I am thrilled to give activities one of my favorite books- Peek-a Who! This book has many language skills packed into just a few pages and words- which makes it great for babies- emerging readers. You can find it on Amazon here. Nina Laden wrote many other books that are similar, that would be excellent companion books: Peek-a Zoo, Peek-a Boo (great for Halloween!), Peek-a Choo Choo, and Peek-a Moo! You can watch Peek-a Who here on YouTube, although this book is much more fun in person! Read this book with your child multiple times and choose an activity appropriate for your child’s level to reinforce language!
Language activities:
Questions: When asking questions, be sure you are not overwhelming your child with too many questions at once. Some kids who have a way to respond (either verbally or with pictures) can do better with more questions. If your child is a hesitant speaker, I would recommend making more comments than questions! Ask your child about the vocabulary and pictures in the book. “What do you see/What is this?”, “What can you tell me about owls?”, “Why do you think this page says Peek a Who?”, “What flies in the sky?”, “What does a cow say?”, “Where do we see cows?”, “What does a cow give us?”, “Where does a train travel?”, etc. Talk about all of the animals on the zoo page- can your child name them all? Can they describe the animal?
Sounds! Talk about, model, or ask what sounds different animals – or objects make. Also see if your child can name the item when you make a sound. “What does a cow say?” vs “Show me what says moo!”
Categories: For each page, label the category or ask your child what category/group the picture belongs in. For example, "I see a forrest animal, it's the owl!" vs “What category does owl go to?” Be sure to give options if the child needs extra help- “Does it belong to fruits? What about furniture? Do you think it could be an animal?”, etc. You can then ask what else belongs to forest animals. You can also give a verbal, written, or picture list of items and have them say which doesn’t belong and why. For example, “Cows, pigs, zebras, sheep”, and your child (or you!) would say “zebra doesn’t belong, because it’s a zoo animal”. Categories in this book include forest, farm, and zoo animals, Halloween, transportation/things that go, and people!
Inferencing: Ask your child to guess what the next page will say, you can first try without the picture, and see if your child can come up with a rhyming word, then given them the picture as a hint.
Rhyming words! Try to come up with as many words that rhyme with “who” and “peek”. Other words to rhyme: owl, cow, ghost, snake, and train.
Conversations: "My favorite animal is the owl", “What did you like best?”, “Which is your favorite picture?”, “Did anything surprise you in this book?”
Play:
Put all of these skills together and play a guessing game. One person will pick an item from the book (or at random), and give hints until the other person can guess what it is: “I’m thinking of a zoo animal, it’s a reptile, it can be any color, it slithers and does not have legs, it eats mice, and it rhymes with lake!” hint: pretend you cannot guess and have your child keep giving you hints- even when you know what it is right away.
Play peek a boo– you can hid under a blanket, behind your hands, or behind a favorite toy. If you haven’t read Where Is Baby’s Belly Button, this is also great for playing peek a boo!
Build cognitive skills by hiding objects in your hands or under cups- see if your child can remember which hand or which cup a toy is in after a delay.
Melissa and Doug make super cute reusable stickers that are great for providing plenty of language opportunities- all while having fun! Habitats and vehicles would both be great to go with this book and helping to sort items into categories. I also love using these for prepositions, answering wh questions, and telling stories.
Play board games to work on turn taking and social skills. Check out Hoot Owl Hoot, or Peek-a Who (official book companion game) for cute and simple matching games. For younger or more delayed kids, Seek a Boo is a little easier. Uno Moo is also a cute option for playing games and talking about animals for children who are able to play simple games.
This hide and go game is super cute for using touch to guess what items are, and the toy animals are great for pretend play. Already have toy animals? Put them in an empty kleenex box, and try to guess what they are by feel.
Pretend play: There is so much you can pretend with this book: Pretend you are owls and you can’t find your tree, you are cows living on a farm, a ghost who can’t scare anyone, pretend your family is going on a trip to the zoo, you are animals who have escaped from the zoo, you are a train that lost a train car, etc.
Sensory Bin play! Did you make a fall sensory bin? Add in animals or print animal pictures and put in it and see if your child can find the pictures as you go through the book!
Media:
Watch these songs on YouTube and talk about what you saw, and add on with some more pretend play: Peek-a Boo, Let’s go to the Zoo, Walking in the Jungle, Old MacDonald, The Animals on the Farm, What Do You Hear?
Songs: Listen to songs (if you have an Amazon Echo, it makes it very easy to just ask Alexa to play these songs) Pig on your head, Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.
If this is your first time visiting Mrs Speechie P, welcome!! I give tips to work on speech and language, and Autism regularly on my Facebook and Instagram pages, so be sure to follow me on social media! And if you have any comments or questions, let me know! I’d love to hear from you!
*I am an amazon affiliate and these links will allow me to make a very small amount of money if you purchase through them! I appreciate your support!*