Communication and Literacy Day
Join the authors of Harris the Haggis: Rhianwen, Aidan and Ciara; as they take you through four activities designed to improve your literacy and communication.
You’ll be playing some hide & seek, I Spy, imagining some stories of your own and more!
We will wrap up the day by reading Harris the Haggis: Adventures in Edinburgh to you. Enjoy!
9.30am Activity:
Cuddly Toy Hide and Seek
Aidan explains what communication means and why it is so important. In this activity you’ll be searching for your cuddly toy that a grown up has hidden from you. Make sure to listen to the clues they give you!
Grown Ups:
This activity is about developing your child’s communication skills. When your child is searching for the toy you’ve hidden from them use adverbs such as “behind, in-front, left, right, further, closer” etc to help them. This helps to develop their listening skills and reinforces the importance of good communication.
10.30am Activity:
I Spy
Ciara talks you through how to play a game of ‘I Spy’ with your grown-up. This well help you get to know what different letters sound on their own and as a part of words.
Grown Ups:
The premise of this activity is to help your child become familiar with the sounds of different letters. When playing the game of ‘I Spy’, make sure you are using the phonetic sounds of letters; not the letter names. This game can also be played on a walk outside, in a park or garden etc.
1:30pm Activity:
Continuing a Story
Join Rhianwen as she talks about today’s third activity, imagining a story of your own! You can pick your favourite story character and imagine what adventure they might go on next. Speak to your grown-up about your ideas and they can help you too.
Grown Ups:
You can help your child pick a character from a story you might have read to them recently. Encourage them to talk to you about where they think the character might go, who they meet, and what they do on their ‘adventure’. This helps again in developing your child’s communication skills, as well as their imagination and thinking.
2:30pm Activity:
Logo Game
This activity is all about identifying the shape and sounds of different letters. Find some logos from around your house and see if you can pick out the ones your grow-up asks you to find!
Grown Ups:
You can get the logos for this game however you want, printing them off, cutting them out, or taking photos will all work fine. Lay out or show the logos to your child then ask them to find a certain one. Once they’ve found it, ask them what sound the word on the logo starts with and to trace that letter.
If you've finished these and still have time for fun...
Just like you did earlier in the day, choose another story character and imagine an adventure they might go on. This time try and draw a picture of them on their adventure!
Story time:
Harris the Haggis: Adventures in Edinburgh
Join Aidan as he finished off your day by reading to you ‘Harris the Haggis: Adventures in Edinburgh’. The story follows Harris the Haggis, in search of his two best friends: Neep and Tattie. Harris has to look high and low through the streets & landmarks of Edinburgh, getting help from some friendly locals along the way.
