Language - Tuesday

Remember, kids develop language at their own pace - but there are things, fun things, that we can do to help encourage that development! 

Conversational Skills

Age - 2-3

PBS Skill Targeted: "Takes turn in conversations when slot is left open by an adult's question. Child answers more readily now, but adult still must answer some of the questions asked."

Activity:
Who's In There?

Directions: 
  Materials:
• File folders
• Pictures
• Scissors
• Glue

What to do:
1. Glue a large picture of a familiar character inside a file folder.
2. Cut little doors in strategic places on the cover.
3. Let the child open the doors one at a time to reveal parts of the picture
underneath. Have him guess who it is.
4. Provide some language: “Who could this be? Let’s see. Yellow feathers! Who has
yellow feathers? What is behind this door? Orange feet! Who do you think it is?”

***MillionWaysMama note: There are a million ways to step this up or down for various ages. Maybe your older child is into dinosaurs or bugs right now, print off pictures of specific types of dinosaurs and do this same activity with the goal of learning the specific names of species. Maybe you smaller baby lights up when they see familiar faces, use photos in your folders of immediate and extended family members and model more langauge: 'Who is this? They have love hair. They have a smile. Look! It's Uncle Clark.'

Hats Tipped To: Best Beginnings Alaska

Receptive Vocabulary

Age - 2 and up

PBS Skill Targeted:  "The average child has the capacity to acquire one or two words per day, given access to new words in his or her daily experiences."

Activity:
All about the Mail! (or any other dramatic play that makes sense in your day)

 Directions:
For this activity you should choose to build vocabulary in a daily activity that you must do today. For instance, Little Miss I has been very interested in mail and email this week and I have Father's Day presents to mail out to friends and family, so it is a natural fit for us to do some dramatic play around mail, visit the post office  and write letters...talking about what we are doing all the while.  Our target vocabulary words will include:

Mail man/lady
Post Office

Envelope

Stamp   **Envelope and Stamp are the two I'm hoping she can acquire

The rest is easy  - first, at some point this morning we might play mail man, where I deliver her some mail and vice versa. Then we will write letters to people we love. We will put out letters in envelopes and paste stamps to them. Then comes the visit to the post office, with all of sights and sounds and vocabulary building opportunities.