At Little Story Shapers, we celebrate books every day in class! We sprinkle ourselves with pretend imagination dust and jump into the wonderful world of story books. By giving stories an extra dimension, making the words jump out of the page, exploring it with all our senses and allowing our little ones to physically act out the story or have the world created around them, we nurture a love of books.
A love books is so crucial for our children because this is the first step to them learning to read themselves. If our little one’s love books, they’ll want to learn to read, they’ll have that desire, and passion for reading. If you’ve got a child that isn’t interested in books and reading, they’re less likely to want to pick up a book and start to learn to read themselves. So you’ve got a challenge from the beginning. Whereas if they love books, they’re going to be curious as to what the words say. From a very young age, children can learn stories off by heart without actually reading but they get the sense that they’re reading and so there’s that amazing feeling of achievement. We can then build on that with their phonological awareness, which we explore in our older classes, and start introducing those letters and early reading skills.
This year we have celebrated World Book Day all week in our baby and toddler classes in Chelmsford, Witham and Braintree. We brought to life the exciting story of Zip and the Magic Rainbow in our sensory classes and took children on an exciting journey into space!
Igniting a love of reading is something I feel extremely passionate about and I was delighted when the Braintree and Witham Times wanted to publish an article promoting all that we do at Little Story Shapers.
While children have tonnes of fun in fancy dress, the day is about more than dressing up, with many parents hoping it will encourage a love of reading.
Sarah Morgan, 36, is a mum to two young children, a former primary school teacher, and now runs her own reading and storytelling classes to build baby and toddlers’ love of reading from a young age.Sarah said: “World Book Day promotes books; it makes reading fun and exciting so we’re instilling that love of books early.
“From my experience of being a primary school teacher, the turning point for children learning how to read themselves is first that love of books.
“If they love books, they’re going to want to read.“ At a young age, they can’t read the words, but they can listen, and if we enthuse and inspire them and create imaginary worlds, they’re going to love picking up a book.”
Sarah founded Little Story Shapers five years ago and runs the storytelling and drama classes in Witham, Braintree and Chelmsford.
The main aim of the classes is to promote a love of reading and shape early reading skills, whilst also building confidence, communication skills and creativity through the storytelling elements.
She works closely with local author Justin Townsend, the author of Zip and Friends book series where the loveable pup journeys to find the different coloured arches of the rainbow. Sarah said: “This week we’re going to space, which is the arch of orange.
“We’ve been going to the moon, building rockets, singing nursery rhymes like ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We’re Going To The Moon’, and all different activities.
“The resources are on my website for parents to download, and I have other resources about how you can bring storybooks to life at home—like having a roleplay tea party when reading ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’.
“The children are going to be curious and hear the vocabulary as their parents read to them, which leads brilliantly to them being able to read themselves—because they’ll have the desire to want to read.”
Parents can enjoy trials of Sarah’s classes, with more information and storytelling resources on her website: www.littlestoryshapers.co.uk.
