Launched by the Guille-Alles Library, the initiative called for people to cease their daily activities for a quarter of an hour of reading time at noon, which the nursery resolved to participate in earlier in the day.
‘We wanted to get involved, so we had the children read to their teddies, and then we read them all a story,’ said nursery owner Sue Savident.
‘It can be a bit of a challenge getting them all to sit down and stay still for a story, but they did really well.’
For its own spin on the day, the nursery combined it with their semi-regular ‘teddy bear picnic’, where children bring in their teddies from home.
This time they had the chance to read them a story of their choosing.
‘They all came in fancy dress and brought their favourite books from home,’ said Mrs Savident.
‘We’ve seen such a wide range – from Cinderella, to pirate stories, to one boy who chose Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – he had his own golden tickets made up and everything.’
The nursery also celebrated World Book Day by having the children create their own stories, complete with an accompanying self-made book of pictures that they could take home and use to tell their stories to their parents.
‘They’re making these books from scratch – we asked them to tell us their stories, and now they’re telling those stories through pictures, so they can bring the books home and retell them to mum and dad,’ said Mrs Savident.
‘There’s all sorts going on – stories about animals, about families, holidays – they’re quite imaginative.’
Even outside of World Book Day, the nursery makes a point of incorporating books into daily routine, having a daily story time as well as a book corner, with a regularly refreshed stock of stories courtesy of the library.
‘We read every day,’ said nursery manager and well-versed story-reader Kelly Eborall.
‘Books are so important – they can tell stories or give information, and I think that it also helps their communication.’
It was this pro-social aspect of storytime that most impressed Mrs Savident too.
‘I think the children interacting with Kelly at story time has been great,’ she said.
‘It’s also just a good quiet time. It can get a bit manic here, and they’re generally pretty good about sitting down and listening to a story. The majority really want to do it.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.