Family-friendly activities for at-home learning

Created by Bridget Chase (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 09, 2020
4 min read

The FirstVoices team wants to support language learners with fun and creative ways to practice your languages at home, so we have come up with a list of eight family-friendly games and activities for at-home learning using your community's FirstVoices website. If you enjoy any of the activities below, or you have ideas for other innovative ways to use FirstVoices, please feel free to share your thoughts with hello@firstvoices.com. Connection and community is important, now more than ever, and we would love to hear from you.

Language Labelling

Instructions:

  1. Find the Human Things/Activities on your FirstVoices website and using the words available either print flashcards or write words that relate to items around your house onto sheets of paper/sticky notes
  2. Stick the pieces of paper to the objects so that they act as labels
  3. As you walk around your house throughout the day, practice saying the words out loud
  4. Challenge yourself, family members and roommates to remember what words are, without looking at the labels



Scavenger Hunt

Instructions:

  1. Print out the Scavenger Hunt guide or write the questions on a piece of paper
  2. Explore your community's FirstVoices website or a FirstVoices website for a related language to find the answers

Click to download the Scavenger Hunt questions to print.


Charades

Instructions:

  1. Pick a category on your FirstVoices website. For example: Animals
  2. Write down words in that category on pieces of paper and put the pieces of paper in a hat
  3. Take turns picking pieces of paper from the hat and acting out the words, with the other person guessing what word is being acted out



Shadow Puppets

Instructions:

  1. Find the Animals category on your FirstVoices website, and print or write out the words for different animals
  2. Then, in a dark room, shine a flashlight or a lamp against a bare wall
  3. Make shadow puppets with your hands of the different animals you have the words for
  4. If you have two or more people playing, take turns guessing which animal the person is making with their shadow puppet


Here is an instructional video on how to make shadow puppets to get you started. But feel free to get creative!



Superstar Chef

Instructions:

  1. Find the Food category on your FirstVoices website and using the words available, make a pretend grocery list.
  2. You can use the following list as a guide:
    1. Find a vegetable or fruit
    2. Find a type of meat or fish
    3. Find something salty
    4. Find something sweet
    5. Find something to drink
    6. Find a herb, spice, condiment or garnish
  3. Now that you have all of your ingredients, make a menu for your make-believe dinner. It can be as silly, delicious or gross as you want!

Click to download the Superstar Chef menu to print.


Go Fish

Instructions:

  1. Print out the Go Fish help sheets or draw them on a sheet of paper
  2. Fill out the white boxes under each card with that card's number in your language
    1. For Ace, you can write your word for "one", or pick a fun word instead
    2. For Jack, Queen and King, you can pick fun words instead
  3. Play Go Fish, using the help sheets as a reminder of how to say each number in your language
  4. Bonus points if you rename the game in your own language (You can pick the name of a fish in your language!)

Click here for instructions on how to play Go Fish

Click to download the Go Fish help sheets to print.


I Spy...

Instructions:

  1. Find the Colours category on your FirstVoices website
  2. Using the words available, take turns finding things around you that are different colours saying "I spy with my little eye, something that is _____", inserting the colour in your language at the end
  3. Take turns guessing what the other person has spied



Family Connections

Instructions:

  1. Find the Human Relations category on your FirstVoices website and using the words available, make a family tree or a family collage
  2. You can draw pictures of your family members or print photos, and arrange them however you want to show how different people are related
  3. Underneath each picture, find the word in your language that relates to that person (brother, mother, grandmother, etc.) and write it underneath


Other ways to use FirstVoices at home