Top Tips for Reading Stories with Children

The following tips can help parents to make storytelling time fun as well as educational. These tips can be used for storytelling in any language; whether English, Cantonese, Putonghua or any other language.
Reading stories helps children to:
  • Become familiar with the sounds, syllables, words and vocabulary in the language
  • Builds early literacy skills helping to read successfully later in life
  • Understand rhyming words that help children begin to understand word patterns in language
  • Get children talking about what they are seeing, hearing or thinking
  • Stories can help children learn about concepts such as shape, size, space and colour, up and down, inside and outside, numbers and the names of objects. They can also teach children about everyday tasks, such as how to brush their teeth, taking care of animals, cleaning, tidying and preparing food.
  • Stories provide safe ways to explore emotions (fear; anger, change; relationships, etc.)
  • Stories spark imagination and curiosity to learn about the world around them
  • What’s great about learning through stories is that the process is done in a natural way.
There’s no teaching involved at all…….. Children simply learn from reading the story.
Getting ready …. 
Make sure children are seated comfortably; Create the mood for listening; Make sure children can see the pictures; Don’t read too fast - Reading slowly helps the children to build a mental picture to match the vocabulary; Where possible add a third dimension to the story. E.g. Share blueberries after reading the story ‘Blueberries for Sally’ or get children involved in the actions or chants in the story.
Step 1: Look at the front cover
Before you start reading the pages, ask your children questions about the book:
  • What can you see on the front cover?
  • What do you think this story is about?            
  • Who are the characters?                                     
  • What do you think may happen in the story? 
Step 2: Reading the story
Changing your voice and expression for the different characters in the story adds fun and gets children’s attention by bringing the characters to life.  
  • Ask your children questions about the story e.g. 5 W’s: who, what, when, where, why…and how.  ‘Who has the ball?’; What do you think happens next?’; ‘Where is the colour blue?’; ‘Why is the baby happy?’’ 
  • Ask them how they ‘feel’ about the story or things that happened in the story.
  • Chant or sing repetitive phrases and words together.
Step 3: Looking at letters, sounds and words
​K1 & K2:
  • Point out the differences between letters and words i.e. point out the difference between a lower-case and capital letter. E.g. ‘Can you point to a big S? ‘There is a capital M. Can you see a lower-case m?’
  • Ask questions about the names and sounds of letters. ‘What sound does this letter make?’ or ‘Can you see the letter that matches the /s/ sound?’
  • Play ‘find the letters and words’ games, especially with the letters in your children's name.
 
K2 and K3:
​Point out camera words or ask children to recognize and name camera words.
Don’t…
  • Don’t confuse quality with quantity. There is no need to read many books. It is better to spend time enjoying one book and asking lots of questions.
  • Don’t encourage children to memorize words and sentences. They can do that with flashcards and other activities. Let stories be shared time for parent and child where the learning flows naturally.
  • Don’t use stories as a threat (if you don’t behave I won’t read a story) Stories are not weapons. Children will change their attitude about reading from positive to negative.
Story options: 
We understand that many parents are working or do not read English and find it difficult to read stories to their children, but we have a solution!
  • ‘Read aloud stories’. ‘Read aloud stories’ are popular children’s stories read by the author or a famous actor. They are perfect for children to hear English vocabulary, phonic sounds and just have some fun.
  • Wordless stories found in local libraries; Published by Oxford, and many large publishing companies.
Listening to English stories:
Stories are a great way to introduce new words and ideas into a child’s language – starting with picture books for the very young, working up to chapter books and novels for teenagers.
 
We understand that many parents are working or do not read English and find it difficult to read stories to their children, but we have a solution! ‘Read aloud stories’. ‘Read aloud stories’ are popular children’s stories read by the author or a famous actor. They are perfect for children to hear English vocabulary, phonic sounds and just have some fun. 
Recommended Websites：
  • Barefoot books - stories and songs; Suitable for all, but especially N1 and K1
  • Story Online - Children’s stories read by famous American actors. Suitable for K1-K3 
  • Online Storytime by Barnes & Noble - arnes & Noble's Online Storytime hosts 16 well known (and many award winning) children's books that are read to kids. The voices of the readers are nice to listen to and kids will recognize many of their favourite stories from school. Good for N1-K3
  • MemFox – An Australian author reading 3 of her most famous stories. Audio only. Suitable for K3
  • Storybookreadalong on youtube - A range of popular children's stories suitable for N1 – K3.
  • Storynory - Storynory has published a free audio story every week since November 2005. All the stories, poems, myths and legends are read by professional actors. The site has many fairytales from around the world and has a host of original stories including Prince Bertie the Frog, Katie the Witch, and Astropup. Suitable for K3.
  • Childrens storybooks -  Illustrated children's stories for children of all ages. suitable for N1 – K3.
  • Speakaboos - This website has stories, rhymes, songs, fables and many other audio productions for children N1-K3. I would recommend Nursery rhymes for N1 and K1. And stories for K2 and K3.
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