London nursery ditches book corners and reading mats for props and 'silly voices'

A London nursery group has launched a campaign to get parents and practitioners to read books to children on a daily basis, advising them to bring stories to life with 'silly voices and expressions'.

Kindred Nurseries has launched its campaign as part of National Storytelling Week run by the Society for Storytelling, encouraging children in the UK to start reading and storytelling.

Kindred Nurseries intends to carry on supporting storytelling and reading every day throughout the year within their 20 nursery settings.

Annie Tierney, head of childcare at Kindred Nurseries told daynurseries.co.uk: “If parents read just one book a day to their child, they will have been exposed to 1,825 books by the time the child is five.

“That’s just a few minutes out of your day. Imagine that exposure to the language. If parents want their child to leave school successful with their GCSEs then reading to children from early years is essential.”

Ms Tierney wants to change how both practitioners and parents engage the children during this special time. She said: “Telling stories is a wonderful opportunity to spend time together as a family whether it is engaging children in a story about your family, your experiences as a child or reading together and bringing a story to life with silly voices and expression.

Staff can feel uncomfotable using expressions

“We often get staff saying, ‘I don’t want to do the silly voice’. They often don’t want to use an expression and have a monotone voice.

"Don’t be embarrassed because children think we’re amazing and will be our biggest fans. So however silly we think we sound, they’ll think we're absolutely amazing. I also talk to parents about not being embarrassed to keep that interest.

“Even if you haven’t got a book, share stories about first memories of when they were little and use a prop such as a football trophy to start a story with them.

“It’s been like a lost world really with libraries closing and it feels like every child has a phone or an iPad. It’s just bringing that love back,” says Ms Tierney.

Kindred Nurseries shares good practice of storytelling and reading to other staff. “We have something called Kindred News. It’s a private Facebook page just for the staff. Everybody can access it; everyone is included, and we share ideas. We have videos of storytime where children are looking at books and we look at the language they use and the scaffold of language when looking at books," revealed Ms Tierney

Kindred Nurseries has given away 2,000 books to children at its nurseries to keep and read at home

The nursery group wants all its nurseries to get rid of traditional reading corners or mats and has set a competition for all of its nurseries to see how they can improve their book areas or improve the books they have.

Ms Tierney said: “We are going to award the nursery who have brought the best experiences to the children within that environment.

“We have one nursery where they have made a mock birdhouse that is built with books to encourage the children to go in and read and all the nurseries are looking at boys to see how they like to read, whether that’s upside down or whatever.

“With the practitioners, we’re teaching them they should not have books in a book corner. We want to have books inside as well as outdoors. We find that if a book corner is near a door, then children are disrupted with people coming in and out and just disrupting it all the time so it’s just making sure there are no disruptions.

“We have a very diverse team so they can use different languages to read a story to the children, so we are using all these opportunities to learning. It’s exposing all those children who have not been shown a book or can’t read. This is just giving children the opportunity to love books from such an early age.”

Kindred Nurseries has given away 2,000 books so that every child in Kindred’s nurseries and out of school clubs, has a new storybook to keep and enjoy at home with their family. Titles include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child both by Julia Donaldson and Guess How much I Love You by Sam McBratney.

“There are 2,000 more books out there that can be used time and time again. If the family has had enough of it, they can pass it on to someone else so they can carry on being used for a long time to come.”

’Children fall in love with books and stories because of the memories created’

As a child, Ms Tierney’s favourite book was Mrs Pepperpot. “We would sit every night and we would read a chapter or a bit before bed and we would talk for ages if we were that size and how we would go to school. That is my favourite memory of books.

“We have had great feedback from parents and the nurseries about this and on our website and we’ve put a downloadable sheet for anybody to download and get some tips be it a practitioner or parent.”

Kindred Nurseries storytelling and reading tips include:

• Make the time special, find a quiet place for you both away from noise, the television or loud conversations

• Try not to have interruptions as children may lose the plot of the story and in turn lose interest

• Encourage children to tell the story in their own words

• Use the pictures to talk about what is happening or might happen in the book.

Ms Tierney believes sharing stories together "creates valuable learning opportunities like thinking critically and problem-solving, as well as developing good conversation skills. Reading can spark imagination and inspire children to be curious about the world around them".

She says: “Children fall in love with books and stories because of the memories created when they snuggle up and share them with someone they love."

To download a storytelling and reading sheet click here

click here for more details or to contact Kindred Nurseries