Every year April 23rd is World Book and Copyright Daycreated to enhance theimportance of reading as an element of creativity and personal and collective growth.
If for us adults, books and reading represent an indispensable means of deepening and knowing ourselves, others and the world, read aloud to children and for girls from the first months of life it has a fundamental impact on their development. Introduce reading aloud since the nestrepresents afundamental educational and growth option for boys and girls.
But how enhance reading for children in nurseries? For Book Day, we asked for a contribution from Alessandra Notarbartolo, coordinator of our Mothers’ Spacefor the Zen Insieme association of Palermo, who tells us about their experience.
WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY
In the meantime, let’s start with a little birth story of this important day. There World Book and Copyright Day was born in Catalonia more than 400 years ago. Was chosen on April 23 because it’s the day when they died in 1616 two writers considered the pillars of universal culture: Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. Don Quixote, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, are all characters that take shape from the genius of these two writers and who have been familiar to us ever since.
Catalan tradition dictates that on the same day as Saint George, April 23rd, every man gives a rose to his woman. So today i Booksellers in Catalonia usually give a rose for each book sold on April 23, to celebrate book day. In Barcelona, however, the traditional walk through the Ramblas which invades with banquets full of books and roses it was one of the most evocative events of the year.
Why reading aloud to children is important
For World Book Day, together with our Alessandra Notarbartolo, we want to talk about why reading aloud in childhood is important and how to enhance this fundamental practice in nursery school. Here you are 3 reasons:
- 1. Improves the development of the child: reading aloud to children, from childhood, is an important practice, because increases cognitive, emotional and social development. The rate of socialization also increases and there are various positive effects on emotional and relational development.
- 2. Develop empathy: even before the boy or girl acquires the ability to express themselves verbally and recognize written letters, reading aloud to them helps them to become familiar with speech, with sounds, with the different tones of the voice and consequently allows him to understand the emotion of the speaker even before the verbal meaning of the speech, a fundamental ability to train for the development of empathy.
- 3. Improve your vocabulary: listening to stories enriches vocabulary and accelerates language maturation, communicative and intellectual competence. Reading aloud is pleasant and creates the habit of listening, increases attention spans, increases the desire to know and name the surrounding environment.
For this reason, it Mothers’ Space in Palermo a few years ago it entered into an agreement with the municipal department for public education, service area 0-3, to bring the books and reading aloud inside the municipal nursery in the Zen neighborhood, with the aim of including reading in daily educational programming and supporting the work of educators, motivating them to practice. Below we tell their experience.
The book goes to nursery: 4 tips for reading to children aged 0-3
The workshops of the Spazio Mamme in Palermo take place once a week and the method used is one simple but effective shared reading between adults and children.
Here you are 4 tips for organizing reading workshops for children between 0 and 3 years in nurseries:
- 1. The physical proximityfor example, is an important component because it reassures boys and girls and increases their emotional involvement in the activity.
- 2. Do pay attention to the timesFurthermore, it is fundamental: prolonged reading (over ten minutes) tires boys and girls, who will need to move. It is important to meet their needs, either by changing the book using a shorter and more interactive story, or by interrupting the activity allowing the boys and girls to move, perhaps with a roundabout or a structured game, and then resume reading.
- 3. When the story is “the right one”, boys and girls will ask for it to be repeated over and over again (“Again!”). Read the same story again it allows boys and girls to exercise control over the emotions arising from reading and its content (think for example of new words), and the educator/reader to increasingly individualize the educational action of reading.
- 4. Hence the need to educationally plan reading moments and situations in which it is possible focus on each child in turn and child, even if just for a few seconds. There shared reading with children and the girls in early childhood it is in fact one of the practices in which the responsive care should be preponderant: for this reason it is essential to pay attention to the individual needs and needs relating to the development of each boy and girl and respond to them in a way that consciously supports their development.
The active participation of nursery educators in an action to raise awareness and disseminate this approach to shared reading must be encouraged and supported. In this article we have collected some of the books which we consider fundamental to be proposed in laboratories, both with parents and at nursery and nursery school, up to 3 years old. Read “Books for children 0-3 years”.
Book Day: initiatives
The Spazio Mamme invites families to visit the Giufà library, where the reading workshops take place. This year’s initiative saw educators and almost all parents donate to the municipal nursery of neighborhood a “reading point” with many of the illustrated books and the game books that we shared in the classes. The boys and girls welcomed this gift with enthusiasm, recognizing the books and asking any adult around them to read together.
And like every year, “The May of Books” returns: created by the Center for Books and Reading of the Ministry of Culture, and on whose platform it will be possible to consult the initiatives and demonstrations scheduled throughout Italy which start on April 23rd. The May of Books widely involves local authorities, schools, libraries, bookshops, festivals, publishers, cultural associations and the most diverse public and private entities.
All we have to do is wish everyone a happy read, out loud and shared!
Among the reading suggestions we have collected in the past, we like to propose again:
Tags: World Book Day importance reading childhood
