Episode Ten - Language Experience Book

Introduction

There are many different ways to make an experience book! In this recipe, we make little books that are re-useable and make great beginning home reading books. This activity involves thinking of a theme for your books, such as counting or colour or on recalling an experience out in the community. The experience book can serve as a reminder not only of events and objects, but also of the sequence of those events/objects in the experience as the child turns pages and explores each one.

This episode can be viewed in the video player above and is also posted on the PRCVI YouTube channel where you will find links to other resources as well as the comments thread for this video.

Linked here is a PDF version of the Language Experience Book recipe. 

Key ingredients

• Mini photo album with clear pockets for photo inserts
• Recipe cards that fit inside the pocket page
• Braille labeller and/or black felt pen

Mixing it together

• Go for a walk or an outing and have your child collect some treasures. If you wish to focus on nature, your child might pick up leaves, fir cones, small sticks, pebbles, feathers, and so on.
• Bring your outside treasures home and lay them on the table. Talk about them and put them into some sort of order. If it is a counting book, you might have 1 small stick, 2 acorns, 3 pebbles, 4 leaves, 5 cones.
• Write the number and/or the name for each item on separate file cards. Clip the upper right corner of each card to help with orientating it correctly when reading.
• Assemble your book in the corresponding order.
• Don’t forget to add a title to your book and your child’s name sticker to the outside.

Topping off the recipe

• As you read it together add in a repeated line for each page. “On my walk I found 1 stick. On my walk I found 2 acorns. On my walk I found 3 cones. On my walk I found 4 leaves. On my walk I found 5 pebbles. I can count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.”
• Read your book together and encourage your child to read it to another family member. The items, along with their file card can come out of the pages to be handled and shared.
• If you have a braille labeller, you could add the page numbers to the outside of each pocket sleeve in a consistent location, such as the lower right.