Picture reading activities play a crucial role in developing early reading skills for children in any international preschool. These activities not only promote observation skills, visual thinking, reading confidence, and analytical thinking but also add an element of fun to the learning process.
At an international preschool in Ahmedabad, picture reading is implemented as a strategy to stimulate students’ imaginations, tap into their global knowledge, and ultimately enhance their language skills. These activities can be standalone exercises or integrated with other language teaching methods throughout the students’ journey after filling up the school admission form.
The Benefits of Picture Reading for Children
1. Acquire Oral Language Abilities:
Reading picture books during story time, at home, or in the classroom allows children to practice language skills by sounding out words and phrases. Picture books are easily comprehensible and enjoyable to read aloud, enabling children to grasp language more quickly. Additionally, rereading the same story helps expand their vocabulary by approximately 12%.
2. Recognize Patterns:
Sorting the sequence of events in a story helps children develop their comprehension skills. By understanding the beginning, middle, and end of a story and summarizing the key events, children improve their ability to comprehend and recall information. Visual cues and drawings in picture books aid in accurately recalling characters and story events.
Children can refer to the images to refresh their memory of the events, and if they make an educated guess that turns out to be incorrect, they have the opportunity to verify their understanding.
3. Increase Understanding:
Reading encompasses various skills beyond sequencing and summarizing. Children need to develop skills such as sentence construction, problem-solving, comparison, contrast, drawing inferences, and more to fully comprehend the material they read.
4. Foster a Love for Reading:
Picture book reading should always be enjoyable. If a child has a negative initial experience with reading and sees it as a chore rather than something enjoyable, the transition from picture books to chapter books may be hindered. Therefore, making reading a pleasurable experience is vital to instil a love for reading in children.
5. Enhance Emotional Intelligence:
One of the primary goals of picture books is to show young children that learning can be enjoyable. By establishing routines such as bedtime stories, parents and teachers can spend quality time with children while fostering their love for reading. This not only strengthens the parent-child or teacher-student bond but also helps children develop skills necessary for school readiness.
6. Useful for Writing and Reading:
Wordless picture books, in particular, encourage critical thinking skills. Children are challenged to decipher the information conveyed by each image, promoting critical thinking as they analyze the first page, absorb the information, and proceed to the next.
7. Useful for Literacy Development:
Picture books contain a rich blend of words and images, offering more than just entertainment. They help children establish connections between words and images, expanding their vocabulary. Additionally, picture books can serve as a springboard for early bilingual or multilingual instruction.
8. Improve Speech Skills:
From the moment children begin speaking and forming sentences, they start recognizing the sounds and patterns in spoken language. This phonological awareness is the foundation for learning to read. Many picture books with rhythmic cadences aid children in developing their phonological awareness. Starting with repeating passages from their favourite picture books, children can gradually create their rhymes or stories.
Picture Talk Exercises for Schoolchildren
1. Picture-Based Group Discussion:
Group discussions provide an opportunity to evaluate candidates’ leadership skills, communication abilities, social and behavioural skills, teamwork, listening skills, general awareness, self-assurance, and problem-solving abilities.
Group discussions are often a part of admission tests for professional degrees and can occur either at the beginning or the end of the hiring process, depending on the organization.
2. Visual Narrative:
Visual storytelling involves using graphics, photographs, images, and videos to evoke emotions, ignite discussions, and inspire action.
3. Conversation Using Images:
In Picture Talk exercises, a single image is used to initiate discussions among students. The image can be humorous, fictional, or related to a specific topic of discussion, such as sports or family. Simple images are often more effective as they encourage children to be more imaginative.
4. Describe a Picture:
Image descriptions involve providing a text caption that highlights the key elements of an image. This can be done for various types of visuals, including photographs, illustrations, animated GIFs, and videos.
5. Picture-Based Sentence Construction:
A single image can serve as inspiration for constructing a concise written sentence, offering a shorter writing assignment.
6. Picture-Based Word Game:
Using two images, players create words by “reading” the images together. For example, an image of an ear and a ring would form the word “Earring,” or an image of a knight and a mare would create the word “Nightmare.” These games can be based on the visual or phonetic connections between the images.
Conclusion
Preschoolers in Ahmedabad have the opportunity to engage in enjoyable and educational activities that lay the foundation for a lifelong love of learning. The preschool reading activities mentioned above serve as a starting point for teaching children about letters and preparing them for the journey ahead, after filling up the school admission form.
These picture reading exercises not only enhance language skills but also promote critical thinking, creativity, and comprehension. By incorporating picture-based activities into the curriculum, international preschools provide children with valuable learning experiences that foster their overall development.
