The four-year-old children in the Chapple Room have been experiencing these skills this week in a variety of engaging forms. The use of “Big Talk” gives the children the chance to develop their confidence in showing an object of their choice to the class. This also allows their audience the opportunity to grow their listening, comprehension, and questions skills.
Waves by Suzy Lee is a glorious picture book without words that tells the story of a girl’s day at the beach with a mischievous sea. The children added their dialogue, demonstrating comprehension and story structure. They used musical instruments to interpret the mood of the sea.
Shadow puppets enabled the children to retell the familiar tale of the Little Red Hen. They then created their props to tell other stories to their peers. Creativity was in great evidence when the story of the Wave made a reappearance, this time with a surfing hen. This imagination and structure were further enhanced by using the story cubes. The children roll the picture dice and then choose the images to form a story that they tell their peers.
This wide array of activities gives the children the initial building blocks to become successful readers.