Nursery Equipment: Book corner - Shelf life
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Creating a book corner gives children a dedicated space for reading and promotes language learning. Jean Evans explains.
Design and stock your book corner with care and imagination and you will open up a raft of opportunities for young children to listen and chat, absorb a rich vocabulary, and experience language in its various functions and forms.
A good book corner will:
- have the power to draw children in
- hold their interest
- meet the needs of the individual child
- 'respond' to children's questions, interests and motivations
- inspire and spark their curiosity
- challenge children's thinking, language and imagination.
With these things in mind...
AIM TO CREATE A PLACE...
...where children feel relaxed and comfortable
Position the book corner in a quiet area, away from the rest of the room, with comfortable flooring and seating. Drape walls and display boards with attractive fabrics in plain colours rather than busy designs that could distract, or enclose the area with light floating fabric draped from the ceiling. Make sure that the environment reflects the age of children using it and presents positive images of different races, cultures, genders and disabilities. Ensure that there are bold signs and captions on displays, bookshelves and resource boxes, to reflect the purpose of print in the environment.
For comfort, try the Big Snake Floor Cushion from GLS Educational Supplies (£84.95) or Hope Education's packs of coloured floor cushions (from £30 to £60). The Natural Cosy World Carpet (£54.95) from TTS Group is comfortable and will not distract children. Brightly themed and patterned carpets can lessen the calming effect you wish to create.
Lightweight fabrics suitable for drapes are available from Cheap Fabrics (from £2.50 per metre). Kids Fabrics also supplies a good range of materials, including an assortment of clearance fabrics (from £5 a metre).
... where children can search for answers to questions and discover new things
Encourage communication, the sharing of ideas and exploration of new and exciting vocabulary with a good selection of non-fiction books that reflect the current interests of your children.
Link favourite storybooks to information books — for example, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. Extend this with small related table displays. Realistic lifecycle stages of minibeasts, including the frog and Painted Lady butterfly, are available from Insect Lore (£3.33 each). Provide bug viewers and magnifying glasses to observe these more closely, such as the Large Magnifier set (£2.99) and Giant Cylinder Magnifier (£5.99), both from Reflections on Learning.
Include children's home-made topics books and photo albums on these tables. If you have a popular recurring theme, invest in some themed cushions, such as the Woodland Cushions from TTS Group (£39.95).
... that is magical and can free children's imaginations
Encourage the development of creative ideas and imaginative language with a well-chosen selection of core books along with linked resources that encourage children to engage fully. Invite them to explore the resources freely and use them to bring characters to life.
Build up a knowledge of the best children's books and familiarise yourself with modern picture book authors. You'll be familiar with the likes of Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen and Nick Sharratt, but what about Emily Gravett, Catherine Rayner and Alison Murray, or newcomers such as Jon Klassen and Rebecca Cobb?
Include well-loved fairy stories, stories from other cultures, traditional tales and poetry books. Provide books that have little or no text for children to explore and discuss together, as well as those with longer text to be read to them by adults. Bob Graham's books, such as How to Heal a Broken Wing, are masterful in the way they use illustration to add extra layers of detail to the story.
Add any home-made story books that the children have created so that they make links between their own written work and printed literature. Encourage shared discussion by exploring 'big book' versions of stories. Big Book stands are a useful accessory to leave your hands free to create actions and use resources. A sturdy version (£9.99) is available from Early Years Resources.
Story and rhyme bags are an excellent way of encouraging language skills and are available from various early years suppliers including TTS Group, Early Excellence, Wonderbox and Storysack company.
Story baskets are a similar idea. Early Excellence has baskets to link with both stories and poems (around £60). Bags of Fun, linked to popular topics such as dinosaurs, pirates and under-the-sea, are available from Hope Education, (£104.95). These bags can be used alongside related stories to extend language opportunities. They also provide a link with non-fiction titles.
Puppets come in many different types, from finger puppets to life-size character puppets. They encourage children to invent dialogue, discuss emotions and hold conversations, adding expression and vocal variations within their dialogue.
Puppets by Post has just added a Bear (My First) Hand Puppet (£4.99) to its range along with a selection of marionettes including a pirate, wizard and woodland elf (£22.50 each).
Engaging finger puppets, including a set of African animals (£16.99), are available from Wise Old Bear. Meanwhile its sets of traditional and fairytale finger puppets come complete with a book (£22.99), and it also offers large dinosaur finger puppets (£4.49 each).
Cambridge Educational Toys provides striking individual hand puppets (around £7.50) and story sets (around £30). It also has a range of ethnic life-size puppets operated by hands and arms that are excellent for hand signing and gestures (around £70 each).
Masks and hats can be worn by adults and children to encourage participation in stories, but be aware that some children find masks frightening. Cambridge Educational Toys has individual masks (£1.50) and sets of story masks (£7.80).
... that children can visit independently
Ensure that children can access books and accessories easily. Book titles should be facing them on open shelves or racks. A range of book display products are available from Community Playthings, including a Library Rack (£210), Book Cart (£305) and Browser Box (£165). Tidy Books, meanwhile, offers open bookcases for children with the alphabet diplayed on the front (£119).
Kinderboxes are ideal for picture book storage and sometimes come with wheels for outdoor use. Gresswell has a mobile version with four compartments (right, from £103.95). A puppet stand stores puppets where children can see them and choose easily. A mug tree makes an ideal puppet stand, or a stand from Guidecraft is available on Amazon (£41.02).
A robust CD player with easily managed controls and a good collection of CDs gives children the option to listen to stories and rhymes of their choice. The StoryPhones Headset, from StoryPhones, comes with more than 30 audio tracks and provides the opportunity for children to listen individually to their own choice of stories, rhymes and songs, or share and participate in a group listening activity (£495 for a set of four).
Also from StoryPhones is Little Listener, a hand-held device that makes listening out loud easy. It is robust and ideal for group listening, sharing rhymes and stories and joining in (from £82.50).
Some children occasionally prefer to be alone to enjoy quiet time with a book, so create a den or small draped private area for this purpose, within the larger indoor area.
...outdoors, which reflects the indoor book corner
Set up a book corner outdoors with shade and privacy from external noise. The leading early years suppliers offer a good choice of play shades, pop-up tents and children's gazebos, including the UV Cool Shelter (£19.99) from Reflections on Learning and the Camo Net from Mindstretchers (£50).
The award-winning Kasbah Den from Hope Education (£299.95), can be transformed into a magical outdoor book corner and is easy to cover in drapes. Hope Education also offers a useful set of Outdoor Carry Cushions, with handles, waterproof bases and soft-fabric tops. Introduce mobile kinderboxes and store accessories in wheeled containers or trolleys, such as the Utility Cart from Community Playthings (£235).
MORE INFORMATION
- www.amazon.co.uk
- www.cambridgeeducationaltoys.co.uk
- www.cheapfabrics.co.uk
- www.communityplaythings.co.uk
- www.earlyexcellence.com
- www.earlyyearsresources.co.uk
- www.glsed.co.uk
- www.gresswell.co.uk
- www.hope-education.co.uk
- www.kidsfabrics.co.uk
- www.insectlore-europe.com
- www.mindstretchers.co.uk
- www.puppetsbypost.com
- www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk
- www.storyphones.co.uk
- www.storysack.com
- www.tidy-books.co.uk
- www.tts-group.co.uk
- www.wiseoldbear.co.uk
- www.wonderbox.co.uk