Young children taking their first steps into readership is such an exciting thing to watch. First you teach them the ABC, then they learn to spell their name, and one day they read a sentence out loud… Nothing quite like it.
In our age of games and TV shows it’s important to foster in the children a love of reading from an early age. Learning the value of a good book can stay with them for life. To celebrate this special path, we’ve come up with a very special activity you can do together as a family: create your very own book!
Chapter one, in which you tell a story
The backbone of a good book is a good story. Our activity starts with a game that will help you make up the story for your own family book. It goes like this: gather a few items from around the house, such as a shoe, an umbrella, a plate, a roll of toilet paper and so on. Now put them all in a big box or a bag that’s not see-through.
To tell the story, take turns to randomly pull out an item from the bag – you have to use that item in your story now! Give one or two sentences that involve the item (it doesn’t have to star, just appear in your lines) and then it’s someone else’s turn to continue what you’ve started, using another random item. After a few items you should have a sweet short story.
Chapter two, in which you envision your characters
To decide your character and create illustrations for the book, get a few colorful and picture-full magazines; some pieces of paper; glue, scissors and markers. Find images that relate to your story. Do the cutting yourself, of course, but the children can glue and draw on them.
Try and match images with the story. Considering how many household items appear in it, it shouldn’t be too hard! Once the illustrations are ready, it’s your job (or if your children can already write they can do it) to write down the story on a few pages and in between place the illustrations.
Chapter three, in which you create the cover
For the cover you should get one big piece of colorful paper folded in the middle so you can ‘wrap’ it around the rest of your pages. If you don’t have one you can just use two pieces of regular paper, the same kind you used for the pages. Write down the title on one of them and the names of all you writers on the other.
Now is the kids’ turn to decorate the cover. Use markers, glitter glue, stickers, whatever you have lying around, and make it the best cover EVER!
Now that your book is ready, it can get a very special spot on your bookshelf. Read it before bedtime and keep it to remind you of the fun day you’ve had.
How do you celebrate Young Readers Day?
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