Fall is a great time of the year! You and your child are already doing activities during fall that can increase their language skills! See below for some hints on how to include language building into some fun fall activities:
Leaves
- Make a leaf pile! Talk about the different colors of leaves. Talk about your leaf pile and your child's leaf pile. Which one is bigger?! Which one is smaller? Use words to compare your leaf pile.
- Collect different colored leaves. What colors do you see? How many leaves do you have?
- Make an art picture with your leaves. What kinds of shapes can you make? Can you make a person? An animal? Can your child guess what you made?
Hayride
- This is a great way to talk about what you see and where you are! Use words like "over", "through", "under", "near", etc.
- Is the ride smooth or bumpy? Compare it to riding in a car, riding a bike, etc. What others things do we ride on that are bumpy?
Picking Pumpkins
- Take your family pumpkin picking! This is a great way to talk about the different descriptions of each pumpkin.
- Example describing words to use: big, little, fat, heavy, yellow, orange, bumpy, white, round, oval, smooth, bright, skinny, huge
Carving Pumpkins
- Have your child identify the shapes your carved into your pumpkin.
- What shape is a pumpkin? What size is your pumpkin? Which pumpkin is bigger? Which is the smallest? How many pumpkins do you have? What color are they?
- Talk about feeling. Allow your child to draw a face on a pumpkin. Is it happy, mad, sad, or scared?
- Talk about what you can do with pumpkins (e.g. eat them, carve them, bake the seeds...).
Corn Maze
- A great place to work on following directions! Take turns giving directions and following directions from your child. "Turn right." "Go back." "Go straight." "Follow the curve." "Turn around."
Halloween
- Look at all the costumes in a store or a catalog. Are they funny? Scary? Happy? Silly?
- Save your Halloween costumes. Let your child use them for dress up. Can they put on a show / play for you?
- Make some simple, homemade Halloween decorations. This is great for following directions, vocabulary, describing, and answering questions. Pinterest is a great place to look for ideas!
I would love to hear any ideas you have for working on your child's speech & language skills in the fall! Or, if you try any of these activities, let me know how it goes. Feel free to leave a comment below!
Enjoy the beautiful weather! Winter will be here before we know it.
-Mrs. Carlton