First Words: Books, Games & Activities For Teaching Word Fun
A little one’s First Words are always so exciting! Of course, then comes loads of entertainment with all of the random words they begin to learn. Clever Encyclopedia has brought us a book of First Words to learn with over 500 words, tons of pictures and even great games!
First Words
First Words is just as adorable as every other book Clever Publishing puts out. I love that they all aim at helping our children grow and learn, making it super easy as parents for us to find ways to teach our little ones new things.
Sight words are something we begin learning in preschool but they don’t have to start then, they can start much earlier. I love that these books make teaching sight words easy for every parent.
Letter of the Day: It’s easy to have a letter of the day and incorporate it into your day. We drew A’s one day and now my three year old grandson sees and points out A’s every single time he sees them. It’s crazy how easy it was for him to start recognizing them and now we can build on that with words that begin with A. Endless possibilities!
Magazines & Picture Books: For whatever reason, I’ve noticed how fun it is for little ones to look through magazines and catalogs. They get so excited when they see something they recognize. Use this! Picture books, like First Words or First Animals help children begin putting the name to the object. Very Well Family has a great list of other ways to learn new words too!
Come up with a Little Ditty: Come up with a fun little tune for everything you do, the more you sing and play the more they will learn. Kindergarten Works suggests using the tune of a song you already know and changing up the words to fit what you are trying to teach. I have a very dear friend who could make up a song about literally anything. That girl has skill!
Matching: Busy Teacher says that using matching games helps children begin to putting words and pictures together to help them recognize words. If they can read, use written words and if they can’t read utilize pictures with the words on them matching them to their opposite or their pair. For example, a pair of mittens to a snowy scene or a lake to a boat. When they begin getting good at the game, you can mix it up and do opposites. Make sure you put the words with the pictures for those who can’t yet read so that they begin to recognize words. When working on learning letters, you can match upper and lower case letters.
Explore the World: Go on walks or to new locations where you can point out and talk about new things. Hands On As We Grow suggests doing this and talking about what you see, hear, feel and so on. This will help them learn feelings and increase their vocabulary much faster. You’ll be just as excited as them when they randomly describe something and you had no clue they ‘got’ it!
Scavenger Hunt: I LOVE this idea from I Can Teach My Child! She suggests making boxes with letters on them then searching for items to put in the box that start with those letters. Click the link to her site for full details, I don’t want to steal their awesomeness, but I did want to share it!
This book is divided up into 5 different sections to help you teach tons of new words:
- Colors: From a color palette to dinosaurs, road trips and Shammy’s Riddles. Learning our colors can be super fun!
- Shapes and Sizes: We’ll learn shapes, those that fit and those that don’t, all different sizes and more of Shammy’s Riddles! Super fun to be had as we learn so many things!
- Numbers: Learning to count has never been more fun as we explore monsters, gardens and supermarket.
- Speech: We learn Mom, Dad, people, what’s missing and even how to say hello in different languages! Since I’m Cherokee, and it’s not included, I’ll let ya in on our language. To say Hello in Cherokee, it’s Osiyo (pronounce O-C-O). Now you’ve learned something new!
- Where and When?: Learning opposites again, Shammy’s route, months, days, seasons and even spend a day with Eugene! So much fun to be had with learning locations and such!
Clever Publishing puts out this fabulous Clever Encyclopedia. They have so many wonderful books and we post about them as much as we can. We’ve learned tons from their books! If you are looking to teach little ones or buy the perfect gift, definitely check out their books! They are full of fun and learning magic! It’s never too early to teach a joy for learning!
First words are really amazing, but I don’t know what’s mine.
I do the same thing with my grandchildren, that I did with my kids–I talk to them constantly, showing and saying the words. I’m so amazed how their little minds are like sponges. I appreciate it even more as a grandparent, as I now have the time and patience.
I teach them new words just by using them in conversation. Also if they have questions I use a wod they would not have heard of
I have never taught a kid words but my great niece Zaday (3) spends a couple of days a month with me. And we have played the word game I say it then she tries to say it. But her dad and mom work with her all the time. She can count to 40 with a few missed numbers. And knows the alphabet song. So she is learning
This looks like it would hold a kids interest with all the pictures. I like that it includes games as well.
I used to read a lot to teach my kids. I also used to point objects out and say their names. It was a lot of repetitiveness.
Teaching children new words is tricky because each child learns differently. I like using pictures and sounding out words, but other methods are helpful as well.
I don’t have any funny stories about teaching my kids new words. At least I can’t think of any. That was way too long ago. This book would be for my grandson. I remember using flash cards, blocks with pictures on them, and books when teaching my girls new words.
This looks like it will hold my granddaughters interest with all the colorful pictures. I also like the games that help them learn.
I read to my granddaughters all the time. When we hear a new word on TV I have them practice saying it.
I always read to my granddaughters alot. Whenever we hear a new word on TV I have them practice saying it.
I teach my kids words by reading to them every night. Then we practice words when we go to the park or take walks.
I don’t have any kids. I have nieces and nephews. This would be great for them.
My youngest son had speech delays so we just really focused on teaching him thru play and of course reading to him daily. Now he doesn’t stop talking so I think reading to him daily helped lol.
The only really funny stories that we have of our kids learning to speak was with our sun. He when he was first learning to say Fire Truck it came out Fire F**k. We had a good laugh and then promptly helped him correct it as he loved screaming it whenever he saw one.
I have two young grandchildren who spend time with me. The granddaughter is here three or four days a week while her parents are working. She is rapidly picking up words and wants to know the name of everything. This would be an excellent teaching tool.
I have two very young grandchildren. My granddaughter spends three or four days a week with me while the parents work. She wants to know about everything and what everything is called. I think this would be an excellent teaching tool for her. She will be two in April and rapidly picking up new words.
I’d give this to my niece she actually wants to be a speech therapist so that would be really cool. Learn as much as ya can while ya can. 🙂
My great niece just turned one year old so she is starting to say some words. She mimics words she hears us say. We repeat words to her and put emphasis on the words we want her to learn to say. We also have objects that we give her and tell her the name of the object as she plays with it 🙂
I feel like reading to them a lot really helps them learn new words. I also talked to my babies constantly, telling them what we were doing or just taking to them in general helps. Of course books are the best method, in my opinion.
I’ve not ever had the opportunity to do this, but luckily I’ve got a slew of nieces and nephews whom some also have little ones now. I’m entering for my niece who has a little one who is learning to talk. I thought it’d be a nice gift.
I usually teach them with pictures or actual items if I can. We use lots of repetition and no baby talk at all.
I think talking to the child and reading to him are good ways to teach vocabulary.
I always say start small and work your way up. Words like dog, cat, bug, mom, dad, etc..
my little niece and I have study night once a week and we work and play games with new words very helpful to make it fun for her
We like to read and also watch learning videos with words they repeat it does seem to help so much with learning.
We read together and use phonics. If they don’t know something is, I will also show them a picture.
I always love using slash cards with our 2 children in helping them to learn new words. It worked .
My youngest just turned 12. This book would be for my grandson. I used to teach my kids words by pointing out words and using repetition.
It’s been a very long time since I was teaching small ones words. I just remember that I had a print rich environment and there was a lot of reading, verbal interaction, and I spoke as if I was talking to another adult. Repetitive experience with vocabulary is the best way for kids to learn.