NURSERY
Since I was a child, I’ve always been fascinated with reading fairy tales. There was just something so enchanting about being able to read a book and being able to transport myself to another world and time.
Fairy Tales are essential stories for childhood. These stories are more than just happily ever after, they portray real moral lessons through characters and virtue shown in the stories.
They do not only captivate the imagination of young minds, but also enhance their creativity and reasoning skills. Fairy tales teach children about decisions, consequences and morals. These morals can be taught through Understanding the World’ and PSHE e.g. stealing is wrong, the good will prevail, don’t talk to strangers, don’t walk home alone, etc. Children can learn that poor decisions can have negative consequences through such tales.
This week in Nursery the children enjoyed the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We looked at the different materials that houses can be made from. The decision was unanimous that the brick house was the strongest! We learned many language skills through the story, including repeated refrains ’not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin’ and the sequencing of the story using pictures.
We looked at possible different endings to the story and decided that if the first two little pigs had made a good choice when choosing their building materials, the story might have ended differently.
We became totally involved in making the houses of ‘The Three Little Pigs’.
Please enjoy our creations showcased in the photographs. Be sure to read our post next week for our next exciting fairy tale.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Albert Einstein
In fairytales, anything can happen and children learn to think beyond expected boundaries. Learning about faraway lands and different ways to solve problems can help children develop creative ways of solving their own problems.
Fairy tales make reading fun
Having fun reading and enjoying books is one of the first steps in developing a life-long love of reading. When children read stories that they enjoy, they are more likely to like reading and want to read. I truly believe that my love/obsession with fairy tales as a child motivated me to read more challenging novels throughout my school years.
Fairy tales teach children about story structure
Understanding how stories work is important to developing reading comprehension. Fairy tales follow a clear beginning (once upon a time…), middle (problem) and an end (and they lived happily ever after). Understanding story structure helps children learn how to tell a story and develops their thinking and understanding skills.
When choosing fairy tales, it is important to consider your child’s age and mental readiness. Sometimes, some fairy tales can be too scary for children. If you need assistance, library staff are available to help you and your child choose great books, so just ask!
RECEPTION
This week has been another very busy week in Reception. We have had such fun reinforcing our number formation by doing rainbow numbers. We put a big emphasis on reading in our class, and love sharing books as we read with our friends. Counting objects and starting to do addition kept us busy in the mornings. We practise our cutting skills daily so that we strengthen our hand control and finished our masks this week. We loved listening to different versions of The Three Little Pigs and discussing how the stories are different. We coloured, cut out and sequenced the story and made a straw house, a house made of sticks and a brick house.
