Language Made Fun From A-Z

Esther Lim, CEO and Founder of LEAP Schoolhouse shares with us some tips on how parents can make language learning fun, from A to Z!

language fun

Act it out	Dramatisation never fails to excite.
Books	Nothing beats a good read.
Connect text to real life	Just read a story on butterflies? Take a trip to the garden and find one.
Draw and tell a story	Instead of writing a story, draw one!
Excite	Create a climax in the story by not finishing the last page of the book till tomorrow.
Find and learn	Do a word focus game and look for a particular word in the book.
Gallery Walk	Keep track of the cover page of the books read. Make a copy of it and create a gallery of books read.
Hi-5!	Create a system of grading the books read just like how movie-buffs grade a movie.
I spy with my eye	Look out for sub-words from a main word.
Journal	Keep a little journal and jot down thoughts on what’s read.
Knapsack	Keep a bag of items that are associated to characters that you have read in books.
Letter of the week	Create a chart and look for words that are learnt that starts with the particular letter.
Model for a day	Are you Goldilocks or could it be Little Red Riding Hood? Be in character for the day.
Nip and tuck	Nip a little glue and tuck some bits of paper together to create a montage of a picture in your favourite book!
Orate	Stand on a “podium” and do a recitation.
Poetry	Reading need not be from books alone. Try poetry.
Quote	Share a favourite line in the book and try to use it within the day
Record a story	Listen to one’s recording reading a book.
Sing	Need we say more?
Treasure hunt	Write on little Post-Its parts of a familiar story and paste them all over the house. Piece the story right back!
Unique Me!	Be ‘invisible’ for a day and record a video of the happenings around. Tell an adult what you ‘see’.
Vocabulary building	Have a board to pin all new words learnt on it.
Write, write , write	Not with a pencil but try something else. Chalk, charcoal, doesn’t matter!
‘X’ marks the spot	Create a spot that allows for all words jibberish and silly to be said. A real fun way to introduce phonemic awareness.
Yahoo!	Go online and learn a new word game to play together.
Zeal it up!	Have loads of eagerness and laughter even at mistakes made.