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

50 things to do with your Read Write Count bags

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 – here are 50 ideas for exploring your bag together at home!

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 dinosaur walk or if you can run like a cheetah!  
6. (P3 bag only): Use your tape measure to measure everyone in your family. Who is the tallest?
7. Create your own map. If you’ve got Martha Maps It Out (P3 bag), then you can use Martha’s map for inspiration! If not – try and create a map of your local area, or your own fantasy world.
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 tangram to spell out the names of everyone in your family.
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 or dinosaurs 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 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’ covers 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 alliteration like in There’s Nothing Faster Than a Cheetah - what vehicle would each person in your family drive in the race?
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. 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. Download our activity sheet at the bottom of this webpage to create your own animal (or dinosaur!) racing board game.
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. (P3 bag only): Count the animals in There’s Nothing Faster Than a Cheetah. 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. Imagine you’re going on an adventure like Little Wolf in How to Make a Story or Martha and Space Monkey’s trip to space in Martha Maps It Out. Talk about what you’d want for your adventure and what you’d need to pack.
27. (P2 bag only): Each choose your favourite dinosaur in My First Book of Dinosaurs. Talk about why they’re your favourite!
28. Turn to a random page in one of your books. Can you act out the page?
29. Create your own wordsearch for the dinosaurs in My First Book of Dinosaurs or There’s Nothing Faster Than a Cheetah. Swap your wordsearches – how long do they take for you to solve? (See the bottom of this page for a printable wordsearch template for My First Book of Dinosaurs!)
30. (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!
31. Next time you visit friends or family, take your cards with you and teach them the rules.
32. Design a bookmark inspired by your favourite book!
33. (P3 bag only): Create a line of objects from around your house that’s as long as your tape measure.
34. Each pick a favourite page from one of the books and talk about why it’s your favourite.
35. 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…”
36. (P3 bag only): Keep a record of things you measure with your tape measure.
37. How many different ways can you come up with sorting the cards?
38. 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?
39. (P2 bag only): Instead of reading My First Book of Dinosaurs cover-to-cover, why not have a Dinosaur of the Day or the Week?
40. Come up with some silly voices for the different characters in your books. They can be fast, slow, loud, quiet, high, deep – it doesn’t have to make sense in the story, just focus on having fun!
41. (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!
42. Take it in turns to tell the story of one of the books as fast as you can.
43. Pick an object, animal or colour and count how many times you see it in one of the books.
44. Design your own dinosaur or racing animal – you can find a printable activity sheet at the bottom of this page (or, just use a blank piece of paper!)
45. Read the book, leaving out some of the key words for your wee one 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.
46. (P2 bag only): Take turns making your favourite animals with your tangram. Try and see if you can guess what you’ve each made!
47. Ask a family member or friend about their favourite book.
48. 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.
49. (P2 bag only): Add to your tangram by cutting paper or cardboard into more triangle shapes.
50. Create your own comic strip and swap them.

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