Magic
Paintbrush – Give students a clean paintbrush and ask them to “paint”
details in a book. “Who can paint
the main character?” “Who
can paint where the dog is hiding?”
Books Up - Children will need multiple copies of
a text for this activity. Ask
questions and when children find the page with the answer they hold their book
up in the air.
Musical Books –
This activity is similar to musical chairs. Arrange chairs in a circle and place a book on each
chair. Play some catchy music and
invite the children to march around.
When the music stops, each child finds a chair, picks up a book, and
begins to look through the book.
Give the children one or two minutes to scan through their books. The teacher randomly points to children
and asks, “Can you tell me the setting of your book?” “Can you tell me a character in your book?” “What do you think your book will be
about?”
Mystery
Picture – Before reading a book, select a “mystery picture” page. Show it to the class and tell them to
look closely at the picture and smile if they think they know what the book
will be about. Begin reading the
book. When you get to the “mystery
picture” page encourage the children to discuss what they thought the book
would be about. Were they right or
wrong?
*You could also
cut a small “window” out of a piece of paper and focus it on a key detail in
the story.
