LouFamFun Early Literacy Ideas for the Spring
Spring Has Sprung!
Books to share: Wake up it’s spring by Lisa Ernst, Splish splash spring by Jan Carr, Cold little duck duck duck by Lisa Peters, Are you spring by Caroline Pitcher, Spring song by Barbara Seuling
Rhymes: Butterfly, Butterfly
ground
see
away
butterfly
floating through the sky
Recipe: Take cut up veggies and make cute springtime flowers on your child’s plate. In this picture we used cut up cucumbers, carrots, celery sticks, broccoli, cherry tomato, and a couple of baby spinach leaves. Make a rainbow of colors with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pieces of kiwi, raspberries, etc.
Play Literacy Idea: Recently my oldest child wanted to get a bag of those tiny mandarin/tangerine oranges at the grocery: cuties! When we brought them in the house, my toddler was immediately drawn to them and started counting them! We always take simple ideas like this and turn them into a little lesson. We have also really been into drawing with chalk lately. I made a simple chalkboard out of chalk paint and an old large framed picture. I simply painted the chalk onto the picture (that I picked up at a Goodwill store so it was really cheap!) It’s my toddler’s favorite thing right now! Another fun idea for spring and playing with literacy is to read the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Then go outside and lay on a blanket in the yard. Look up at the clouds and think about the shapes of the clouds (similar to the blots of milk in the story). What shapes can you make together from the clouds? Enjoy the outdoors finally after this long winter!
Louisville Local Spot for Learning and Literacy: This month, I’ll highlight the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft as a great family-friendly place to go explore art together in a new, unique setting. KMAC recently revamped their MakerSpace; read our recent review here. This new creative space in this art gallery is a perfect spot for families to make art together and really delve into several kinds of mediums.
Head to your favorite branch of the Louisville Free Public Library for the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten preschool reading program. The Library is challenging parents and families to read aloud 1000 books to their pre-kindergartener with the intent that by the time they enter kindergarten, they’ll have 1000 books shared and read to them. What an awesome opportunity to make reading together even more fun and the children will love the challenge of filling up their 1000 books tracking card. Kids will receive prizes for different levels that they reach along the way. Pick one up at the library today!
Listen to our Louisville.am podcast about the program!
By guest contributor: Erin