This post will focus on kids reading activities that you can pack for plane trips. I will be sharing read alouds, books and kids reading activities that are in our carry-on bag.
Airplane travel can be unpredictable. It can consist of waiting around, delays, time changes and long hours sitting still. It can be exhausting for parents and kids! It is important to be prepared with lots of snacks and entertainment! Traveling on airplanes is definitely easier for us now that Tim is older. We don’t have to worry about traveling during nap time as those days are over. Also, we don’t have to play chase in the airport or on the airplane-ha! Tim can focus on activities on the airplane. He understands that he needs to stay seated with his seatbelt fastened… for awhile!!
While Tim does have some time on technology consisting of a show or a movie on the ipad or computer, I try to take advantage of the time to read together in the airport or on the airplane. Waiting around in the airport or on the airplane can be a perfect time to spend time with your child and can be a great bonding time.
Here is what we packed in our carry-on bag for an airplane trip that we took this week.
For a read aloud, I packed the Magic Tree House book Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne. The Magic Tree House books are books that Tim was read aloud last year in Kindergarten as part of the Tools of the Mind Curriculum. He is familiar with Jack and Annie and the first twelve books in the series. He loves listening to the adventures of Jack and Annie!
With each Magic Tree House book, there is an opportunity to extend background knowledge by researching and reading more information about each place or experience that Jack and Annie have in the book. In this book, Jack and Annie are traveling to Ancient Greece and they are learning information about the Olympics in Ancient Greece. We researched some more information about Ancient Greece and Tim learned about a chariot, javelin and discus.
I find novels lightweight for travel as well as opposed to hard cover picture books that take up a lot of room and are heavy in a carry-on bag. Instead of packing a bunch of picture books, you may want to pack an anthology with lots of stories.
While I was shopping for snacks at the local supermarket, I found a small aluminum tray and these Melissa and Doug magnetic letters with both uppercase and letters. I thought that this would be perfect for playing some word games on the plane.
We played a game in which Tim had to make some CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as “cat”. I would have Tim change the first, last or middle sound and he would have to tell me what word he spelled.
We also played a game in which I put out a group of letters and we would see how many words we could make with that group of letters. Tim loved that game!! We played this in the airport and he made 16 words!
I packed a variety of books at Tim’s reading level that I found on ebay. I found that most of the books at the local libraries do not have well written books at Tim’s reading level. Most of the books in the library are appropriate for the end of first grade and older, although they can be deceiving and look like they are for younger children. I plan on blogging about this dilemma in a future posting.
My favorite books for Tim’s reading level are Rigby readers which are often used in classrooms to teach guided reading. These books are often expensive. Ebay had several variety packs of Rigby books at Tim’s level for a bargain.
I also bought a Fundations level 1 pack for $20 on ebay. Fundations is a whole class phonics program that is taught based on the Wilson program that works well for teaching children phonics skills.
The Fundations pack came with a dry erase board that is the same board that Tim used at school for writing letters with the sky, plane, grass and worm line. It also came with a journal with a picture and the same lines as the white board that will be perfect for a travel journal. We packed the journal in our carry-on.
We also received a magnetic folder with magnetic letters that is perfect for traveling. I found this after I bought the Melissa and Doug letters, but I may use both. The Fundations magnetic letters have the vowels in a different color. Also, the digraphs like sh, ch, th, wh and qu grouped together on one letter tile. This helps kids remember and identify these sounds when making words.
Tim had fun making and reading words with the Fundations magnetic letter tiles in the airport. I liked how we were able spread them all out on the folder and how portable it was.
Overall, I feel that our travel activities were a success. Tim had fun playing word games with the letter tiles, reading books at his level and listening to the adventures of Jack and Annie! What kids reading activities are in your carry-on bag?
