Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Halloween is just around the corner. If you celebrate Halloween, and even if you don't I would like to suggest the book Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley as a read aloud to your child.

Go Away,Big Green Monster! is a book of cut-out pages that page by page reveal a monster and then page by page make it disappear. The simple cuts and the bold colors appeal to both young children and old. It is as much of a delight to read to groups of children as it is to just one child snuggled up on your lap.

You can get a free printable pattern here that you can use to make pieces for a craft, or to create your own feltboard story. See craft example below.

Storytelling

Telling stories to children helps them to be ready to learn to read at school. Children need lots of experience listening to stories of many different varieties. Stories can be made up or true. They can be written down to told orally. Either way, they are a valuable component of early literacy development. They help children learn to:

- concentrate and focus their attention
- make predictions and comparisons - how does this story compare to other stories your child has heard or their real life experiences?
- use their imagination - they may need to picture the story in their mind if there are no props
- recognize new words - build vocabulary

Here are some tips you can use to keep your child's interest while you're reading:

- be enthusiastic
- use facial expressions
- give voices to characters
- change the tone in your voice (quiet, loud)
- use gestures
- add dramatic sounds ("and the door shut, BANG!"
- pause for effect
- ask your child to help you tell the story by filling in spots or making sounds
- add a surpirse to the ending
- keep it short
- make the story about your child or something they are interested in


Here is the story of The Gingerbread Boy. It is a perfect story for oral storytelling!



SOURCE: Macaulay Child Development Centre, Lullabies to Literacy

Something from Nothing

Recently, I have started a storytime at Indigo Books for children birth to six years old. Our first story together was Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman.

For those of you who arent' familiar with the story...it's the retelling of a Jewish folktale. A boy recieves a blanket from his grandfather when he is born. Eventually, it starts to wear so grandpa fixes it by making it into a jacket. When the jacket gets worn it becomes a vest, then a tie, then a handkerchief, and finally a button. One day Joseph loses his button. He is so sad. Even his amazing grandfather can't make something from nothing. The next day Joseph goes to school and writes a story (presumably about his blanket and its many transformations).

It is a truly a beautiful story with plenty of repetition for youngsters to join in. To make my storytime interesting, I tried to provide many opportunities for children to interact with the book. I brought a measuring tape for them to touch (just like the one on the grandfather's neck on the cover of the book and related the book to their lives by asking if they have something special like Joseph's blanket.

I used feltboard pieces to help tell the story and encourage children to fill in the blanks, "There's just enough material here to make...a wonderful jacket".

After the story, I made a connection to the book Owen by Kevin Henkes, but we did not have time to read it. This book is somewhat similar because both have a blanket that carry a lot of sentiment. It differs in that Owen is not allowed to bring his blanet to school because he is too old. The resolution is that they make a handkerchief for him to keep in his pocket.

Before leaving, I pulled out a bunch of items I am recycling (a tin can, mesh from oranges, a piece of cardboard) and asked the children if they could make "something from nothing". There were some very creative ideas! The CCCF handout Creating Toys and Activities for Children from Beautiful Junk was given to parents to give suggestions that can be used at home.

Here is a suggestion on how you can use this story in big book format to teach.

What the heck are narrative skills?

Yesterday I wrote about finger puppet pouches. I mentioned that they are great for building your child's narrative skills, but didn't elaborate. Well, narrative skills are one of the six essential skills children need before they can learn to read.

What are Narrative Skills?

Learning to tell a story helps children develop thinking and comprehension skills. Picture book sharing can play a huge role in a child’s ability to describe things and events and to tell stories. Reading storybooks helps children gain a sense of story structure: a beginning, a middle (or problem) and an end (or resolution). Narrative Skills involve the ability to describe things and events, and to tell stories. They help children understand what they read.


It's about…

- Retelling stories.
- Retelling events.
- Adding descriptions.
- Telling stories or events in sequence.


What can parents and caregivers do to help children learn narrative skills?

Read favourite books again and again.

Stories help children understand that things happen in order first, next, last. Being able to tell or retell a story help children understand what they read.

- Use props from around home to help your child remember and retell stories.
- Encourage your children to say repeated words along with you as you read.
- Have your child do actions as they repeat a phrase along with you as you read.
- Use fewer books and expand on the more.
- Use the dialogic reading. Click here or here for more information.

Why do we do a story retell? Click here.

What book does your child like to read again and again?

Storytime Share blog

Are you an early learning professional who presents a storytime program on a regular basis? Are you a parent looking for ideas on what to do when you're reading/what books are best for your child? Go to:

Storytime Share

Storytime Share, by Early Childhood Literacy Consultant Saroj Ghoting, is available to, "offer and to exchange ideas regarding storytimes that ARTICULATE early literacy information to adults. See Submit an Idea to submit your ideas and/or documents of handouts and/or whole storytime plans. You can search, or browse by category or date."

Let me know what you think. :)

I Went Walking

I Went Walking by Sue Williams is a great story for young children. It's rhythm is similar to the classic book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle. It's got lots of rhyme and repetition, which are also essential components of an awesome children's book. Children love using felt boards to tell stories. It gives them something to hold in their hands and encourages participation.

Below are some feltboard pieces I made to use with the the story I Went Walking. I traced the outlines of the animals onto non-fusable interfacing (from Fabricland) using a thin Sharpie marker. I coloured the pieces using pencil crayons. The patterns come from Liz and Dick Wilmes' 2's Experience Felt Board Fun.


I have searched high and low on the internet and I have been unable to find the EXACT feltboard story pattern for you to print. Instead, you can either trace the animals out of the story book or trace farm animals out of a colouring book.




It's handy to have a set of felt board farm animals because they can be used in so many ways. If you don't have time to do this, simply use toys if you have access to a farm set - it will have the same effect. Only you will notice if you don't have the exact pieces that match the story!

Here are a couple of songs I have used with the felt board farm animals I made. I have left the links to the lyrics below the songs.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm
http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/macdonald/mlyrics.htm

We're On Our Way to Grandpa's Farm
http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/grandpasfarmmarla.php

Are there any other great farm songs readers can add to their repertoire?