If you and your family plan to attend a major or minor league baseball game this summer, this post is for you! Below are four suggestions for literacy activities you can do with your kids in a baseball stadium.
- Talk about the letters of the players’ names when they appear on the Jumbotron. Encourage your child's print awareness and letter recognition skills by talking about the letters in their favorite players' names. If a player happens to share a name with your child, challenge him to look for it each time that player goes up to bat. The jumbotron is also a good place to look for other print material throughout the game, as it is often where birthday messages, advertising, and other information is presented.
- Explain baseball vocabulary such as strike, ball, hit, run, and out. Toddlers might not understand the rules of baseball just yet, but you can still go over the basic vocabulary. For added fun, have them try to count strikes for each out, and outs for each inning.
- Encourage your kids to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch. How often do we really have the chance to join in a group sing-along? Don't miss out! To get your kids geared up for this tradition, practice singing the song before the game, or read a picture book version of the song, such as the ones by Ben Nussbaum or Maryann Kovalski.
- Act out the "Five Little Hot Dogs" fingerplay. Whether you actually eat hot dogs at the ballpark or not, this rhyme will get your kids in the spirit of the game! Words for the rhyme can be found here.