Supplies:
- Favorite children’s book
- Paper, markers, themed stickers, pictures cut-outs*
*Use with Activity Alternatives and Challenge Boosters
Step by Step Fun!
Read the book aloud and act it out, assigning each child a role. Set the scene, discuss the sequence, position everyone, and call "Action!" Encourage action using words and movements.
Activity Alternatives
- Simplify Storyline: Break down the story into smaller segments or use stories with recurring phrases. Have the children act out only the repeated phrase as you narrate.
- Visual Storyboard: Create a visual timeline for the story to aid understanding.
- Incorporate Sensory Elements: Enhance engagement with textured props, scents, sounds, and lighting changes.
- For children who need speech-language supports or with limited speech:
- Encourage non-verbal communication: Foster the use of gestures, facial expressions, props, and a communication device in addition to words and sounds.
- For children with mobility limitations:
- Provide accessible props and adapt scenes for comfortable enactment from any position.
- Encourage expression through facial, vocal, or prop-related movements.
Challenge Boosters
- Add creative expression by acting out alternative endings or new scenes.
- "Get in Character" by dressing up/using more complex props. Provide materials they use to create costumes/props to further elevate the challenge.
- Create a storybook collage. Children draw or place stickers/pictures to represent key scenes in the story on separate pieces of paper and arrange the pieces to create a visual representation.
Schedule Booster: Enact familiar stories during routine car rides.
Benefits of Play
- Cognitive development: Helps children address detail, process tasks, and execute in sequential order – critical skills for learning and follow through on daily routines.
- Emotional/self expression and empathy: Acting out scenes allows the child to understand and manage their feelings while stepping into the shoes of various characters.
- Bonding/relationships: Collaborative activities strengthen bonds with family and peers.
- Imagination and creativity: Encourages the child to create and explore new scenarios.
- Language development & communication: Enhances vocabulary, active listening, and verbal turn-taking. Provides the opportunity for playmates to practice taking turns in conversation.
- Physical development: Movement and coordination involved in acting facilitate to motor skills.