I have written several posts about reading aloud to preschoolers and this is a little tip you might like to use for one or more of your read-aloud opportunities…
Whenever possible, I like to collect the characters of popular children’s books like “Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans and “Arthur” by Marc Brown.
When I go to read the story to the children, I bring the little doll or stuffed toy with me and introduce it to the children along with the title of the book, author, and illustrator.
Before starting to read the book, I hand the story book character to a child in the circle. The children are told that each time I turn the page in the book – they are to hand the character off to the person beside them.
If I don’t have the specific character, then I select other stuffed animals or even toys for the children to pass around. For example, if the book is about a car – we just pass around a toy car!
For preschoolers that need that little extra help to sit in a circle time and listen to the book, this sometimes is just enough encouragement to do so. The preschoolers really like getting their turn to hold the character.