Category: Blog

Snow Bears by Martin Waddell with its lovely illustrations by Sarah Fox-Davies is a beautiful children’s story that I have enjoyed reading with my preschoolers over and over again, especially on cold days that are perfect for getting warm and cozy.  The timing of when to have story time can make a big difference in […]

This month I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the delightful children’s story book Never Say ‘No’ to a Princess! by Tracey Corderoy and published by Alison Green Books with my preschoolers. This children’s book does makes a fantastic teaching tool as it subtly and beautifully highlights the importance of manners and being polite for young children […]

It’s that time of year when we are starting to practice with our preschoolers for their graduation ceremony.his year, I tried something new to help the little ones understand visually what we were practicing and preparing for. I set up some chairs in the space where their visiting families will sit on the day of […]

I like to keep our story-telling times interesting and a bit different so from time to time I’ll play an audio version of a classic children’s story for our story time. An important key to successful and meaningful story times with young children is keeping them engaged. This week the children selected the audible story […]

My preschoolers love hearing the Ladybird Books Reader Level 1 version of ‘The Enormous Turnip’ and request to hear it over and over. Very young children engage with hearing language in a story in a unique way and they enjoy the repetition of familiar phrases as the pages of the story progress. As they are […]

Different parts or pictures of a story will appeal to different children, every child is so unique. An important part of being a good story-teller is just listening to the different ways that young children communicate their interests, noticing these, and responding to them. Children need us to allow them to linger in the different […]

Young children seem to have a natural soft spot for baby animals. Judy Waite’s children’s picture book The Storm Seal (Magi Publications, 1998)does a fantastic job of appealing to this innate interest in young children. When a story has captured children’s interest, they need time to linger in the part of the story that they […]

For the very young child with limited life experiences, there may be quite a few different places pictured in children’s picture books that they have not yet been to and experienced for themselves.  Just looking at pictures of mountains, beaches, lakes, farms, etc. can sometimes lack a meaningful connection for the very young child who […]

For young children to learn to take good care of books and treat them well, they need to see good role models in their environment. If a book has torn pages or a damaged cover, or if they see books left on the floor to be stepped on, this reinforces poor habits regarding the care […]

Here is a simple arts and crafts idea I did with my preschoolers for Easter. They love making cards to bring home on special occasions. I folded and piece of white card and cut it in the shape of an oval. This is a good time to introduce them to the name of this shape […]