Have You Been Missing Out on Wordless Books?
Invite your children to co-author a story!
Literacy involves much more than reading words on a page and wordless books are an often overlooked tool in the literacy toolbox. Have you been overlooking them? I have!
“Reading” wordless books increases vocabulary. Your children have two sets of vocabulary: one they can understand when they hear it but not use and one they can understand and properly use in a sentence. Reading wordless books challenges and increases that second set of vocabulary skills.
“Reading” a wordless book gives your children an opportunity to practice building a story long before they can write one and collecting thoughts and verbalizing them is foundational to writing.
“Reading” a wordless book ignites the imagination.
There is no right or wrong way to read a wordless book but here are a few tips.
- Read the title and study the cover; make predictions about what the story will be about.
- Enjoy the pictures together, look closely at the images and simply chat about what you notice.
- Start from the beginning and re-read the story to your child. Later, you can read a page and they can read a page. Once your children have caught on, you can assign them a wordless book to read and then come back to share their creation.
Wordless books are a great pre-school activity and we have a perfect pre-school starter book, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola.
Up and Up by Shirley Hughes is a favourite wordless book and a must-have!
Mirror by Jeannie Baker is a brilliant wordless book. Your children will learn all about the differences between two cultures without ever reading a word.
by Adrianne Curwen
Adrianne is a wife to a public-school educator/administrator and a homeschooling Mama to seven children, ranging in age from 8 to 24 and in 2021 the family added a son-in-law to the bunch. She believes that we have a unique opportunity as homeschoolers to design individualized education that suits giftings, interests, and passions. She and her husband have used a blend of registered homeschooling, enrolment with independent DL schools, and participation in public trade school programs to design individualized programs for their children. She is passionate about using as many read-alouds, picture books, novels, and conversations to educate her children but also gets excited by the amazing homeschool-designed curriculum that’s out there. Adrianne is thrilled by her new role as Communication Specialist for Classical Education Books and is grateful to have an opportunity to learn something new. She is grateful, every day, for her saviour, Jesus Christ, and has no greater joy than when she sees her most important missions field walk with Him.