10 Book Based Learning Ideas
Over the past few weeks, schools, kindergartens and early learning centres all over Australia have been celebrating Book Week. Book Week is all about celebrating books as well as authors and illustrators. It’s a fantastic week and great to see young learners getting excited about books! We just celebrated Book Week at our kindergarten so I thought it would be a great time to share some of my favourite book-based learning ideas that I have implemented over the past year or so. Book-based learning offers so many learning opportunities for children and they can truly engage with the book on a deeper level and develop fantastic pre-literacy skills. The following ideas allow children to learn through play and engage in hands-on learning.
- Please Mr Panda
‘Please Mr Panda’ by Steve Antony is a book all about the importance of using manners. Over the years, I have loved using this book at group time to spark discussions and give children reminders about the importance of using manners such as “please” and “thank you”. We engaged in an art experience where we made our own donuts to complement this book. The donut bases were made out of recycled cardboard boxes and the children used paint for the icing and strips of paper and glitter for the sprinkles! On the back of our donuts, we wrote when we should use our manners. For example “I say thank you when…” and “I say please when…” A great book to inspire art works and give children a friendly reminder about the importance of manners!
2. The Rainbow Fish
‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister is an all time favourite among my kindergarteners. A lovely book about sharing and friendship. We did a range of activities around this book including this Rainbow Fish playdough. An invitation to create Rainbow Fish was set up using sequins, googly eyes, blue playdough and heart shaped playdough cutters. This hands-on book based learning activity allowed us to develop our fine motor skills as well as explore our creativity and engage with ‘The Rainbow Fish’.
3. Roadworks
My kindergarten class is BIG on anything construction. This year, we have done ‘Letter/Sound of the Week’ and for ‘Rr Week’ I set up this Roadworks table for my construction lovers. ‘Roadworks’ by Sally Sutton is a fabulous book for little ones who love construction, vehicles and noise! The children engaged in dramatic play as they transported the sand and rocks with the construction vehicles to build the road. I loved how I could hear their knowledge about the book being shared as they played collaboratively and engaged in discussion!
4. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
For Book Week this year, my class focused on fairy tales. They took a particular liking to The Three Billy Goats Gruff so it was only appropriate that we combined this interest with their love for all things construction! My class was given a “Construction Challenge” of building a bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff. So much learning involved in this STEM challenge including early mathematical and engineering skills, team work, problem solving, engaging in ways to be imaginative and creative etc! The addition of puppets meant the children could engage in storytelling and role play as they built and used their constructed bridges.
5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This activity based around ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle was done in a group time experience. We painted the caterpillar the day before and then we read the book collectively. As we read the book, the children were invited to place the day of the week and the correlating food on each section of the caterpillar. SO many learning opportunities in this retelling activity!
6. Building a House
Earlier in the year, we undertook a huge project that extended the children’s interest in building and construction. As part of this project, we read ‘Building a house’ by Byron Barton and learnt about the different stages of building a house and the trade professionals involved. Then, we embraced our inner brick-layer and built our own constructions using cement (grey playdough) and bricks (wooden blocks). A very hands-on way to explore this text in further detail and showcase our knowledge.
7. The Gruffalo
Small world play spaces allow children to develop a range of skills as they engage in imaginative play. Oral language development, story telling and retelling skills, exploring roles and identities as well as the opportunity to be creative and imaginative are just some of the benefits of small world play. As children engaged with this small world set up, it was wonderful to see them using their knowledge from the text to inform their play. To make the backgrounds to this play space, I simply photocopied and laminated pages of the book — it really ‘set the scene’ to this play space! The puppet pictures are from Twinkl.com.
8. Wombat Stew
“Wombat Stew, Wombat Stew, Ooey Gooey Wombat Stew!” When we celebrated Australia Day earlier this year, it was hard to go past the classic tale ‘Wombat Stew’. To explore this book through hands-on learning the children were invited to make their own Wombat Stew. They used a range of icky ingredients in their stew — insects, leaves, feathers, rocks, sticks, cones etc. The children sang ‘Wombat Stew, Wombat Stew’ as they stirred their mixtures!
9. Superworm
‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson is one of my personal favourite books and is read quite a lot in my classroom! So much so that one of the beautiful parents in my class sewed me a Superworm! It was perfect for our ‘Superworm Investigation Tray’ that featured Superworm, dirt, insects and magnifying glasses. In this activity, the children could engage with the book as well as explore elements of the text such as the different insects featured.
10. Room on the Broom
I thought I would share another small world set ups because I just LOVE small world play and believe that it offers so many learning opportunities for children. We have had so many different small world set ups in the classroom, but I particularly think there is value in small world play spaces based around books because it allows children to engage on a really deep level with the text. In this ‘Room on the Broom’ small world, I put story cards on the wall so children could sequence the events of the book as an extra literacy element. The children used the puppets to retell the story and engage in dramatic play. All printables are from Twinkl.com.
