'Word Play Around Bay' will build rich vocabularies in young children
There’s a new push going on in the Bay Village preschool community, and swing sets are only one place where it’s happening.
Just introduced this week, “Word Play Around Bay” is a fun, vocabulary-building resource for parents and their young children. The brochure is packed with dozens of location-specific activities that make it easy for parents to help children build a rich and meaningful vocabulary during everyday visits throughout Bay Village.
“Research clearly shows that a wide range of vocabulary when entering school is a predictor of long-term reading success,” said Char Shryock, Director of Curriculum for the Bay Village district. “And strong reading and comprehension skills are critical to learning in all subject areas.” Shryock said the initiative was designed to give parents effective, deliberate and fun strategies for developing vocabulary at home and wherever they go with their children.
The brochure offers suggestions for activities at places like Huntington Beach, the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, the Bay Library, Bay Pool and many more. For example, when at the playground, parents can recite a poem while pushing a swing (an example might be "The Swing," by Robert Louis Stevenson). Or when at the beach, parents and children can play alliteration games using adjectives to describe items (like squishy sand or beautiful beach).
And if vocabulary builders get through all the activities in the printed brochure, they can scan the QR codes on each page with their smart phones or tablets to get even more ideas for each location.
Shryock said that children will love interacting with their parents using “Word Play Around Bay.” She said, “I hope we see these brochures out wherever parents take their children. Some of the ideas would be terrific for groups of children, too.”
The activities were developed by Shryock and the educational staff at Bay Library and the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Mary Jane Hull of the Bay Village district created the brochure. Funding was provided with a grant from the Bay Village Education Foundation.
Brochures can be found on their own, special display board at the Bay Library, the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, Bay Pool, Glenview Center for Childcare and Learning, the Bay Village Board of Education central office and many other locations around Bay Village where parents take their young children. The brochure can also be downloaded for printing at www.bayvillageschools.com/WordPlay, or a mobile version is available with the QR code.
Karen Derby
Director of Communications for the Bay Village City School District