Literacy Ideas – Smart Choice
A literate person is able to express themselves in lots of different ways and at the same time be able to understand ideas that are shared with them.
Communication or literacy skills involve using and understanding symbols, images, colours, words, etc, to express oneself.
Here are some ideas for a literacy-focused ‘smart choice’ routine.
Drawing themselves looking at themselves in a mirror
This task encourages both critical and creative thinking required in expressing an idea or image that represents something from the real world.
Draw pictures for a story they are making/thinking about.
This task encourages creative thinking (fictional story) or critical thinking (recount), as well as the understanding that ideas can be sequenced to make them easy for others to understand.
Playing with letters, colours, shapes, sounds
This task enables your child to explore and discuss how different symbols, colours, and sounds, can be used to represent ideas. At the same time, they will be learning how to identify the attributes (shapes, lines, etc) of how different symbols are formed or attributes that group things together because of a shared meaning.
Create an alphabet collection (Drawing things around the house, collecting things that match the letters in their name)
This task encourages and supports your child to explore different letters, the sounds attached to them and the role those sounds have in the formation of words.
Water painting focusing on lines, shapes and directions similar to those found in letters
Using water as paint encourages risk-taking, as it easy for a recorded idea to change or disappear. There could be less fear of getting something wrong or right.
The task also supports the development of fine and gross motor skills, positional knowledge and lines and shapes that will be used to support developing handwriting skills.
Sort and organise images to create a story
This task encourages creative thinking and early literacy skills for developing continuity of ideas. With your child(ren), collect images from different sources (cut out from magazines, use old calendars, print random images) and put them in a container. Shuffle the images around and ask your child(ren) to pull out two or three images. Have fun together using these images as a prompt for storytelling ideas.
If you are out and about or don’t have access to images to shuffle and play with, you and your child(ren) can try using these digital resources.
Water painting focusing on lines, shapes and directions similar to those found in letters
Using water as paint encourages risk-taking, as it easy for a recorded idea to change or disappear. There could be less fear of getting something wrong or right.
The task also supports the development of fine and gross motor skills, positional knowledge and lines and shapes that will be used to support developing handwriting skills.