Read Write Count at home

We hope you’re enjoying your Read Write Count P2 and P3 bag! On this page, you’ll find:

• Some home activities for exploring your bag – great if your Activity Booklet has left you wanting more!
• Printable activity sheets (see the bottom of this webpage)
• Some links to further activities you can do together at home

Every year, we create two surveys in order to gather feedback from both learning professionals(this link will open in a new window) and families at home(this link will open in a new window). Please do fill these in, letting us know what you think of the Read Write Count bags and resources, and encourage families at home to do the same. Anyone who fills in either survey will be entered into a prize draw to win a Read Write Count superbox filled with books and numeracy games.

50 things to do with your Read Write Count bags

Here are 50 ideas for exploring your bag together at home! Choose a number between 1 and 50, use a random number generator(this link will open in a new window) or just pick what you fancy.

1. Choose where to store your books and other items. Giving them a special place, whether beside your bed or in a bookshelf, can help them feel more special.
2. Build a den with blankets or cushions to read your books in.
3. Draw your own version of one of the book covers.
4. (P2 bag only): Choose a time each day to pick a random Talk It Out prompt and have a conversation – you could go for a walk or draw whilst you chat to help you feel more comfortable.
5. Walk like one of the characters in the books. Show each other your best wobbly wobbler walk or heavy metal badger stomp!
6. Come up with some different ways of sorting the animals in your books. For example: animals that can fly, animals that can swim, animals that live in this country, etc.
7. Ask everyone in your family what their favourite animal is. You could draw a picture of all of them!
8. Each choose your favourite card from your pack. Can you predict what each person will pick? Chat about why that card is your favourite.
9. (P2 bag only): Use your binoculars to try and find as many different things as possible. Can you find something beginning with 'a', then 'b', 'c', and so on?
10. Take your favourite book to your local library and ask your librarian for a recommendation of what to read next!
11. Choose one of the animals from one of your books. Can you draw them without looking at the paper?
12. (P2 bag only): Look at the numbers on the domino cards and practice picking and making important numbers like house numbers, birthdays and phone numbers.
13. Next time you go for a walk, try and recreate one of the books’ cover with natural materials (leaves, sticks, stones, etc.) Leave your artwork for someone else to find!
14. Use soft toys, figurines or other objects to make a puppet show version of one of the stories. Your puppet could act out the plot or ask them to read the book to you.
15. (P3 only): Can you come up with your own game for one of the faces on your board game?
16. Count all the colours on one of the covers of your books. Now draw a picture only using those colours.
17. Choose one of your books to read before bedtime. Can you read it in your quietest and slowest voice?
18. (P3 bag only): Take your Search and See cards for a walk. How many things can you find?
19. (P2 bag only): Pull out a random Act It Out emotion card. Now, read the book with that emotion. Take it in turns to choose a new card to decide how you’ll read it next.
20. (P2 bag only): Play 'Heads Up' with the Act It Out cards. Place a card on your forehead without looking at it and ask a family member or friend questions about what the card could be to help you guess. They can only answer yes or no!
21. Can you design a new hat for Cactus Joe? Or an outfit for Heavy Metal Badger? Draw it out on a blank piece of paper or use our printable activity sheet at the bottom of this webpage.
22. Next time you go out, take one of your books with you. Books make good company in cafés, parks, libraries – or wherever you go! They’re especially handy in waiting rooms and queues.
23. Hide something from your bag, or one of your favourite toys. Now, make a map of your home that will direct someone to finding it.
24. Count all of the different animals in Barbara Throws a Wobbler or Heavy Metal Badger. How many of them have you seen before?
25. Lie down on the floor and count how many cards you are lengthwise. Can you guess? How many cards long is everyone in your family?
26. (P3 only) Imagine you’re going on an adventure like the astronauts in The Book of Blast Off. Talk about what you’d want for your adventure and what you’d need to pack.
27. Turn to a random page in one of your books. Can you act out the page?
28. Create your own wordsearch based on one of the books. How many different words can you hide? Swap your wordsearches and see how long it takes you to solve them!
29. (P3 bag only): If you were an alien in Galactic Fantastic, what would you be like? Talk about what skills you’d have and what planet you’d come from!
30. Next time you visit friends or family, take your cards with you and teach them the rules.
31. Design a bookmark inspired by your favourite book!
32. (P2 bag only): Take your binoculars for a walk and see what you can find!
33. Each pick a favourite page from one of the books and talk about why it’s your favourite.
34. Take it in turns playing I-Spy with the pages of the books. One of you says 'I spy something beginning with…' or 'I spy something that’s blue…'
35. (P2 bag only): Keep a record of things you see with your binoculars.
36. How many different ways can you come up for with sorting the cards?
37. Try some extreme reading – take a photo of you reading in the silliest place you can think of. Why not send the photo to some other family members or loved ones and challenge them to join in?
38. (P3 bag only): Instead of reading The Book of Blast Off cover-to-cover in one sitting, why not have a space mission of the week?
39. Come up with some silly voices for the different characters in your books. They can be fast, slow, loud, quiet, high, deep – they don't have to make sense in the story, just focus on having fun!
40. (P3 bag only): Can you find the lightest alien? What about the heaviest? Now, find the smallest, the tallest, and the one with the highest special skill score!
41. Take it in turns to tell the story of one of the books as fast as you can.
42. Pick an object, animal or colour and count how many times you see it in one of the books.
43. (P3 bag only): Use the outer space scene on your board game to create your own puppet show. You can use small toys or use paper to create your own puppets!
44. Read the book, leaving out some of the key words for little ones to fill in. If they’re not sure what word is missing, you can point to the character or object on the page to help them out.
45. (P3 bag only): Take it in turns doing the yoga poses in your mindfulness cards. Can you each guess what pose you’re doing? Can you move between different poses?
46. Ask a family member or friend about their favourite book.
47. (P2 bag only): What would you take into space with you? Draw a suitcase and fill it with your favourite items. There’s also a downloadable activity sheet you can use at the bottom of this webpage.
48. Create your own comic strip and swap them with your friends.
49. (P3 bag only): Use the clock face on your board game to mark out some important times, for example, when you go to school, when you wake up or when you go to bed.
50. Make up new rules for one of your card games. You can write them on a small piece of paper so you can add them to your deck.

Further resources

• Visit our Home Activities Hub for more ideas for reading, playing and having fun together
• Use the public libraries page on the MyGov website(this link will open in a new window) to find your local library