A story book I absolutely love to share with preschoolers is Old Hat New Hat by Stan Berenstain.
As sensory learners, they love the feel of the small board book version as it fits ‘just right’ into their little hands. The vocabulary is so accessible that they can quickly learn the descriptive words for all the different hats in the book.
Children love stories that make them laugh and they love to enjoy a good laugh with their parents, teachers, friends, and family at something silly, like all the different hats in this book. The all-time favourite is definitely the silly hat in this book. They love taking a turn to look at the silly hat page and laugh out loud. These simple, happy spontaneous moments are so important to savor with little ones, and it can make a story-telling experience so much more meaningful to young children when we flow with them at their pace. Sometimes, they really want and need that extra moment to look at a particular picture, or point out something they noticed.
I love to make a good engaging story into a sensory activity as well. I collect as many types of hats as we can find, and put these in a box. Initially, we pass the box around and I let them each pick one and I give them a moment to say what type of hat it is. Sometimes they will copy a phrase from the book like “Too pointy”. (Little party hats are good ones to save for this story telling activity). Others come up with their own original descriptions of their chosen hat that are always a fun surprise. Children also enjoy bringing a hat from home to show the rest of the group and tell them all about its story. Hats of different textures are fun for preschoolers to touch and describe.
As an invitation to engage with the story, I might also put the little board book on top of our little hat box in the book corner because children learn best when they are fully engaged and most of all, having fun!