Does it Make Sense?

0-2 minutes

5-10 minutes

Find a book of familiar stories or poems that your child loves to read.

Tell your child to close their eyes so they can focus on what they hear. Then read the familiar story or poem to your child. Once in a while, change the words of the story into nonsense. For example, change the words of “Baa baa black sheep” into “Baa baa purple sheep.” Swap the order of words, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall” to “Humpy Dumpty wall on a sat” Ask your child to tell you whenever something does not make sense. They can open their eyes, clap their hands or raise a hand when they do. Encourage your child to explain what was wrong.

Talk about a favourite memory your child has. Retell your child’s memory but change one of the details. See if they notice the change.

Start with the title of the book, your child’s favourite part, or the major events of the story because they will likely notice when there is an error. For example: “Cinderella left her shoe at the castle” could be changed to, “Cinderella left her hair at the castle” to see if your child notices.

Adapted from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom

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