Kingfisher Pre-school

Parents and Carers Guide

We have made a selection of "Story Sacks" in order to aid your child's communication, language and literacy development. Research now shows that children with good verbal skills find reading and writing easier.
 
The sacks are intended for an adult and child to enjoy together. The soft toys or puppets are to be used as props during story telling, and hopefully they will encourage the children to use them as they retell the story, or as they make up a story of their own. If the sack contains a CD or a cassette, perhaps you could let your child place them in the relevant piece of audio equipment in order to develop their use of everyday technology.
 
Begin the story session by looking at the book cover together and spend a few moments talking about it.

Encourage your child to try to guess what the story might be about by looking at the front cover for clues.

Introduce the correct vocabulary while you are discussing the book - for example, cover, page, title and author.

If your child already knows the story, encourage them to retell it and discuss the main characters.

Read the story together. As you read it, run your finger under the words to aid your child's understanding of the concept that words carry meaning.

Encourage your child to join in with any repeated refrains.

Pause occasionally as you are reading the story and encourage your child to predict what may happen next. 

At the end of the story encourage your child to retell the story again in the correct sequence. Help them to understand that stories have to be told in the correct sequence in order to make sense.  Some of the sacks contain props associated with the story; use these as necessary, make the story fun!

If the "Story Sack" contains a video please watch it together and encourage your child to discuss the story.

Whenever possible we have included additional books, games and puzzles to complement the story.

The Kingfisher team makes the sacks in our spare time, as ready-made ones are far too expensive to buy. We have made sacks based upon traditional stories such as Red Riding Hood, or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Other sacks contain stories based upon the children's interests such as princesses or dinosaurs, as well as characters from popular media such as Spot, Maisy and Postman Pat.  They are fun to make and shopping for the props can become addictive!

If you would like to help with this project please speak to a member of staff.

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