How your students can benefit from Literature Studies
Children’s picture books are more than just a good choice for your bedtime routine. These books can open the world for young learners.
This is why we at Junction Box Thinkers are creating a library of Literature Studies for families, homeschoolers or otherwise, that will expand children’s’ minds and help them to grow emotionally and socially.
Every study will focus on a single picture book. From there, children and their parents will be able to choose from multiple activities to light up a map of neuropathways. These activities include:
- Learning new words
- Engaging in age-appropriate discussion
- Listening and dancing to music
- Creating a piece of art
- Playing a game or two
- Enjoying a delicious recipe
- Exploring the outside world
- And more!
“That sounds like a lot of stuff. How am I supposed to do all of that?”
Yeah, it’s quite the compilation. If you were to do it all, we think it would take five hours or five 1-hour lessons.
But the study is built to be like a buffet: a little of this, a little of that, but one item and bite at a time.
We do suggest that you reread the focus book for the study every day you visit an activity (repetition is the key to retention, and young kids are obsessed doing the same thing over and over again anyways). After you read, choose one or two activities:
- Day 1: Vocabulary and game
- Day 2: Music and art
- Day 3: Discussion and recipe
- Day 4: Music and game
- Day 5: Discussion and field trip
Again, these are only suggestions. Feel free to do what fits your family.
“Picture books are awesome for little kids, but I bet my older kids would find them boring.”
Most would believe that picture books to be for the preschool age group and maybe a little older (and we do include the publisher’s age suggestion for the book). However, Junction Box Thinkers finds these books to be just as valuable to upper elementary as well as those with special needs.
Older elementary can easily practice public speaking in reading a picture book to a younger sibling. A child with dyslexia or ADHD can benefit from the larger print. Those that have difficulty with reading comprehension can better follow the story because of the pictures. These books can make complicated subject matter more digestible to those that struggle with understanding and empathy of others.
So without further ado, our first Literature Study:
Published in the 1940s, ‘Caps for Sale’ is an adorable adaption of a Russian folktale about a cap peddler and the monkey business he gets into. The story is full of humor and focuses on the theme of self-concern and problem solving.
Interested in future Literature Studies? Enter your email here to join our mailing list!
Never read this book before? Check out our Read Aloud HERE . (You can find all of our read-alouds HERE.)
Got some ideas on future Literature Studies? Leave a comment below!