Storytelling is one
of the great joys of working with young children.
The more we read to and with children, the more words they hear and understand.
Books broaden children's vocabulary
and provide them with an understanding of sentence structure.
This sets them on the right path to be fluent
lifelong readers.
In this section, we're talking about reading comprehension
and particularly focusing on the variety of books that we provide children
as you both know children should be read to many times every day
because it's absolutely essential that we help children
to develop a love of stories and a love of books.
Lifelong skill. From a very young age, children can form
really strong attachments to particular books.
How do you actually help children to have
a variety of books in your settings?
In the nursery have lots of different styles of books, different types of books.
So in the construction area, we might have some maps,
maybe some books on different buildings.
We also then, say in the home corner, we might have cookery books,
so that they've got that example. And it's purposeful,
so it's a sort of book
style that you might need if you're cooking something in the home corner.
Do you have a range of different languages and books?
Yes, we do. Yeah.
We've also had parents come in
and do storytelling in different languages as well,
which has been great for the child to have it in their home language
to then obviously share that with their peer group.
The next section I'd like us
to just chat about is how we vary tone and expression.
So when we're reading to children, it means that
we can use the different voices, intonation and facial expressions.
It's actually the fun part,
isn't it, of sharing books and rhymes with children.
It helps the children to begin to engage with the story.
It also helps them to anticipate what might happen next
and to become riveted and absolutely, really engaged
in that print and what's happening through story and rhyme.
Would you like to share some of the examples that you do in your practice?
Lots of books have different characters in, so it's taking on that
character, taking on different voices for that character,
different tones.
So if it is a giant, a big, booming voice, obviously.
And the children really relate to that
and then they can help associate it with the different characters in the book.
We did a magic cooking pot story
the other day and we got some porridge and we mixed it up.
And the little girl turned around and said, that one's just right.
So she's bringing the story of the of the magic cooking pot into our wordplay
and our stories and our acting out the magic cooking pot story.
And do you ever provide more than one copy of particular stories?
We have lots of copies of the same book, so the children can read alongside each
other, particularly when we've got maybe a new child settling in and they buddy up,
you know,
with one of our children that's already settled
so that they can share and point out similar
parts of the story they like and things like that.
When you're doing all this beautiful sharing of books and turning pages.
How do you actually get the children to engage with the print or the pictures?
How do you do that and develop that?
Quite often the older age range, you will be running your finger along
the words. Quite often see one of their letters that they can see
in from their name and they'll point out to you
and or they'll be shouting out the words as well.
Or you you sort of pause a bit as the next
page is coming along, you're pausing, waiting for them to join in
and shout the words that you know they know.
We all use books lots of times, but how do you actually help children
to understand the certain characteristics
that come with the full range of books throughout your setting?
So obviously, even from a young age,
you're encouraging children to open the book correctly.
You're role modelling and teaching them how to turn the pages.
You know,
like we were saying about you pointing to words
you're doing the left to right, so they're understanding how a book would flow.
We also talk about the book's title,
and how that's put on the front, the author,
and the illustrations sometimes,
so that they're learning all those different parts
that make up a book.
Through books and reading, children
learn to think, reflect and talk about what they have heard
and can see. Both fiction and nonfiction, broaden children's horizons,
introducing them to new ideas and helping them make sense of the world.
When reading and storytelling,
children respond
well to adults using different voices, intonations and facial expressions.
This helps to make reading more engaging and memorable
as they begin to recognise books, distinguish between characters
and have an instinctive sense of the developing story.
Reading and storytelling should happen many times a day
and be thoroughly interactive during the early years.
Sing rhymes, play games, recall events and let children play together with books.
Sharing books helps develop children's conversation and vocabulary as they notice,
wonder, name and show curiosity about the different worlds
books can open up.
Make sure the books you have portray a diversity of characters and experiences
and introduce children to nonfiction books and online sources, too.
It is important to choose books, stories and rhymes to extend children's knowledge
of words and phrases that they do not normally hear in everyday speech.