Book Recommendations for Pre-schoolers
- Posted by spectrum
- On October 7, 2021
- 0
Book reading is a great way to develop language skills, develop early literacy skills and are a lot of fun! Research has shown that book reading leads to better language and literacy outcomes and is a great way to teach more, unique vocabulary to children. While book reading, children are exposed to new words that they may not hear otherwise.
Types of books to read:
Repetitive & Predictable books with repetitive language can help catch your child’s interest and help them remember the important words and sentences.
Brow Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? By Bill Martin Jr.
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
I Went Walking by Sue Williams
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Where is the Green Sheep? By Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
Interactive Books that contain flaps, touch and feel pages or pop ups are a great way to get children to interact and request help with books.
Where’s Spot? By Eric Hill
Where’s My Touch and Feel series
Hide and Seek books
Simple Story Books with stories with a clear beginning, middle and end make it easy for your child to follow along and understand the story. You can always simplify the story by just talking about the pictures to begin with.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen
Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey
The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland
Adding Language to Books
• Describing what is happening: whilst reading the books it is important to use a variety of word (nouns, verbs, adjectives) to describe the pictures so your child is exposed to a variety of different words.
• Expanding on your child’s language: when your child says something about the book try and expand on what they have said e.g., If your child says ‘sheep’ you can say ‘Yes, the sheep is sleeping in the bed!’
• Predictions: as your child gets older, you can talk about what they think might happen next in the story and make predictions.
• Feelings: book reading is a great opportunity to talk about how other people are thinking and feeling and why they are feeling this way. You can also relate the experiences in the book to what they have experienced to solidify they’re understanding.
• Re-reading books: don’t be afraid to re-read books as this can help continue to build vocabulary and increases children’s confidence as they know what is coming and will be able to answer your questions.
Read and re-read some new books and try some of these strategies today!