipse learning guide for kids via Vermont Public

• Pre-K to Grade 2
• Grade 3 to 5
• Grade 6 to 12

Amy Nickell with Dallas Arboretum helps Dani Turin, 5, look down the ruler at the sun and the moon to see the perspective of the eclipse Monday at Dallas Cotton Bowl Stadium. Yfat Yossifor/KERA hide caption

Amy Nickell with Dallas Arboretum helps Dani Turin, 5, look down the ruler at the sun and the moon to see the perspective of the eclipse Monday at Dallas Cotton Bowl Stadium.

Not able to get outside? Stream totality with your kiddo .

• WATCH: The difference between a solar and a lunar eclipse from KERA Kids
• LISTEN: has a new episode out about solar eclipses from But Why , Vermont Public's podcast for curious kids

Kid at heart? The Texas Standard has tips from Bill Nye on the best ways to enjoy the eclipse .

Do some color-based experimentation! The celestial phenomena can alter the way we see colors, so keep an eye on reds and greens and how they change over the course of totality!

• What do I do if my kid won't keep their eclipse glasses on?
• How can I make sure my eclipse glasses are legit?
• Simple tips to safely photograph the eclipse with your cellphone

And be prepared: As we found with kids who enjoyed the eclipse in 2017 , little ones may totally forget this celestial experience, so don't sweat it too much!

NPR will be sharing highlights from across the NPR Network throughout the day if you're unable to get out and see it in real time.

NPR's Emily Alfin Johnson produced this piece.

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• Founder Effect How two friends started a snack company that   could bring in $500 million in 2024

Crumbl Cookies started as a ‘fun side hustle’—now it brings in $1 billion a year: It’s ‘something that anyone can do’

In 2017, two cousins with absolutely zero professional baking experience decided to open a cookie business together.

Now, Crumbl Cookies has more than 980 stores across the U.S., topping $1 billion in sales across all franchises while selling more than 300 million cookies in 2022, according to co-founders Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley.

"I never imagined in my wildest dreams that we would do over $1 billion in sales," says McGowan, 43, who estimates he invested about $68,000 of his own money to get the business off the ground. (The company declined to share its 2023 sales, saying those figures are still being audited.)

Crumbl's rise began when McGowan, a former tech executive at companies like Ancestry.com and television guide app i.TV , decided to start a business with his cousin. When their first store opened in Logan, Utah, in 2017, Hemsley was still studying marketing at Utah State University.

"We just thought it was a fun side hustle," McGowan tells CNBC Make It.

McGowan and Hemsley had never baked professionally before, but they meticulously tested different cookie recipes and enlisted friends, family and strangers to taste-test them. They grew confident enough in a single recipe, Crumbl's signature chocolate-chip cookies, to build their first location around it.

From there, the co-founders' backgrounds in tech and marketing took over. The pair used social media to build a huge following "from the beginning," McGowan says. They take cues from the fashion industry , by organizing weekly "drops" where they announce new, limited-edition cookie flavors on TikTok.

"It creates that hype. It creates that excitement. And it also creates some scarcity, because you can only have that cookie for that week," McGowan says. Individual Crumbl cookies typically cost between $4 and $5 apiece, with the per-cookie price decreasing if you order packs of four, six or 12, according to the company's website .

Crumbl's social media following currently tops 16 million followers across platforms. It has become particularly popular on TikTok, with more than 7 million followers and a viral hashtag, "#TasteWeekly." TikTokers use it to post reviews, both positive and negative , of Crumbl's cookie flavor drops.

As a result of that hype, Crumbl has attracted plenty of franchising interest — and used it to open more than 600 new stores between 2022 and 2023. McGowan says the pace will probably slow going forward — though Crumbl does intend to expand internationally, including in the U.K.

Crumbl has also attracted copycats, it claimed in a pair of 2022 trademark infringement lawsuits. Both eventually resulted in settlements with undisclosed terms. "Just as any company would, Crumbl chose to protect its brand," says a company spokesperson.

Indeed, McGowan says one of his biggest lessons so far is that Crumbl's success is fairly easy to replicate.

"As I get older and as I build this company, I realize more and more that everything that we do is really just something that anyone can do," he says. "Whether you don't have a mixer yet, or you don't have a recipe for a cookie yet, you just get started."

Want to land your dream job in 2024?  Take CNBC's new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay.

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Moscow Facts & Worksheets

Moscow, russian moskva, is the capital and most populated city of russia, situated in the westward part of the country., search for worksheets.

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Table of Contents

Moscow , Russian Moskva, is the capital and most populated city of Russia , situated in the westward part of the country. Moscow is not just the political capital city of Russia but also the industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years, Moscow also has been the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

See the fact file below for more information on the Moscow or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Moscow worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Description.

• The city area is about 30 km in diameter and the population reaches to almost 10 million people.
• Moscow was first mentioned in the chronicles of 1147, where it played an important role in Russian history.
• The people of Moscow are known as Muscovites.
• Moscow is famous for its architecture, especially its historical buildings such as Saint Basil’s Cathedral .
• Moscow is a city with the most money in Russia and the third biggest budget in the world.
• Moscow began as a medieval city and developed into what was known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, an administrative region ruled by a prince.
• Moscow is where all Russia’s tensions and inequalities meet to coexist, producing a unique feeling of a city that looks European but feels somewhat Asian in its mood and intensity.
• In 1147 Moscow was called Moskov, which sounds closer to its current name. Moscow was derived from the Moskva river, on which the city is located. The Finno-Ugric tribes, who originally inhabited the territory, named the river Mustajoki, in English: Black River, which was presumably how the name of the city originated.
• Several theories were proposed on the origin of the name of the river however linguists cannot come to any agreement and those theories haven’t been proven yet.
• The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgoruky and Sviatoslav Olgovich. Muscovites today consider Prince Yury Dolgoruky their city’s founding father, but it was only recorded that he dined with friends in the town.
• In 1156, led by Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky, the town was barricaded with a timber fence and a moat. In the course of the Mongol invasion of Rus, the Mongols under Batu Khan burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants.
• Nevertheless, Moscow was restored and became more important. Yet the Mongols came back in 1382 and burned Moscow City again.
• Still, Moscow shortly recovered and In the 15th century, it probably gained a population of about 50,000. But, unfortunately, in 1571 the Crimean Tatars burned Moscow again.
• By 1712, Tsar Peter the Great decided to move his capital to St. Petersburg from Moscow. With this, Moscow began a period of dissolution. In the 1770s Moscow suffered an outbreak of the bubonic plague. But still, Moscow University was successfully founded in 1755 and at the beginning of the 19th century, Moscow was prospering again.
• Arbat Street at that time was also established. But then, Napoleon invaded Russia. The Muscovites, the retreating party, set their own city on fire by 1812 and it was rebuilt completely at the beginning of the 19th century.
• During 1917 the Communists started a revolution in which they imposed a totalitarian government in Russia. By 1918, Lenin transferred his administration to Moscow.
• After Lenin, the tyrant Josef Stalin governed the city. Under his regime, several historic buildings in the city were destroyed. Nevertheless, the first line of the Metro opened in 1935.
• By June 1941, the Germans had invaded Russia and had arrived on the outskirts of Moscow by December. As they arrived, they suddenly  turned back.
• After the Second World War , Moscow continued prospering even though many nations boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
• Fortunately, Communism collapsed in Russia in 1991 and in 1997 Moscow celebrated its 850th anniversary.
• Moscow is situated on the banks of the Moskva River, which flows through the East European Plain in central Russia. Teplostanskaya highland is the city’s highest point at 255 meters (837 feet). The width of Moscow city (not limiting MKAD) from west to east is 39.7 km (24.7 mi), and the length from north to south is 51.8 km (32.2 mi).
• Moscow has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters usually lasting from mid-November through the end of March, and warm summers .
• Moscow is the financial center of Russia and home to the country’s largest banks and many of its largest companies, such as natural gas giant Gazprom.
• The Cherkizovsky marketplace was the largest marketplace in Europe , with a daily turnover of about thirty million dollars and about ten thousand venders from different countries including China and India .
• Many new business centers and office buildings have been built in recent years, but Moscow still experiences shortages in office space.
• With this, many former industrial and research facilities are being reconstructed to become suitable for office use.
• In totality, economic stability has developed in recent years. But, crime and corruption still hinder business growth.
• Saint Basil’s Cathedral is famed as the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed amongst the locals. It served as one of the crucial landmarks of Moscow.
• Location: Krasnaya Square, 2, Moscow 109012, Russia
• Moscow Kremlin serves as the home in which all these tourist sites reside. It encompasses almost all the famous sightseeing attractions such as the royal residence of the President of Russia.
• Location: Moscow, Russia
• Red Square separates the royal citadel of Kremlin from the ancient merchant quarter of Kitai-gorod, one of the most interesting places in Moscow. Bearing the weight of Russia’s history to a great extent, Red Square serves not just as an attraction but as the heart, soul, and symbol of the whole country.
• Location: Krasnaya Ploshchad, Moscow, Russia

Moscow Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Moscow across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Moscow worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Moscow, Russian Moskva, which is the capital and most populated city of Russia, situated in the westward part of the country. Moscow is not just the political capital city of Russia but also the industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years, Moscow also has been the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Moscow Facts
• Moscow Breaking News
• Moscow Basic Info
• Moscow’s Significant Events
• Moscow Characteristics
• Populous Cities
• Sports Facts
• Moscow Landmarks
• Symbolization
• Moscow Slogan

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Watch CBS News

Solar eclipse maps show 2024 totality path, peak times and how much of the eclipse people could see across the U.S.

By Aliza Chasan

Updated on: April 9, 2024 / 5:00 AM EDT / CBS News

A total solar eclipse  crossed North America Monday with parts of 15 U.S. states within the path of totality. Maps show  where and when astronomy fans could see the big event  as skies darkened in the middle of the day Monday, April 8.

The total eclipse first appeared along Mexico's Pacific Coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT, then traveled across a swath of the U.S., from Texas to Maine, and into Canada.

About 31.6 million people live in the path of totality , the area where the moon fully blocked out the sun , according to NASA. The path ranged between 108 and 122 miles wide. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.

Solar eclipse path of totality map for 2024

The total solar eclipse started over the Pacific Ocean, and the first location in continental North America that experienced totality was Mexico's Pacific Coast, around 11:07 a.m. PDT, according to NASA. From there, the path continued into Texas, crossing more than a dozen states before the eclipse enters Canada in southern Ontario. The eclipse exited continental North America at around 5:16 p.m. NDT from Newfoundland, Canada.

The path of totality included portions of the following states:

• Pennsylvania
• New Hampshire

Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan also experienced the total solar eclipse.

Several major cities across the U.S. were included in the eclipse's path of totality, while many others saw a partial eclipse. These were some of the best major cities for eclipse viewing — though the weather was a factor :

• San Antonio, Texas (partially under the path)
• Austin, Texas
• Waco, Texas
• Dallas, Texas
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Dayton, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Buffalo, New York
• Rochester, New York
• Syracuse, New York
• Burlington, Vermont

Map of when the solar eclipse reached totality across its path

The eclipse began in the U.S. as a partial eclipse beginning at 12:06 p.m. CDT near Eagle Pass, Texas, before progressing to totality by about 1:27 p.m. CDT and then moving along its path to the northeast over the following few hours.

NASA shared times for several cities in the path of totality across the U.S. People could have also  checked their ZIP code on NASA's map  to see when the eclipse was to reach them if they were on, or near, the path of totality — or if they saw a partial eclipse instead.

How much of the eclipse did people see if they live outside the totality path?

While the April 8 eclipse covered a wide swath of the U.S., outside the path of totality observers may have spotted a partial eclipse, where the moon covers some, but not all, of the sun, according to NASA. The closer they were to the path of totality, the larger the portion of the sun that was hidden.

NASA allowed viewers to input a ZIP code and see how much of the sun was to be covered in their locations.

Could there be cloud cover be during the solar eclipse?

Some areas along the path of totality had a higher likelihood of cloud cover that could interfere with viewing the eclipse. Here is a map showing the historical trends in cloud cover this time of year. 

You could have checked the latest forecast for your location with our partners at The Weather Channel .

Where did the solar eclipse reach totality for the longest?

Eclipse viewers near Torreón, Mexico, got to experience totality for the longest. Totality there lasted 4 minutes, 28 seconds, according to NASA. 

Most places along the centerline of the path of totality saw a totality duration of between 3.5 and 4 minutes, according to NASA. Some places in the U.S. came close to the maximum; Kerrville, Texas, had a totality duration of 4 minutes, 24 seconds.

What is the path of totality for the 2044 solar eclipse?

The next total solar eclipse that will be visible from the contiguous U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044.

Astronomy fans in the U.S. will have far fewer opportunities to see the 2044 eclipse they had on April 8. NASA has not yet made maps available for the 2044 eclipse but, according to The Planetary Society , the path of totality will only touch three states.

The 2024 eclipse will start in Greenland, pass over Canada and end as the sun sets in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, according to the Planetary Society.

Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.

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Helldivers 2’s comedy comes from propaganda — that’s why it’s so fun

Wait, are we the baddies?

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Share All sharing options for: Helldivers 2’s comedy comes from propaganda — that’s why it’s so fun

Helldivers 2 does a fantastic job of straddling the line between being a great game to goof around in with your friends, and delivering actual commentary and world-building about the folly of an oppressive regime. You play as a titular Helldiver, shot down to enemy planets in pods that look like giant bullets — no obvious symbolism there — to fight back waves of nasty Terminid bugs and evil robots. The gameplay is great, but what I’ve come to truly love is the goofy Super Earth propaganda, and how it perfectly encapsulates fascism as a ridiculous ideology that is doomed to fail.

There is a running meta-narrative alongside Helldivers 2 , in which Super Earth command (aka the developers) tells the players what fronts to fight on and what enemies to prioritize. When the community pulls together to achieve these objectives , everybody gets Warbond medals, which they can spend on valuable loot and cosmetics. If they fail, nobody gets a medal, and something usually goes terribly wrong. The secret trick, though, is that even when things go right, they’ll still go bad, because Super Earth is terrible at the whole galactic liberation thing.

If you stop and listen to all of that propaganda, something becomes clear: We’re the baddies. The Terminids were released from Super Earth facilities, and we’re killing them because they’re a great source of space oil. Super Earth used the Automatons as slaves, and they’re engaging in a fully justified revolt. Sure, it’s not immediately obvious, since most players are focused on staying alive and unlocking new stratagems, but as you stop to read environmental text and listen to broadcasts, it all becomes clear. Probably best not to mention it, though; according to one broadcast, dissidents are identified, arrested, tried, and executed.

The constant propaganda is delivered with such gusto that it’s hard not to be won over. One advertisement sneers that the Automatons should have been grateful with what they had, but now they’re choosing to rebel. “They’re going to see how hard every man, woman, and child under the age of 7 is willing to work,” the game tells us.

After dousing a Terminid planet with chemicals, a Democracy Officer cheerfully chirps that it’s so deadly to Terminids, it’s hard to believe it’s totally safe for every other life form! Everyone on my ship is completely swayed to the cause, and spouts over-the-top nonsense. No one is capable of a casual chat around the watercooler.

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios also delights in muddying the waters, playing into the propagandistic nature of the game. When flying bugs first appeared on the battlefields, CEO Johan Pilestedt commented, “I want to officially refute such preposterous claims.”

I've heard rumors of flying bugs in @helldivers2 . I want to officially refute such preposterous claims. Everyone knows that "Bugs can't fly". And I'm not alone in thinking this. The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash… — Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 12, 2024

When the truth became obvious, Pilestedt easily pivoted into reassurance that bugs could fly and this was a normal and expected thing. This kayfabe style of posting on X, along with the text accompanying orders and updates, is a huge part of what makes Helldivers 2 special. I feel proud to be out there on the front lines, being a greater part of the cause.

And then I remember that when we failed a major order from mission command, all of us lost the ability to fuck. No, really — players failed to squash bugs on Zagon Prime, and so everyone got a message that “further procreation applications will be denied until further notice.” You have to have a signed form before you do anything that might result in a baby, so everyone has to be celibate now.

Super Earth are the bad guys, but they’re funny bad guys. I’m still on the battlefields, deploying stratagems with the best of ’em, but part of me is thrilled to see new flying bugs and gunships from our opponents. I’m convinced Super Earth is doomed to fail, and it deserves to fail. The government sucks, our mission is immoral, and as far as I know, nobody ever lifted the sanctions on sex.

It would be so easy for Helldivers 2 to lean into the darkness and lethality of the setting. But there are tons of games about a grim slog through endless war; the silly satire of the Helldivers 2 campaign is a breath of fresh air. We’re all in on the joke — or at least most of us are — and it leads to iconic moments, like the reclaiming of the memetic Malevelon Creek from the Automatons . I just hope the ride along the way continues to be a ridiculous roller coaster.

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Your last-minute guide to Monday's total solar eclipse

A total solar eclipse will cross North America on Monday , offering millions a rare opportunity to see afternoon skies temporarily darken as the moon blocks the face of the sun.

Tune into NBC News NOW as Lester Holt hosts a two-hour special at 2 p.m. ET Monday from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The eclipse's path fortuitously cuts across Mexico, 15 U.S. states and a small part of eastern Canada. In all other states in the continental U.S., viewers will be treated to a partial solar eclipse, with the moon appearing to take a bite out of the sun and obscuring part of its light.

Here’s everything you need to know about the rare celestial event.

What is a solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses occur when the sun, moon and Earth align. The moon passes between Earth and sun, temporarily blocking the sun’s light and casting a shadow on Earth.

A total solar eclipse is when the moon fully obscures the sun, whereas a partial solar eclipse means it blocks just a portion of the sun’s face.

Solar eclipses occur only with the new moon. Because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted, the three bodies don’t always line up in a way that creates an eclipse.

“Imagine if the moon’s orbit were in the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun — if that were the case, then every new moon, you’d have a total solar eclipse and every full moon, you’d have a lunar eclipse,” Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, told NBC News. “So, because things don’t always align, it lends to the rarity of the event and the specialness of the event.”

Where and when will the eclipse be visible?

This year’s eclipse will follow a slightly wider path over more populated areas of the continental U.S. than other total solar eclipses have in the recent past.

NASA estimates that 31.6 million people live within what’s known as the path of totality, where the total solar eclipse will be visible. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path, according to the agency.

The path travels through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Tiny parts of Michigan and Tennessee will also be able to witness totality if conditions are clear.

After the eclipse crosses into Canada, it will pass over southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia.

Those outside the path of totality can still take part in the astronomical event by viewing a partial solar eclipse — visible throughout all 48 states of the contiguous U.S. — or a NASA livestream.

The timing, including how long totality lasts, depends on the location, but some spots will see the moon fully cover the sun for up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

Below is a list of timings for some cities along the path of totality, as  provided by NASA . A number of other resources, including NationalEclipse.com  and  TimeandDate.com , can also help people plan.

• Dallas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:23 p.m. CT and totality at 1:40 p.m.
• Little Rock, Arkansas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:33 p.m. CT and totality at 1:51 p.m.
• Cleveland: Partial eclipse begins at 1:59 p.m. ET and totality at 3:13 p.m.
• Buffalo, New York: Partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. ET and totality at 3:18 p.m.
• Lancaster, New Hampshire: Partial eclipse begins at 2:16 p.m. ET and totality at 3:27 p.m.

How to safely view a solar eclipse

It is never safe to gaze directly at the sun, even when it is partly or mostly covered by the moon. Special eclipse glasses or  pinhole projectors  are required to safely view solar eclipses and prevent eye damage. Failing to take the proper precautions can result in severe eye injury,  according to NASA .

Eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than normal sunglasses and specially made to enable wearers to look at the sun during these kinds of celestial events.

Sky-watchers should also never view any part of the sun through binoculars, telescopes or camera lenses unless they have specific solar filters attached. Eclipse glasses should not be used with these devices, as they will not provide adequate protection.

However, during the few minutes of totality, when the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to look with the naked eye.

Beware of fake eclipse glasses. On legitimate pairs, the lenses should have a silver appearance on the front and be black on the inside. The manufacturer’s name and address should be clearly labeled, and they should not be torn or punctured. Check, as well, for the ISO logo and the code “IS 12312-2” printed on the inside.

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can make a homemade pinhole projector, which lets sunlight in through a small hole, focuses it and projects it onto a piece of paper, wall or other surface to create an image of the sun that is safe to look at. 

All you need is two pieces of white cardboard or plain white paper, aluminum foil and a pin or thumbtack. Cut a 1- to 2-inch square or rectangle out of the center of a piece of white paper or cardboard. Tape aluminum foil over that cut-out shape, then use a pin or thumbtack to poke a tiny hole in the foil.

During the eclipse, place a second piece of white paper or cardboard on the ground as a screen and hold the projector with the foil facing up and your back to the sun. Adjusting how far you hold the projector from the second piece of paper will alter the size of the image on the makeshift screen.

What to look for while viewing the total solar eclipse

For people along the path of totality, there are some fun milestones to keep track of as the total solar eclipse unfolds.

As the eclipse progresses and the sun gets thinner in the sky, it will start to get eerily dark, according to Tyson.

When the last beams of sunlight are about to become obscured, look out for the “diamond ring effect”: The sun’s atmosphere will appear as an illuminated halo, and the last light still visible will look like the diamond of a giant ring.

As the sunlight decreases even further, an effect known as Baily’s beads will be created by the moon’s rugged terrain. Tiny “beads” of light will be visible for only a few seconds around the dark moon, as the last bits of sunlight peer through the moon’s mountains and valleys.

When the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to remove eclipse glasses and look at the total solar eclipse with the naked eye.

Some lucky sky-watchers may even catch a glimpse of a comet .

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks — nicknamed the “ devil comet ” because an eruption last year left it with two distinct trails of gas and ice in the shape of devil horns — is currently visible from the Northern Hemisphere as it swings through the inner solar system.

The comet can be seen in the early evenings by gazing toward the west-northwest horizon. During the eclipse, when skies darken during totality, it may be possible to see the comet near Jupiter, but its visibility will depend on whether it’s in the middle of an outburst and thus brighter than normal.

Most likely, all eyes will be on the alignment of the moon and sun.

“Most people won’t even notice,” Tyson said. “But if you know to look, it’s there.”

When is the next solar eclipse?

The next total solar eclipse will be in 2026, but it will mostly pass over the Arctic Ocean, with some visibility in Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and northern Spain. In 2027, a total solar eclipse will be visible in Spain and a swath of northern Africa.

The next total solar eclipse visible from North America will be in 2033, but only over Alaska. Then in 2044, a total solar eclipse will cross Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, parts of Canada and Greenland.

The next total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S. coast-to-coast in will occur in 2045. The path of totality for that eclipse will cut through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

Lucas Thompson is a content producer for the NBC News Climate Unit.