Keeping a group of children engaged in circle time can be challenging!
The next time you are preparing to read a story, try these ideas for getting and keeping children involved in the reading process.
Repeated illustrations
At times you will find that the illustration located on the front cover of a children’s picture book will be repeated again and look exactly the same or almost exactly the same on a page inside the book.
For example, on the cover of this book the little boy is dropping a seed…
- Show the children the front cover and talk about the picture on the cover.
- Make sure all the children get to take a good look so they can remember what the picture looks like.
- Ask the children to tell you about what they see on the cover of the book.
- Tell the children that as you read the book, they will see this exact same picture again on a new page and when they see that picture, to hold up their hands high to let you know.
Looking for illustrated action
For this read-aloud attention getter, you will help the children identify the action that is taking place on the cover of the book. As you read the book aloud, invite the children to see if they can identify the same action somewhere inside the book.
For example, on the cover of this book the frog is chasing a butterfly.
A few pages later, the frog is chasing another butterfly…
And once again, the children will notice that the frog is chasing another butterfly.
On the cover of this book, Curious George is putting on a pair of boots…
Invite the children to tell you what they think Curious George is up to on the cover of this book. Then invite the children to keep an eye out to see if Curious George does this action in the book…
Counting objects or identifying objects
For this read-aloud attention getter, you will help the children identify specific objects that are on the cover of the book. The children can name the objects and count the number of objects…
For example, on the cover of this book are five people chasing five objects…
 
The cover of the bookAsk the children to count the number of people and objects or to identify the name of each object on the book cover. Â Then invite the children to keep an eye out for the same number of objects (or the exact same objects) to appear on a page of the book as you read the story.
Positional illustrations
For this read-aloud attention getter, you will encourage the children to identify where an object is located on the cover of the book. Then you will encourage the children to identify the object in that same location somewhere within the pages of the book.
For example…
On the cover of this book, the child is holding a book on top of his head…
On a page in this book, the child is holding the book on top of his head again but what is different this time?
The objective
The objective is to use the illustrations on the cover to capture the attention of your preschoolers and keep them engaged in the story as you read aloud. For children who struggle sitting and listening, these kinds of ideas may help them stay more engaged throughout the story.
Please Note: The most important part of successfully reading aloud to children is to begin with selecting quality and age appropriate books as well as practicing good read-aloud skills which you can learn more about by clicking here!
Read this quick tip for reading aloud to preschoolers too!
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