This week our younger children enjoyed our storytelling event ~ the joy and wonder on the children’s faces, as he captured the marvel of the imaginary world, was something to behold.
As a school we firmly believe in the benefits of story-telling and reading aloud to all our classes, from the youngest to the oldest. The whole class story, whether it’s a picture book or extended novel, is an essential part of school life. It is a vital way in which teachers model enthusiasm for reading and allow children to experience the pleasure and joy of hearing the written word, whatever their individual reading level. This experience has a powerful effect on reading achievement and the life-long love of reading. Other benefits of listening to a book being read aloud include:
- Enriching and building an appreciation of language
- Being able to enjoy texts beyond a current level of reading
- Enhancing imagination, knowledge and understanding of real and imagined worlds
- Helping build emotional understanding and empathy, through the characters in the stories
- Having fluent and expressive reading modelled
- Having a shared, positive community experience
- Building the association with reading for pleasure.
Of course it goes without saying that as the primary educator a parent has more influence on a child’s literary experience than anyone else and it is worth remembering that reading aloud to your eleven year old is just as important, in different ways, as to your three year old. We hope the whole family get to enjoy lots of reading over the forthcoming Christmas holiday.