A ‘Beary’ Special Story Time
Among the many things that are stressed to parents is the importance of reading aloud to children starting in infancy – and for good reason. We know it helps language development, comprehension, creativity, imagination, and even boosts brain activity.
Literacy is foundational to our curriculum and integrated into our lesson plans in many different ways. One that our students and staff get particularly excited about is Mrs. Bush’s Story Time, which we celebrate at our Schools throughout the year, including this week!
The 1968 classic Corduroy by Don Freeman was the featured book for our storytellers, and creative activity plans made it a ‘beary’ special day! We:
- Gained literary confidence by reading aloud to our teddy bears
- Worked on public speaking with show and tell about a favorite teddy bear from home
- Got creative by freehand drawing Corduroy bear using crayons
- Exercised our fine motor skills by threading buttons, like the one Corduroy was missing, onto string
- Practiced safely using children’s scissors and glue sticks to make construction paper bears
- Strengthened number recognition with a button counting activity
- Created colorful mosaic teddy bears
See for yourself how students at our Blue Bell, Jackson, King of Prussia, Marlboro, Royersford and Upper Gwynedd Schools took reading to the next level!
Did You Know?
The Malvern School was the first school in the country to introduce Mrs. Bush’s Story Time – based on First Lady Barbara Bush’s radio show featuring some of the nation’s best-loved children’s books being read aloud – to more than 2,000 of our preschool students.
To adapt Mrs. Bush’s Story Time to the preschool classroom, we also created dynamic activity plans for each of the children’s books featured in the original broadcast. In collaboration with the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, we offer them free-of-charge to all preschools, daycares and libraries across the U.S. The Bush Library also hosts special Story Time Programs based upon our activity plans. For additional information about the Bush Library and Museum visit: http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/.
