Literacy Activities

Magazines
Use magazines as a resource to engage the student in areas of interest. Read out aloud, identify what is happening in the articles. Cut out titles from the magazine and write a short article in response. Match pictures from the magazine and write your own captions. What are the people in the picture thinking or saying? Look at different styles of writing, adjectives or use of language.

Newspapers
Read the news of the day or week together. Pinpoint the 5 W’s. Cut out random words from headlines and create a funny story to go with it. Can you make a scary headline? Mysterious one? Happy one? Look at advertising, write your own ads for a favourite product or object. Look at the manipulative language used and identify common words

Songs
Read and analyse the lyrics to favourite singers or popular songs. Think about what they mean, what the message is and why they have chosen certain words. Write your own lyrics to a tune, popular song or nursery rhyme. Perform it for some friends!

Noun / Adjective / Verb
Create three groups of words. Chose two from each pile and create funny sentences. Draw pictures to match the sentences. Mix the words around to make the most interesting sentences you can.

Finger-painting spelling
Messy but fun – wipe it clean and start again. Look at beginnings of words and ends of words, the shape of letters and common words. Wear a smock…

Alphabet Can/Box
Take a small tin or box. Identify things that begin with a certain letter which might fit into the tin/box. What is too big to fit? What would fit easily? Hide something in the box that rhymes with something – guess what it is. Decorate the box/tin with letters.

Alphabet Book
Over the weeks, create an alphabet book. One letter for each page. Cut out pictures or drawings, or words that start or relate to that letter. See which letters are more common and which are hard to find words for.

Sticks, Curves and Circles.
Practising writing using these three categories. Which letters need some of all of them? Only one of them? Draw them on paper or in the air

Back to Back /Tracing writing
Practise spelling and writing words on each others backs. Guess the letter or the word the other person is thinking of. Make categories – animals, colours, jobs, places etc Good for tactile learners. Can be done on paper, in the air, on each others hand…

Instructional Writing
Write a list of instructions for everyday chores or tasks. How to eat an icy pole? Get dressed? Do a dance? Draw a picture? Make a paper plane? Follow each others instructions to see if they work. Be as literal and detailed as possible. Harder than it sounds, and a useful skill to develop.

Boring Story
Take a plain and boring story and make it interesting using new words, adjectives and verbs. Bring the story to life by adding or removing details that would keep the reader engaged. Change the ending or some element of the story to make it more exciting. Good practise for editing and reflection of personal writing.

Letters
Write a letter to each other, to a hero, to a friend overseas, to a relative, to a celebrity to a pen pal or to themselves! See how letters are structured, either in newspapers or modelled by you. You will learn more about each other and be able to engage a lot of literacy skills. Besides, it’s always fun getting letters!

Photos
Bring photos from home, or the internet or elsewhere. Create stories for the photos, or write detailed descriptions of what could be happening in each photo. Have a brainstorm discussion to think of some funny, sad or interesting things that might be going on. What happened just before it was taken? Just after? Good for conversation skills and creative thinking.

Pictures
Artistic or creative students might like to draw a picture and then write a short piece to explain how they were feeling when they drew it. What emotions does it make you feel? Bring in pictures of abstract paintings or pictures. What was the artist trying to express? How would you write or tell the story of the picture?

Biography
Writing and telling a story about a topic they know well! Can take many forms – 10 things you should know about me, top 5 events of my life, and memorable days in my life. A great way to get to know each other, and find out interests, hobbies, family etc

My Favourite Things
Write lists or mind maps of favourite things – foods, places, people, days of the week, hobbies, songs etc. Create a giant poster or page which details this information and decorate it. Most people like talking about their passions and best things – utilise this!

Sentence Game
Write a story together alternating writing sentences. You write one, they write one etc. Try and create a coherent story together with a beginning, a middle and end. Or, for the more capable student, try and trick each other by throwing a few twists in!

Word Marathon
Similar to the Sentence game, but using words. Alternate writing words to form a coherent sentence or short story. Try to make a sensible sentence, concentrating on the words and structure of the story.

Eye Spy
Old game which is a good starting activity. Write what you spy. Draw what you spy. If I was a spider looking down, what could I spy? If I was outside what could I spy?

Alphabet Mix up
Cut out all the letters of the alphabet and have a race to put them in order. Try doing it backwards. Can be also done using words in alphabetical order.

Word Magnets
If you have access to little magnetic words from the fridge then use them to make interesting sentences or stories. Match them into groups or word families. Discuss little words and their function “and, a, the, at, to, but, it” etc.

Word Board Games
Boggle, Up words, Scrabble, Junior Scrabble etc. These are highly interactive, fun and engaging. To get the most out of these games, don’t hesitate to stop the game to discuss certain words, word endings or spelling. Try and make it as non competitive as possible, focus more on the words and ideas than points or winners.

Comic Strip
Write your own 3 or 4 panel comic strip with a short funny story. Use dialogue, plan out the plot and create characters. Write a new strip for some existing favourite comic. Take out the words from an existing comic and write your own dialogue and compare it to the actual authors. Great for creative thinkers and visual learners.

Play Away
Write a short scene for two or three people to perform. Use characters from a favourite book or movie. Create suspense, slapstick jokes, drama, romance. Think about the language and emotions used to engage the audience.

You be the Teacher
Get your student to teach a skill or an activity to you or a friend. Great for conversation, instruction and communication skills. The student often likes being in charge and in control! They might pretend to be you – interesting to watch!

Charades
Act out words and then spell them. Work out ways to communicate ideas without using words or speaking. Great to visual and active students. Select areas or categories to work with – words ending with ‘th’ or ‘sh’ etc. Endless possibilities

Reading Together
Try to do some every week (if appropriate age) a short serial story or novel would work well. Keep it active as possible, ask questions. What has just happened? What do you think will happen? What do you like about this character? What would you do if you were the main character? What emotions does the author want us to feel?

Reading Together #2
Various ways of reading together are appropriate for different ages, abilities and genres. Echo reading – they repeat the same sentence after you have read it. Pair reading – Reading together at the same time, following the words. Shared Reading – read a section or a page each. Silent Reading – Read a page or a chapter and then discuss it. Always make it engaging and useful as possible. READ FOR MEANING – make sure they understand what they are reading.

Dictionary Detectives
Keep a dictionary on hand to find difficult to define words, or search for strange words. Pick out some odd words and create your own definitions for them. What else could they mean? Practise alphabetical order and scanning quickly for words.

The Best / Worst Day of my Life
Write a fantasy or realistic story about the best or worst day or your life. Discuss first what could happen / has happened. Some students take it quite literally and become quite emotional, others will go for the extreme angle, trying to put as many disasters in at once!

Alphabet Songs
Create or practise songs or tunes which will help remembering the spelling of words or the order or the alphabet. Try and sing them without the vowels or in funny ways.

Rhyming Time
Start with a word then take it in turns saying words that rhyme with it. See how many you can think of. Write them down on a page, and check the spelling. Some words that rhyme don’t have similar endings! A good one for pronunciation and diction.

Word Race
In pairs or together, race each other to think of words that fit into certain groups. Words beginning with ‘Gr’ or ‘Pl’ etc. Compare the words and times.

Rich List
Like the television show! Play for ‘money’ and see how many you can add to the list. Use spelling (words with ‘dge’, ‘our’ etc) or other categories (shapes, colours, animals beginning with ‘r’) Be creative! LOTS of fun as a group, singles or pairs.

Jigsaw
Cut up the letters from words and see if you can recreate the word. How many little words can you make from the letters of this word? What letter combinations don’t work or are more common?

Take it Away
Using cut out letters and words, remove letters and guess which ones have been removed. Really good for commonly misspelt words. What would the word sound like if we took out the ‘e’ or ‘?’ What if we added a letter on the end? Good for word structure and sounding out words in a basic or complex way.

Concentration
Oldie but a goodie. Create matched pairs on small cards. Can be done as matching beginning and ends of words, pictures and words, rhyming words, word families, same words etc. Be creative. Easy to make, make them together as an activity.

Hangman
We’ve all played, the kids like it and it’s great for spelling longer and tricky words. Important to talk about it as you play too – if there is a q, there must be a u… or ‘a common letter blend is th etc’ to really reinforce the structure of the words and spelling.

Word Mastermind
An activity for older students. Played like the mastermind board game but using letters and not coloured pegs. Guess the letter, right place, wrong spot, gradually getting the word spelt correctly. Fun once you get the hang of it!

Alphabet Body
See which letters you can make with your body, by yourself or with a pair. Take photos, see who can do the best “S” or “K”. A fun one for the little kids (and uninhibited older kids!)

5 Minute Story Starters
Quick writing task where creative thinking is more important than spelling. If I ruled the world, if I was an animal, if I was invisible, if we were all blind, if the sun went out, etc etc. Read your response to each other. If keen, may lead onto problem solving activity or extended writing.

Global Traveller
Using an atlas, discuss the many places in this country and other countries. Discuss the countries you have visited, or want to visit. Where are we in the world? What would life be like in a cold country? A hot country? Who do you know who lives overseas? The students will have a wide variety of responses to this. A good one to put the world in perspective, and generate discussion and open sharing.

Poetry #1
Acrostic poems - use the letters of the words to write a poem. Shape poem – think of 20 words used to describe an object and write it in the shape of the object. Descriptive Poem – Using verbs and adjectives write a series of sentences to describe a person, place or event, without naming it. Get another person to guess.

Poetry #2
5 senses poem – Think of an emotion. Discuss what it is like using the 5 senses. Example, Sadness – Sounds like a puppy crying. Tastes like cold soup and stale bread. Feels like a windy morning alone on the beach. Etc. Kids often come up with some amazing descriptions of their emotions and feelings.

Picture Book
Share a favourite picture book or story from your childhood. Talk about why you like it and how you felt when you read it. Design extended activities from the story – how would other characters feel?

Book Review
Write or share your thoughts on a book you have both read, either one they are reading at school, or a book you both like. Look at a review structure, careful not to just retell the story but describing who it is recommended for, what you enjoyed etc, to make it more personal and reflective.

Tongue Twisters
Write an alliterative sentence with the students name in it, with all the words beginning with the same letter. Laughing Lily licked Lovely little Lollipops.

Fantasy Design
Design or create a fantasy object or person – super hero, monster, vehicle, house etc. Label and draw together being as creative and imaginative as possible.

Journal Writing
Have a journal you both write in every week, updating the events of the week and sharing together the highs and lows, achievements and successes of the week. Some students may not feel comfortable sharing verbally, but like the idea of writing a personal page every week. Concentrate on ideas and not spelling to get thoughts across.

Timeline
Create a timeline of your life so far, write short paragraphs for each significant event. Put your significant events on the same time line as your student. Discuss why each event was important and how it changed your life. Illustrate on a long piece of paper!

Interview
Design questions for an interview with a friend or family member, or each other. Think about what you would like to find out about the person. Think about what makes a good open ended question and how to take dot point notes from the interview. Pretend you are a reporter from a news show! Narrow the focus of the interview to a topic or area of interest.

Matter of Opinion 
Choose an issue that is currently being discussed in the media and analyse the different arguments. Write down interesting points of view or the key people in the debate. Write a letter or mind map which displays the issue. An activity for older students who can think critically and logically.

Word Search / Mind Bender / Crossword
Using generated models from the newspaper, or create yourself, design and solve the puzzles. Good for more than just literacy and spelling – scanning, cognitive processing, visual and spatial logic, tracking. Fun to work on together.

Show and Tell
Each brings in a precious or special item from home to show to each other. Prepare to share why it is special, what it represents and where you now keep it. A good oral literacy activity to work together practising listening and speaking skills. A great way to get to know each other more and a good reference point for further discussion.

Trash and Treasures
Bring in random unrelated objects in a bag and say you found it on the way here. Who does it belong to? Where were they going? Why did they leave their bag? Story and creative thinking activity