Local parks are promoting reading with free little libraries, designated outdoor reading areas and outdoor word play centers with letter manipulatives.
I have seen playgrounds and parks with free little libraries in places all over the country. Free little libraries are small outdoor cabinets with free books. The idea behind the free little libraries is that people will take a book and give a book. These are often books that people have already read or books that their children have out grown. This week at the park, Tim and I found Bats at the Beach and a Magic Tree House book at the little free library.
We plan on giving two books to the little free library when we return to the park the next time. Bats at the Beach is a wonderful read aloud for children ages Pre-K through Grade 2. Discussion ideas when reading Bats at the Beach can include facts about bats, rhyming words and new vocabulary. You could also discuss what happens in the beginning, in the middle and at the end. The Magic Tree House is a series that is part of the tools of the mind curriculum at Tim’s school. The first 12 books have been read aloud to him st school and I thought I might read a couple more Magic Tree House books to him over the summer. Overall, two great finds from the free library!!
This park had a cute outdoor reading area in a shady spot of the park by the playground. The area was labeled “Reading Room” and there was a sign advertising the free little library. I only pictured one area with adult and child chairs, but there were several other areas under the shade. Tim and I took a break from playing on the playground and we read Bats on the Beach in the shade. It was a beautiful, sunny day that day and he loved being outside and reading at the park in a different spot.
The word play area was awesome! This was something new that I hadn’t seen at a park before. It was a table with colorful letters, both uppercase and lowercase, painted on rocks of all different sizes. There were a couple of basic sight words painted as well. Tim had fun making some word family words such as words from the -at family like cat, bat, hat, rat. He also made other short three letter words such as the word “fun.”
I could see this word play area being fun for kids particularly ages 3-6. Digraphs such as ch, sh, th and vowel teams such as ea, ee, oo could be painted on rocks for older students as well. What a fun way to practice some phonics skills and have kids engaged in making and reading words while playing outside at the park!
Check out your local park to see if your park has any of these reading areas or activities. You could easily make your own outdoor “reading room” in your backyard. The word play area could be made at home if you have a sand table or a water table. You could write letters on rocks or other objects that you could put in the sand table. For a water table, you could write letters on ping pong balls. You could use something to scoop out one letter at a time for your child to make words that way.
While we had a blast making words and reading at the park, we had lots of time to run and play! Tim had fun playing at the playground and riding the different cars in the tennis court!
Hope that you enjoyed reading about our reading adventure at the park. I also hope that this post gave you some ideas of how to making reading fun while being outside in the summer!