Storytelling Skills for Pre-School Children

Events leading up to Christmas are perfect opportunities to capture and re-tell special times like carols by candlelight, looking at Christmas lights, baking, shopping for presents and visiting Santa. Use photos to help children tell stories in order and add details to develop their narrative skills. Make little books titled, “My Visit to see Santa” and let children have a go at writing and drawing their own pictures. Keep mementos like Christmas cards, photos with Santa and children’s pictures. Encourage them to retell events to Dad, Grandparents, family and friends.

Best Cooked Playdough Recipe

4 cups plain flour
2 cups salt
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
4 cups water
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
food colouring (optional)
scent (optional)

Combine everything in a pot and cook over medium heat.
Stir constantly with a wooden spoon.
You're looking for the dough to start coming away from the sides.
Remove from the heat and let cool.

You could try adding texture; sand or glitter or scents/food essences

Play-based learning website

Free e-books for kids with translations

One of my favourite big books is 'Cat' by Mike Dumbleton, very little text but great for predicting. See link for free e-book, there's also options for other language translations, so if your family is bi-lingual or learning a second langauge together you can listen to the story in:

Arabic

Cantonese

German

Indonesian

Italian

Pitjantjatjara and

Vietnamese
http://www.thelittlebigbookclub.com.au/e-books

Great site for free children's e-books

If you're looking for a great site for children's educational readers, look no further than Oxford Owl. Not only will you find great tips and activities for Reading and Maths, you can search for a book in age category. So, look for a phonics series for your 3-4 yr old or an engaging book for boys 9-11 years. These are perfect for ipads and smart phones.


Oxford Owl



Educational Resources Need Not Be Expensive

Let's face it there are some amazing games and educational resources out there, some of them cost an arm and a leg. I know my own girls had mini toy laptops and interactive alphabet games and resources which I thought at the time were not only important for their development but also essential.

Who remembers good old fashioned alphabet magnets? They are inexpensive, easily manipulated by little hands and with a little direction, can teach many important early reading skills. Alphabet magnets can be purchased from toy stores, discount stores or online. Try Smart Kids or Little Learners Love Literacy to purchase online.

Try the lower case magnets and see if child can identify the sound or locate the letter if you say the sound. Can they generate words beginning with a sound? Or even words that end in a particular sound? You could group alphabet shapes eg. those with a tail - p, g, y, j or use mini whiteboards and marker to write their own sounds.

Early Reading Books by Julia Donaldson

My beautiful sister Shannon has two amazingly adorable teeny tiny daughters,  Miss Bronte Brown (3) and Miss Clara Bear (1). Miss Bronte is of course the brightest and most creative neice of all time. She goes to Kindy every Friday and I love hearing about their strories at mat sessions and all with ipads for each child. She is a little sponge and I thought as her Aunty-Teacher, it would be the perfect time to give her a set of the Oxford Reading Tree readers by Julia Donaldson. The text focuses on early decoding with a good mix of cvc words (top, dig, cat...) and high frequency words (I, the, was, it ...).

Bronte reading 'Oxford Reading Tree' reader

My own gorgeous daughter Miss Olivia sat with Bronte and one of the books and as any good teacher would, helped her sound out the words. She is too clever, she can now blend the sounds to make a word and we're all sure she'll be reading them independently really soon. She just loves books and I'm such a proud Aunty and am so thankful that my beautiful neices have had such a good start to their introduction of books and lifelong reading journey.