Books provide many wonderful opportunities for learning, expression and exploration.

Reading books with children has clear benefits and opportunities for their development of early literacy skills, communication skills, and social skills. Reading books is not only beneficial for cognitive development and language development, reading books also encourages children to make sense of what they see, hear or even touch! Books provide a window into another world, a mechanism for sharing, creating and exploring ideas, and a way to learn about the world around us. The stories they tell spark our curiosity and immerse us in worlds of wonder and imagination, imploring us to ask ourselves “what if...?”. A book can act as a bridge to make a bond with a child, or provide a way to create a ritual and comfort for a child, for example reading a book before bedtime. 

Books are an important part of our everyday curriculum at Treetops, we have dedicated reading areas in each of our rooms with a range of books, and the teachers in each room regularly read books with the children. Books are often used as provocations in children’s learning, the ideas, images, stories, words and knowledge in books provide children with a means to ponder, wonder, reflect, explore and question their own ideas and theories. 

This year, during our annual book week, the children and teachers were invited to bring in books from home to share. 

Parents and whānau were encouraged to come along during the week and read books with the children, providing them with an opportunity to be a part of their children’s learning at Treetops. 

Our teachers also took the opportunity during book week to spend some time reading with the children in their room, and the other rooms in the centre. 

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go,” - Dr Seuss.