Several weeks ago, our Early Literacy team shared guides to help parents conduct storytimes at home to encourage children ages 0-5 to read, write, sing, talk, and play. NYPL’s Youth Education Services department is now excited to share a second set of activity guides for parents and families to conduct literacy activities at home with their young school-aged children (ages 5-9). 

These activity guides feature simple at-home activities that allow early elementary children to express their creativity through writing and art while supporting the development of literacy skills. All activities can be completed with limited materials (typically paper, pencil, and crayons) and feature paired “virtual read alouds” from the NYPL digital collections. These paired read-alouds connect to the theme of each activity and can be shared before or after completing the activity with your child. 

We hope you can use these activity guides to have fun reading, learning, and writing together as a family. 

Activity Guides in English

• All About Me Books
• Community Superhero Comics
• Word Jars
• Five Senses Poems
• Thank You Cards
• Recipe-Writing
• Shape Poems

Activity Guides in Spanish

• Libro: "Todo sobre mí"
• Historieta de un superhéroe de mi comunidad
• Poema de los cinco sentidos
• Tarjetas de agradecimiento
• Receta familiar
• Poema de formas