Learning with Magazines

Learning with Magazines

Magazines can be used to develop many skills. Here are two games you can play with your child using magazines to hone their memory, listening, and attention abilities.

Find It!

Objectives

  1. Developing listening skills

  2. Working on memory

How to play

  1. Choose a picture from the magazine – do not show the child what the picture is

  2. Describe the picture to the child

    E.g. I’m looking at a picture of a sports car. A man is sitting in it. The car is a convertible. It’s black in colour and has yellow stripes.

  3. Have the child go through the magazine to look for the picture in question.

  4. You can take turns to be the describer – this can also help the child work on descriptions and adjectives.

Remember It!

Objectives

  1. Working on memory

  2. Working on building attention

  3. Working on verbalizing features remembered

  4. Developing vocabulary

How to play

Option 1

  1. With a partner or more, choose an interesting page on the magazine.

  2. Everyone has the opportunity to look at the magazine for a specified time period, say 3 minutes.

  3. At the end of the specified time (in this case 3 minutes), everyone takes turns to say one thing they remember about the page until one person is “stuck,” i.e having no new details to add on to what has already been said.

  4. If the other players are still able to add new details, the person who was stuck would have to perform a forfeit. (Ideally, the forfeit is decided before hand so that everyone knows what is at stake.)

Note: If your child is able to read and comprehend the article on the selected page, features remembered may include the details from the article. Otherwise, focus on developing their attention and visual memory.

Option 2

If your child is a reluctant writer and you want to work on spelling, this option would be more useful.

  1. With a partner or more, choose an interesting page on the magazine.

  2. Everyone has the opportunity to look at the magazine for a specified time period, say 3 minutes.

  3. At the end of the specified time (in this case 3 minutes), everyone writes everything they remember about the page on a sheet of paper. (You may specify a time period for this if you wish.)

  4. Once all players have completed the task (or once the specified time allocated has lapsed), the lists are compared.

    1. One player volunteers to read out their list

    2. All other players compare the list against theirs

    3. If identical items are mentioned on their list, these items need to be crossed out

    4. The other players read out what’s left of their list

    5. Once all players have read their lists, the lists are compared to check on the number of remaining items, i.e. items that have not been duplicated on any other list

    6. The player with the most remaining items wins