For a few weeks in the Burrow our children have been experiencing looking at stories whilst listening to the sing-a-long CD.
Soraya had brought in a range of stories written by Debbie Harter at Barefoot Books and sung by Fred Penner. We have “A dragon on the doorstep”, “Walking through the jungle” and “The animal boogie”. A quote from the book says “At Barefoot Books, we celebrate art and story with books that open the hearts and minds of children from all walks of life, inspiring them to read deeper, search further, and explore their own creative gifts. Taking our inspiration from many different cultures, we focus on themes that encourage independence of spirit, enthusiasm for learning, and acceptance of other traditions. Thoughtfully prepared by writers, artists and storytellers form all over the world, our products combine the best of the present with the best of the past to educate our children as the caretakers of tomorrow.”
I put the “Dragon on the doorstep” CD on and sat down on the carpet with the story with a small group of children and before long our group got bigger with lots of other burrow children. Throughout the song the children were in complete silence and were completely engaged in looking at the story book and listening to the song. When the song and story had finished some children asked for it again. We’ve listened to the CD’s many times – and I’m sure we (children and burrow staff) all know the words off by heart now!
Part of the EYFS Literacy section, at ages 22-36 months children should ‘have some favourite rhymes, songs, poems or jingles’, ‘repeat words from familiar stories’ and ‘fill in the missing word or phrase in a known rhyme, story or game, e.g. humpty dumpty sat on a wall…’. From 30-50 months ‘enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities’, ‘shows awareness of rhyme and alliteration’ and ‘recognises rhythm in spoken words’.
Now when we listen to the CDs and look at the stories, I pause it after each page and ask the children “What do you see?” or “What’s going to happen next” and they would anticipate which animal would be next. One time when some children were sat listening to the CD and the story, I could actually see a child at the other end of the burrow joining in with the words to one of the stories - there’s a part of the “The animal boogie” story where it says “What you can see stomping its feet? With a stompy stomp here and a stompy stomp there” and the child was actually stomping her feet and singing along whilst enjoying another activity!
These stories and CD’s have proved very popular with the children in the burrow! You can visit their website at www.barefootbooks.com
Thanks for reading
Nicola