Creative story time with preschool children
Creative story time with early years children is always a great experience this time of the year as many prepare for transition into their first school year ahead.
It is such a wonderful exciting time to share stories and creative time with these young ones as they begin to express their ideas amongst their peers. Young children want to explore and experiment with their own ideas in their own time.
This week I shared two story time sessions with the 3 year old and 4 year old children at Perridak Burron Early Learning Center in Brown Hill, Ballarat, Victoria. We began by making a huge rainbow on the paper rolled across the floor and many of the children took turns to follow the rainbow lines on the story map.
Providing open-ended prompts for young children to respond with drawing materials builds the child’s confidence to express their own voice. Young children thrive on the opportunity to express themselves through story and have natural qualities for sharing and making connections to their own lives and experiences. Positive and open guided inquiry activities allow children to collaborate with their peers at their own pace whilst enjoying social interactions with others.
Inspired by my picture book ‘Follow the Rainbow’, children used their imagination to draw their own interpretation of Ruby, lion or their home .
Those that are still learning to use materials and explore mark making were inspired by collaborative drawing activity as they observed the more confident children who lead new ways of approaching these experiences.
Children made connections to many of the elements of the story by enthusiastically adding their own drawing and mark making to express their ideas.
Some children included drawings of their family, gardens and pets. Using simple book making techniques they used cut paper to decorate their own hand made rainbow books.
Some were keen to begin drawing in their books and continue expressing their storytelling ideas
A special thank you to all the staff and children at Perridak Burron Early Learning Centre for their enthusiastic responses to our special creative storytelling sessions. It was a fun, hands on experience and I enjoyed sharing the morning with these inspiring young artists.
#Perridak Burron Early Learning Centre