There are so many benefits to reading with children…
But it can be difficult to keep a group of children engaged! Here are a few ways to make your story times more likely to bring children in and offer them the benefits that books can bring.
- Choose high quality literature. If you’re bored reading it, they’ll be bored listening. Look for interesting illustrations, distinctive characters, fun rhythm and rhyme, and relatable elements.
- Keep the books that get a good response, and shelve the ones that don’t capture their interest yet. Rotate books out when they’re getting stale and keep trying.
- Use your local library to keep an active rotation and try out new authors, illustrators, and genres. Plus, children’s librarians may have suggestions for books to read next.
- Books belong everywhere. Yes, a bookshelf or basket of books is important for children to have access to, but keep books about physics and great buildings with the blocks, keep books about plants in a waterproof box outside, and keep cookbooks with your play kitchen.
- Story time isn’t a set time— it’s whenever someone wants to read! Allowing children to engage with books when they’re interested and ready, and children who are allowed to freely choose when to listen to a story will enjoy them more. Plus, you can’t always tell who’s paying attention just based on where their body is– plenty of educators have heard a child across the room join in the chorus of a story.
What’s your favorite book to read with a group of children?
Bringing or building musical instruments outside can be a great way for children to practice coordination, creativity, rhythms, and tones in a setting that allows them to create a great range of auditory experiences.
To deepen children’s thinking, encourage them to hit different parts of their drum with the stick to see if the sound changes; note when they make louder/softer sounds, and how the achieved it; and help them to create and test hypotheses about how changing their instrument will change the effect (i.e. what would happen if you put a leaf on your drum, and hit that with the drum stick?). By exploring these different traits of the music they create, children are learning about differences in tone and volume, two important concepts within musicianship. As they drum and dance, they are also practicing bilateral coordination (moving both sides of their bodies at the same time), a big skill for pre-writing.
Your instruments don’t need to be complicated. Some boxes and sticks can go a long way! Consider also including recycled cans (with sharp edges covered!), making shakers from water bottles and beads, or wooden spoons —see LOTS more ideas for a variety of ages here.