There is a lot more to reading books than just figuring out what the words say. Going on a “picture walk” can help children learn how books work, how fun they can be, and why they’re important.
Prepáralo:
All you need is a picture book and a comfy place to read together!
Juegalo:
1. Start with the cover
Muestra a los niños el frente del libro. Dígales: “This is the cover of our book. What do you see on the cover?” If they are ready to, allow the child to hold the book so that they can point at and talk about what they notice.
If they have trouble starting or don’t go into much detail, ask them silly questions. If it’s a book about frogs, you could ask “Did you see this big whale? Nooo, that’s not a whale! What is it?”
2. “Reading” the inside pages
On the first page, point to the picture and ask the child what they see. Ask them to tell you what’s happening.
Ask these types of questions to prompt children to describe what they see:
- What shapes do you see?
- What colors?
- Are there any animals or plants?
- Are there any people?
- What are the animals or people doing?
- Where is the picture — in a house, the beach, forest, city, mountains?
Have them make up a story about the picture. It’s safe to move on when the child starts to lose interest in that page- no need to dig so deep that they become frustrated.
Repeat this on each page until the end of the book.
You may choose to read the actual written text, but “reading” the book using pictures only is a great learning experience for young children.
3. Challenge
Have children describe what they see in one picture, flip the page, describe what’s on the second picture, and then have them tell you a story about what’s happening on both pages. As they get better at this, increase to three pages, four pages, and on, until they are able to do this with a short book. Then, you can start using longer books.
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