Reading, learning and playing together is what this week is all about for British Columbia families.
For the past 17 years, the Province has proclaimed Jan. 27 as Family Literacy Day. This year the Province has also officially proclaimed Jan. 22-29, 2017, as Family Literacy Week. There are events throughout the province to help British Columbians celebrate with their families.
This year, government provided over $2.6 million in support of community literacy to Decoda Literacy Solutions. Decoda uses this funding to support the coordination of community literacy services and initiatives throughout the province. Barriere and Area Literacy Outreach also receives support from this funding initiative.
Literacy Week Activity Ideas
ABC Life Literacy Canada encourages families to “Learn at play, every day.” Engaging in literacy activities as a family improves a child’s skills and also helps adults keep their skills sharp. Here are a few ideas to get your family started.
New Activities for 2017
Grocery Hunt: Write a grocery list with your child and let kids find all the items in the store – a fun way to do the grocery shopping!
Play and Tell: While kids teach adults a new card game, adults share stories from their own childhood and even play a card game from when they were a kid.
Home Restaurant: Spice up mealtime and have kids create a menu by drawing food items or using grocery store flyers – kids can take orders too!
Where’s that Shape: Have a shapes scavenger hunt by taking turns to find shapes indoors and outdoors. Then together make each shape with your body – kids and adults work together.
Game Anyone?: Playing a board game is a fun way to learn together as a family. Try the Get Winston game at FamilyLiteracyFirst.ca.
Happy 150: It’s Canada’s 150th birthday this year – that’s a lot of candles! What would you do for your dream birthday party and where you would go? Now parents, your turn to tell kids about your dream birthday party.
Bowled Over: Make your own bowling game with 10 plastic cups and a tennis ball. Set up your cups and roll the ball to knock down the cups. Together count how many cups fall for each player, then how many cups in total fall for all players.
Map it!: Pretend your family is anywhere in the world – on a world map, point to a location. Find out more about that county. What language do they speak, what is the weather, what sports do they play?
Animal Dance: With kids and adults in a circle, each person takes turns to move like an animal and say what they’re doing: “I hop like a bunny,” or “I stomp like a dinosaur.” After everyone has had their turn, start at the beginning again and this time together do the moves and say what you’re doing.
What do you mean?: Write a sentence about something you want to tell your mom or dad. Cut the words out and tape each word to a building block and mix up the blocks. Can they figure out what you want to say?
