Today's Tip for Families

2026-06-03

Have Your Child Create a 'Book-mercial'

If your family watches an hour of network TV, you'll probably see about 16 minutes of commercials. What if your child could turn one of those minutes into an ad for a favorite book?

Try this activity:

Watch a few TV commercials with your child. Talk about the purpose of commercials—to sell something—and the methods the ads use to try to persuade people. Have your child pay attention to the words used in commercials—such as new, now, special, and fast. Look at the images. Ads often show things like cars going fast and attractive people having a good time.
Have your child make up an ad to "sell" a favorite book. Together, brainstorm about the main points your child wants to make—the book is funny, it is exciting, it includes everything you'd ever want to know about trucks.
Have your child think about what to do to get the viewer's attention. Will your child need props? Costumes?
Have your child time some commercials and then practice presenting the book ad in the same amount of time.

Then when you next watch TV, your child can "sell" the book to the entire family.

Brought to you by:

West Point Consolidated School District