Children build on background knowledge in many ways.  Role play is one way to enhance a child's knowledge of his world and the way it works.  In the books shared this week, we explored a concept familiar to most - the delivery of mail.  We showed the children two types of letters, one in a traditional envelope and one in a large manila envelope.  Though most were not familiar with the manila envelope, they were able to see commonalities between the two. We took this to another level and discussed the parts of the letter - the address, the return address, and the stamp.  Once the children were exposed to this knowledge, we had fun with a role play activity, having the children pick a letter from the "mailbag", deliver it to the corresponding stuffed animal, pick up the return mail, and sort it into one of two mailboxes, "H" (for Miss Heather) and "J" (for Miss Janice). Since many children learn best by "doing" rather than "listening", this type of activity is a great way to promote learning in a fun way!

In the book, Allie All Along, we explored emotions, a topic that can be difficult to discuss/understand.  Concepts that are not physical in nature (abstract concepts) provide a unique challenge and this book does a good job of showing how anger can erupt and then dissipate in steps.  The shedding of each layer/color of fur physically represented the abstract concept of anger.  The children asked great questions that could be further explored on a one-to-one basis, creating a great follow up activity to our storytime discussion.

It is fun to explore letters using toys, magnets, stencils, etc. but it's also fun to explore letters on the covers and within the pages of books.  The wide variety of fonts help children see that a letter can look different in style, but still convey a particular sound and shape.  At storytime this week, we held up our two featured titles to see if the children could predict what our stories would be about.  This week was tricky because the title, This is My Book!, did not have a picture of a book on the book. After a few tries, Miss Heather guided the children to discover a common word between the two titles - "BOOK." The discovery that the word "book" is made up of individual letters that combined spell "book" was a discovery for some and a reminder for others.

To assist children in developing an appreciation and enjoyment of books, it is important to share a wide variety of books. If a child shows interest in a particular topic, try to find an age appropriate nonfiction book on the subject.  The book Who Likes the Rain? by Kaner, is a combination of fiction (story) and nonfiction (fact), and during the storytime reading of this book, we shared only a few pages of the factual material due to the length of the book and the need to keep things moving along.  At home, you could do the same, or you could explore the book in its entirety, depending on your child's attention span and interest.  It would also be fun to take a "field trip" outside after a rain storm to look for some of the things mentioned in the book, like worms!!