March - World Book Day

Each Year throughout nursery, we celebrate World Book Day! We look at the importance of reading in Early Years and consistently refer to the current EYFS framework regarding lanuage and communication (literacy) Please see below: 

Communication and Language
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of
learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early
age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number
and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the
day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children
are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary
added, practitioners will build children's language effectively. Reading frequently
to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems,
and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new
words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through
conversation, story-telling and role play, where children share their ideas with
support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites
them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary
and language structures.

Literacy
It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of
two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language
comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only
develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the
books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and
songs together. Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy
working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the
speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription
(spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring
them in speech, before writing).

This year, the children were encouraged to attend nursery dressed as their favourite character from a book. We spoke about lots of different stories and shared some together during our nursery session. Garden room discussed their favourite stories and why in their family group times, remembering to listen and respect the opinions of others. Sunshine room learnt new vocabulary in relation to story books such as the "title" "blurb" and "spine". Whilst Rainbow room enjoyed interactive stories using animation and soft play puppets. We also held an inclusive sensory story in Forest School of "We're going on a bear hunt"...we came across some long wavy grass, a cold river, a muddy ditch, a leafy path and a dark cave...this is where we found the bear! We ran away as quickly as we could. Then we realised it was only Emma, and she was just pretending to be a bear!