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Need Book Recommendatiolns

Hello!

I'm new to your site and feel bad starting out right off with a question, but I can tell I'm in a community that can help me.

I've recently been asked by the management of the large apartment complex I live in to develop "reading hour" for our tenant's children. Well, considering we have approximately 3000 tenants, there's lots of little ones. I realize that children develop at a rapid rate, so I've propsed so far the following:

1. We'll offer Reading Hours for Certain Ages.

     a. 2-3 year olds

     b. 3-4 year olds

     c. 4-5 year olds

    [this would give 3 and 4 year olds the chance to attend 2 different groups]

2. The "hour" would actually be more like 50 minutes - with plenty of singing, movement, marching

    stretching, etc. throughout the timeframe. I believe that sitting for 50 minutes is much too much

    to ask of children of these ages.

3. We'll offer the groups most likely from 11 - 12 noon.

Now here are my questions:

1. Is it inappropriate for 2 year olds to attend a reading group?

2. Is pre-lunch a good time for these groups? I figure that many take an after-lunch nap or rest, but maybe I'm simply crazy. Would it be better to have them from 3 - 4 pm?

3. MOST IMPORTANT, could any of you recommend your very favorite books (and give me an idea of the proper age of child it would appeal to). The children's librarians around town are VERY helpful, but I want to hear from folks who work with kids daily and I believe your cumulative list will be invaluable. If you do choose to make a recommendation, but see that an earlier poster already added that book, PLEASE REPEAT IT. This will let me know how popular the books are.

Any ideas, criticisms, etc. WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. Trust me, you can't hurt the feelings of a member of law enforcement - we've heard just about everything!!

Thanks to all of you,

Barbara

Image of BarbMarch58 Posted by:
BarbMarch58

Reply from: jodi Date: Oct 13, 2008 at 1:18 am

You have appropriate plans in place and should end up with a great reading hour. Either you know children very well or are getting good advice!

Two year olds are mostly too young, but their parents are not. And many of those parents will welcome a chance to be among other mothers or fathers of young children. I would give this age a try but keep the reading brief and fun, then jump quickly to the more active play you have mentioned. I would give them a reading HALF-hour, encourage parents to sit with the child and participate, and intersperse comments to the parents throughout. The teacher needs to know these children will wander, will talk or stand up, and the teacher needs to be okay with this. It is developmentally right where they are. Some three year olds are similar. The teacher should make eye contact with those children who are listening and be vibrant and dramatic.

An example of a good book for two year olds are the Biscuit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. The teacher can read, then let the children play with balls saying "Biscuit liked his ball didn't he?" Then the teacher could give tips or booklists to the parents as children chased around. Collect the balls and get each parent to bring his or her child back for your second and last story.

Other good books for all preschool ages are:

The Froggy books by Jonathan London
Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley (or any of the many Joy Cowley books)
Puppy Mudge, also Henry and Mudge, by Cynthia Rylant
Mrs. McNosh Hung up the Wash by Sarah Weeks
Jimmy's Boa books by (I believe) Steven Kellogg

Oversized books or Big books would be great

Hope this helps.

Jodi

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Reply from: Laura Compian Date: Oct 13, 2008 at 6:55 pm

Hi Barbara,

Sounds like you are off to a great start! Kudos to you for taking this very important job on. The children (and their parents) will very much appreciate your participation and involvement!

I think that Jodi has provided some great feedback, so I wanted to direct you to some great articles on book recommendations for children that are organized by age or topic: http://www.education.com/topic/best-childrens-book-recommendations/. This section should help you find some developmentally appropriate books.

Good luck!

L. Compian, Ph.D.
Counseling Psychologist
Education.com Reference Team

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Reply from: BarbMarch58 Date: Oct 17, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Thanks to Dr. Laura and Jodi for the GREAT thoughts - it was a great mind reliever to know that I'm not nuts. Jodi, our library has a WONDERFUL selection of oversized books - I just love looking at the pictures myself! I think the idea of keeping actual reading - which will probably be mostly rhyming poems and singing to 20 - 30 minutes and then I LOVED THE IDEA of really having Mom/Dads involved in working with their children and GETTING AN IDEA OF HOW THEIR OWN child interacts with others - that can be a real eye-opener!! We can simple (almost every step is already done) crafts, rolling of balls from parent to child, have each parent tell their child in front of others 3 wonderful things they love about their little one, and a "field trip" to the adult gym, where we'll have pre-designed obstacle courses (VERY SAFE!!) or trafic signals. I write a great deal of my own child education songs and that would be a fun time to sing our "Traffic Color Song" - it's only 12 words; practice the normal Alphabet song and my version of the "Phonemic Alphabet Song" where the kids sing the same song "pattern" but rather than saying, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G. etc." they sing "/A/, /buh/, /cuh/
/duh/, /e/, /ff/,/guh/ - you, know the "sounds" of the letters - using the "soft vowels and the /kuh/ for "C"; and the /guh/ for "G" - They have plenty of time to learn of the long vowels and the different sounds the letters can take on. But kids LOVE doing this - I don't know why - they just get to match up the letter "symbols" with a "sound" - I've then heard from Kindergarten teachers that these little ones do, indeed, pick up the phonics system much earlier.

I really apreciate both of you - and the website was SPECTACULAR!!)

Barb

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Need Book Recommendatiolns