Building Ourselves A Book At A Time

You can find magic wherever you look.

Sit back and relax, all you need is a book!

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Each day, in the wonderful world of kindergarten, we all stop to read books.

Now, don't get us wrong. We read books all day, whenever we want. 

But right after lunch, with content bellies and bodies, we all read.

We read with friends.

We read in groups.

We read the story of pictures and find letters whose sounds we know.

We read on laps and beside each other.

We wait with anticipation for 'our book' to be next.

We discuss and ask our capable friends questions.

We relax and excitedly share new-found knowledge. 

 

We discover that all the pictures start with the same sound.

We have conversations and make plans to follow our interests.

We help each other and learn the important skill of listening.

We reach for our favourite book, discover more, and explain.

We learn the conventions of book reading.
Left to right.
Pictures match words.
The cover gives clues.

We gain confidence and view ourselves as readers.

We point out the silliness in our story.

We point out the silliness & the sounds.

We grab both copies of our favourite and invite a friend to join us.

We form rich relationships with reading buddies (and teachers and reading).

We re-tell stories.
Another convention of book reading.

We become familiar with font and print for different purposes.
More conventions of book reading.

We let book reading carry us into revisiting our day and connecting our memories.

We reach for our favourite book and listen to our friend's discovery.

We match our book with the one we wrote to match it.

The more we connect with books, 
the more we develop a rich relationship with reading,
the more we value the joy a book spreads,
then
we become lifelong book lovers,
then 
our vocabulary grows like a pumpkin gains speed rolling down a hill,
then 
the more words we know, the more words we will know and understand,
then 
emergent literacy will have led to early literacy and lead us confidently on the path to effective literacy.

But... for now, we'll just call it our after lunch book time.

Our love of books

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully 

as those we spent with a favourite book.

~ Marcel Proust ~

 

Our Love of Books

So please, oh PLEASE, we beg we pray,

go throw your TV set away.

And in its place you can install,

a lovely bookshelf on the wall.

~ Roald Dahl ~

Books do more than just exist on the bookshelf in the wonderful world of kindergarten.

Books are everywhere.

 

From the Science Centre to the House Centre, books meet the children's wonder

and kindle their knowing.

Children bring in books from home and share their knowledge and interests 
with their friends.

 

After having been read by the teacher, books find their way back into the children's hands as they retell themselves the stories.

Quiet moments of shared story-telling connect children to each other and what they know.

Familiar stories and puffy props help the children put their stories in order.

Books in the hands of knowledge builders tell us what they want to know.

When our love of books begins young...

It lasts a lifetime!

Reading For The Love Of It

"You're never to old, too wacky, too wild,

to pick up a book and read to a child."

~ Dr. Seuss ~

When you read to children... they feel they are worth your time.  You get to talk about the pictures.  You get to talk about the story.  You get to hear what they know.

When children read together, they make connections with each other.  They share ideas.  They expand their vocabulary.  They increase their enjoyment of 'reading for pleasure'.  Reading for pleasure not only increases literacy, vocabulary and spelling, it also enhances math abilities!

Conversations are one of the best parts of opening a book with children.  

We might finish the story, we might not finish it at all! The children may retell the story to each other. We explore new words, look at details of pictures, make predictions, learn about each other's heritage, find out about new worlds.

Mostly though, reading for the love of it is one of the best indicators that someone will be a life-long learner.  

And one of the best ways to ensure that a child will read for the love of it... is if they see the adults in their lives reading for the love of it!