A reader messaged me about her frustration with getting her 3 year old son to sit still long enough to read a book to him. He keeps jumping up and running around the room, squirming if she tries to hold him on her lap. She feels a bit rejected and frustrated that she cannot share her favorite storybooks with him. What should she do?
First, I want to speak to attention to task in very young children. Attention in preschoolers doesn’t often take the form of sitting quietly and looking at what we want them to look at. The words ‘sitting still’ and ‘3 years old’ are not often used in the same sentence. If you observe closely you will see that they are paying attention to an activity that gives them immediate satisfaction that rewards them through movement. The challenge here is how to engage all of that energy in sharing the joys of story telling, reading books and sharing time together. Here is an activity that just might work…
Lights! Camera! Action! (The Three Bears)
Target Skills: Attention to Books, Introduction to Literacy through Illustrations, Narrative Story Telling, Vocabulary , Planning
Materials: An illustrated story book. (Books most suitable for 3 to 5 year olds have an picture on every page illustrating a few lines of printed text), A collection of shirts, socks and other clothing from around the house for costume creation, sets and props. (Option: illustrations, popsicle sticks, glue)
Object of the Activity: To maintain active engagement with a storybook.
Step One: Select a storybook appropriate to the child’s age. For this example I selected The Three Bears Little Golden Book. The Little Golden books are designed for children of this age group with large illustrations and limited text. This story emphasizes concepts of family relationships, locations (city vs. country), comparative textures (hard, soft, hot, cold) and comparative size (large, medium, little) that are addressed in pre-school and kindergarten classrooms. This story also has a wonderful amount of repetition which appeals to young listeners with flexible attention spans.
Step Two: Introduce the activity to your child as “putting on a show” for a visiting family member. This could be an upcoming online call or a surprise for a parent when they get home from work. Read the story together. Let him act out the story as you read about who the characters are (Poppa, Momma, Baby Bear, Goldilocks) , where it all happens (forest), and what they are doing .eating porridge, sitting in chairs, sleeping in beds and running away.
Step Four: Ask the child to decide which part he wants to play in your presentation . As an Option: You might decide to create puppets to act out the story. These can be popsicle stick puppets you can put together with some sticks and glue using illustrations you find online or draw yourselves. Tailor this activity to your child’s interests and abilities. Here are some images available from Twinkl.com:
Step Five: If you choose a live performance, gather together objects from around your house to create your costumes/puppets and “stage set”. 3 sizes (small, medium, large) of bowls, spoons, chairs, beds.. Get Creative, pillows can be used for beds, toys can be used for bowls or spoons, towels can stand in for golden hair, brown knitted caps can become “bear hats“ with the use of a couple of rubber bands to create ears. This is part of the fun! If you choose a puppet show format, create your stage set using found objects.
Step Six: You may choose to read the storybook together again, this time rehearsing your play and acting out the story using the book’s illustrations as a guide.
Step Seven: When your audience is ready present your play. Make a video with your child as the star!
Putting on a play is a time proven way to attract children to the joys of story telling and reading. Bring all of the family members in on the fun, playing parts, designing costumes or constructing puppets. Before long you will find them creating their own stories.