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A Child's Place
Play and learning for the whole child.
One of the children brought a picture book from home and shares it with the other children.
Notice the reading strategies: discussion, questioning, looking at prior pages to answer questions, making connections to other books, and noticing other books in the series.
These are all sophisticated reading strategies, an example of the extraordinary skills possessed by these three-year-old children.
Picture books! So fun to read, over and over and over. Especially fun are books that are accessible to toddlers yet complex enough to engage preschoolers with complex ideas.
Books below are either part of a favorite series (Fancy Nancy) or by one of our favorite authors (Audrey Wood). We read these books, many times, and in the first few readings there were few interruptions as kids took in the story, but that changed over time.
On March 12, 2020 I recorded a reading of two stories during breakfast. The kids have heard each of these books many times. Note that they are still clarifying what's happening and making connections to the story even though each is familiar. Also note how I ask and answer questions, give wait time for kids to form questions and answers, and listen carefully (although not perfectly!)
This next book, We're Off to Find the Witch's House (written by Mr. Kreb and illustrated by R. W. Alley) is also versatile. It's especially useful for talking about "pretend", and as a means to help young children understand some of the scary things they see, especially around Halloween. How do you know when something is pretend?
My home recording studio: An iPad above the yellow table. :-)
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