LATEST STORIES
Reading and Story Telling
This month the tamariki at BestStart Meadowbank have been into books and storytelling. They spent a lot of time in the book area going through the pages interpreting pictures, telling their own stories, asking an adult to read to them and sharing books with their friends. Some of the books like ‘Where is my teddy?”, “Pig the pug” and books on recycling and composting are the children’s favourites.
Sharing books and reading plays an important role in children’s development. We believe that children who experience and enjoy reading books with others develop a positive attitude towards books. This will help them when they learn to read. Reading, writing, listening, and talking form the basis of children's literacy learning. Children need lots of language together with a wide variety of experiences. Books give them chance to explore their world. Sharing and creating stories about the things they know and do support children’s sense of belonging and values the experiences and knowledge they bring.
We teachers support the children’s interest in books and building literacy by reading and telling stories to them, helping them choose books, providing them a calm ,quiet and inviting reading area. We also encourage them to tell their own stories and support them with words and ideas. Reading and interpreting print is encouraged in other ways like reading a recipe together while baking and writing letters to the family. Librarian Tom visited us too with his amazing collection of books. We thoroughly enjoyed the story and song session with him.