Literacy - Book Bags - Do You Use These?

[Guest terrydoo73]

I have an idea to improve our literacy in playgroup but I getting negative feeling from my Deputy so want opinions of others. Remember I am pre-preschool age ie just turned 3.

 

I would like to introduce book bags every Monday whereby the children choose a book from our library and take it home. We would be asking parents to read this book with their child at least once during the week and return it the following Monday to be changed again.

 

Our children do respond well to rhymes and we have managed to introduce 12 since we opened in January with the children able to recite and do the actions to each - parents have commented on these as they hear them at home.

 

Is this a good idea?

 

We have 8 children so how many books would we need to have available to borrow each week? What type of bags would we use? Has anyone else used this system?

 

Should I maybe just rely on the local library or books the children have at home - quite a number of parents say they have too many books at home but what I want them to gain is I guess attention as well as interest in the story content with the hope that they improve their own language as some are lacking in this area.

[Fredbear]

Hi terrydoo73, we do this at our pre-school and it's fantastic.

The children choose a book on the first day they are in for the week, we use the term "take home to share" as opposed to read a story, this enables the children to experience a joy of looking at illustrations as well as text. The parents/carers and children then have the opportunity to fill in a sheet with a space for children's comments, a picture, as well as a space for a comment from parent/carers.

Any returned sheets are then put in the children's learning journals, which is a lovely link between pre-school and home.

 

We also keep a record on a index card of all the books the children have chosen for reference.

I would definetly ask for donations of books, go to charity shops or when the weather changes boot sales.

We also borrow books from the library but these are always used for our children's interest ideas.

Edited March 20, 2011 by bridger

[Panders]

We have accumulated about 1500 books in our library which supports many interests the children have - as you can imagine we have been running for a very long long time. The story corner has a regular change over of books. The children make their own choice each week and return them the next week.

 

Some children use the Bookstart book bags they were given when they started with us, others just use the A4 plastic folder we use to story any pictures etc. they have done during the week and take their library book home in that. The children take this folder home on their last session of the week with us.

 

Each book is given a number and the number is recorded in the Library Book. when a child borrows a book the number is written against their name on a recording sheet and ticked off when it is returned. this could easily be managed by the parents themselves, although in our case I have one of my staff undertake it all!!

[Cait]

We have £5000+ worth of books at purchased price, not at 're-buy' price - we just tallied them up for insurance purposes! scary

 

Sorry, yes, we have a book borrowing scheme, children can chose a book to take home and share when they arrive, so can change every day if they want to. We have a large A4 page a day diary and parents write their child's name and the title of the book on the day's page and then tick it off when they return it to the 'returned books' box. (This enables us to quickly flick through for damage before putting it back 'on the shelves') It works really well and every child enjoys choosing a book. We have book bags embroidered with our logo too.

 

Doing the book inventory in the summer is always good fun and involves all the preschool group. We spread the books out a box at a time and I call out a book title and they have to find it. The books are colour coded with labels on the spine in alphabetical order to make this job simpler!

[Guest]

Dear Bridger do you have a copy of the sheet that the parents fill in with their child when they borrow the book? We have just started a lending library but I wanted it to be as easy as possible to run so I haven't included any kind of reading diary but it would be nice to have some feedback from the children to go into their learning journey book.

[Scarlettangel]

We have books to share in nursery with our 3 and 4 year olds.

 

We used to change books twice a week but now do it once a week.

 

We keep a record in a folder of who has what book and the date they borrowed it.

Occasionally we send out a reminder that the book has been at home for "x" amount of weeks to prompt its return so others can share the book.

 

We have book bags too but we use these daily to take home letters, paintings, sticking cutting etc as well as the books on a Friday.

[Guest]

Hi

 

we as part of our Ecat programme sent home books for bedtime reading.

we bought 6 books with appropriate cuddly toy/prop a couple of these were cd stories too

We only have 6 because of the lack of storage.

 

The children take it in turns to have the book for the week. They go out on the Monday and come back thee following week.

In the book bag we also placed library info and a short intro into what the reason was behind the books and a evaluation sheet for parents to complete if they wished.

 

The bags have been an overwelming success. Very positive info back from parents. We know have a parent sorting out the books on a Monday.

 

Go for it.

[Guest terrydoo73]

Thank you for your replies. Could I just ask - can anyone see any tangible results of their books which are taken home and shared? I keep getting it thrown back at me by my Deputy that it will not work for 3 year olds, maybe for older ones yes and that there are too many at home anyway so one more book will just get lost.

 

I like the idea of including them in their learning journey - could I get a copy of the sheet you use Bridger?

 

I like the idea of a plastic folder which is cheap and easy to accommodate. Now all I have to do is choose the books to use in our library - I'm sure if I put in a request in our monthly newsletter we will get a good response. I will colour code them so I know which ones belong in our library and which ones just in interest area. I am borrowing about 20 books every 6 weeks from our local library which we keep for our book corner so we have already loads more for the playgroup library.

 

Can I ask how do you organise where your books are set out for the children to choose? We have a hallway where we could set out a table and take the children out to it but would it be better to leave them out on our tables inside the Playgroup with their folders every Monday and do it just before they go home? I have visions of my Deputy putting up all sorts of arguments about the hassle of recording children's choices every week and returning them as well.

[laura]

We used to use the zip wallets, but now we have proper book bags from Mapac, with our logo on (good advertising as they walk to pre-school!)

We are a large preschool with currently 97 children aging from 2 - 4, so effectively we have 3 'school' years so we have 3 different sets of library books. Eg for our youngest we have lots of board books and these progress to simple stories for our middle age group. For our older ones we have numberlies, and other number and letter books.

We have just gradually built up our collection, try your local NCT sales, I am always replenishing out books from their sales at bargain prices.

All the books are coded and these are dated on a sheet for each child when taken. Books are changed once a week on their diary day.

[redjayne]

Always used to have bookbags in my previous setting and am about to introduce them in my present Nursery along with Rhyme bags for the 0-2's as part of Ecat/ICAN and for my EYP also.

They always got well used in my other Nursery - aquired the books from various sources over a period of time, and despite losing a few ( I look on it as being rehomed - if a child wants to hold onto the book then who am I to nag to get it back) it was well liked by parents and children.

[Guest]

Hello,

 

I introduced book bags and a lending library when i started 15 months ago, and although there was some reluctance, time, time, time etc.

 

It now works really well, the children love it and actually ask if they can take a book home!!! We have a little folder where we track who takes home what book.

 

All works very very well.

 

I say "go for it"

 

xx

[Fredbear]

Hi will put the sheet on tomorrow.

[Rea]

Thank you for your replies. Could I just ask - can anyone see any tangible results of their books which are taken home and shared? I keep getting it thrown back at me by my Deputy that it will not work for 3 year olds, maybe for older ones yes and that there are too many at home anyway so one more book will just get lost.

 

 

What sort of tangible results does she want to see? In the short term you might have a few comments from the children and parents, in the long term the children might be helped to develop a love of books, it will help their speaking and listening and communication skills, increase their vocabulary and imagination.

The idea behind borrowing a book in this way is to include the parents in their childs enjoyment and interest in stories. They might very well have loads of books at home, but this one is different, this one is borrowed for a purpose.

If you include a small prop or two and a short explaination on why its good to share books with your child, it makes the whole reading a bedtime story more of a focus for the parents. Lots of parents read a story at night but with your book they know why they're doing it.

[Guest]

being able to share a stroy with a parent/carer. Fostering communication and a love of books. And lots lots more.

Never assume that the children have lots of books at home because not all do even those that come from 'middle class background'.

 

It will also create a special bond between you, the child and the parent

 

Great to get it started now as it being the year of communication

[Guest]

Never assume that the children have lots of books at home because not all do even those that come from 'middle class background'.

 

 

This was highlighted to me today when a very middle class boy told me he only had one book at home. Possibly he was exagerating slightly, but he's definitely the sort of boy who if he had a lot would be vocalising this loudly so it's very probably he only has a few.