writer: Xiao Bangyou, a preschool teacher at Good Omen Preschool

"By the pond, there is a shy little dinosaur named Andy. He always sits quietly and watches everyone play. There are many whispers in his heart, but he never dares to say them..." This is a picture book reading session in Good Omen preschool class. Teacher Xiao is narrating the picture book story vividly.

During teacher training, Mr. Xiao learned that picture books can improve children's reading interest and develop their abilities in language, mathematics, music, and sports. While listening to stories, children are exposed to rich vocabulary and diverse sentence structures, which broadens their language horizons. By retelling stories or creating their own, children practice using language actively, exercising their expressive skills and logical thinking. This not only teaches them to organize language effectively but also how to engage an audience with vivid and interesting expressions.

In the classroom, Mr. Xiao's picture book sessions are divided into three phases: teacher-child reading, teacher-guided reading, and children's independent reading. In today's class, to encourage bolder participation, Mr. Xiao introduced role-playing: children took turns as "teachers" to share stories on stage.

Encouraged by Mr. Xiao, Xiaoxin raised his hand eagerly and became the first to retell the story. "There is a shy little dinosaur named Andy by the pond. He always sits quietly and watches everyone play. He hides many whispers in his heart, but never dares to say them..." Soon, the children's snickering transformed into applause. Emboldened, Xiaoxin declared, "I'm so brave! I can tell stories as confidently as a teacher!"

Other children then shared their own tales: outwitting the Monkey King for the banana fan, sibling quarrels, adventures at Grandma's house, and more. Each story was original, born from the children's imaginations. The audience listened enthralled, while even typically shy students stepped forward, inspired by their peers.

Mr. Xiao observed that this innovative approach significantly boosted the children's courage and oral expression. Breaking from traditional methods to let children lead storytelling brought unexpected rewards. Let us sit down and listen to them.  

Project introduction:

Qiaojia Preschools of the Future Project (POF) is funded by the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, and HPP cooperates with Qiaojia Education and Sports Bureau to assist in the implementation of the "One village, One preschool" policy. The project takes early education as the entry point, improves the hardware facilities and teaching aids of preschool classes and organizes professional and systematic training for teachers regularly. The project team regularly supervises preschool classes to help teachers solve difficulties and problems in daily teaching activities. In addition, the preschool classes have set up the parent committee, carried out parent training and promoted preschool-home co-education. The project focuses on play-based teaching, provides tools such as teacher management kits and teaching materials, improves the coverage of preschool education in rural areas, and improves the quality of preschool education in rural areas, so that more children can receive high-quality preschool education.

This article represents the views of the author and does not represent the views or positions of the donor.