“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales.” – Albert Einstein
Thank you, Spidey for another thought-provoking quote.
He knew I have been thinking about reading for a long while and coupled with the amazing posts about reading to children from Jennie, over on her blog, it spurred me on to chase for something I truly believe in.
Jennie is a kindergarten teacher in the USA and I always marvel at her posts about the importance of reading to her class, where she even reads chapter books to her extremely young children.
I’ve often said to her that I would dearly love to do that, but with the intake of children we have in our nursery, the English language knowledge is so low that introducing them to picture books, where they have a wealth of imagery to help their understanding of the words I then read is more than enough stimulation. ( I haven’t really mentioned this year’s intake, but suffice to say, sitting for a five-minute story, complete with all the voices, and props, is tough… let alone a chapter book!)
However, as I was last year, I am also teaching in the Reception class which is the next year up.
Something our deputy head had said a few years back really stays in my mind. Upon being told that some older children, because of their English being poor, were taken out of class during spelling time, to concentrate on the simple cvc words, meaning they missed out on hearing new vocabulary, said “Let them stay. Let them hear those words. They may not know them now but somewhere in their subconscious, those words will sit, and one day they will be able to use them too. Yes, test them on the simple, but expose them to everything.”
Makes sense.
I took the bull by the horns last week, and mentioned to my Phase Leader that I really felt reading chapter books to the children, alongside picture books, would be really beneficial. We would be introducing them to new vocabulary, and hopefully watering the seeds in their imagination with the words, so they could learn to build images up in their minds, and hopefully, ignite their curiosity so that great conversations are started, after listening to the books we choose to read.
Thankfully, she was really excited about the idea. We are starting a topic about Bears next week, so I suggested Winnie the Pooh by A.A, Milne. I still have my box set of books from my childhood to read to them! Possibly even Paddington Bear if we get through it!
She was enthusiastic, so hopefully, as of tomorrow, I shall be reading something different to the children, something they may not have even seen before, and I hope I can help water their creativity.
Let us fuel their imagination so we can create the writers of the future.
So… tell me, which chapter book would you recommend for young readers? 😘
Have a peaceful Sunday Peeps ❤ And enjoy your week!
But I Smile Anyway... 