Reading chapter books to kids in kindergarten? Wouldn’t they prefer a picture book more on their level of reading? Well, sometimes. It is important to read books at a kindergarten level, but it is also important to read chapter books to kindergarteners, as well.
There are many reasons, but here’s a brief overview. Students are exposed to more vocabulary and more complex stories, as well as learning to listen to longer stories. Chapter books also help students to develop their visualization skills with no accompanying pictures, and reading chapter books helps to develop a lifelong love of reading.
Larger Literary Access
By reading chapter books for kindergarten read aloud time, students are exposed to a wider range of literature and literary genres. Chapter books for kids can have many different stories and different genres for your students to learn to love.
Consequently, reading longer books also allows kindergarteners to expand their vocabulary. For this reason, expanding student vocabulary can help students enjoy different genres. Moreover, it gives students the chance to experience new, complex stories. The more complex stories require better focus as well as ensuring your students are hooked on what will happen next!
Kindergarten Chapter Books Increase Attention Span
Obviously, keeping the attention of kindergarteners can be a difficult task. Surprisingly, reading chapter books can actually help to increase the attention span of these young learners. In fact, getting them hooked on a great chapter book will keep them interested and sitting on the proverbial and literal edge of their seat.
For example, when your students aren’t sure what might happen in the next chapters, they are eager to listen. From time to time, they may even sit quietly and color or work with their Play-Doh while listening to the story. As a result, they will end up listening rather than chatting with their neighbor.
The Best Chapter Books For Kindergarten
Before we discuss more reasons why reading chapter books in kindergarten is a great idea for your read aloud time, I want to make sure you have a great source of books to read. I have taken the time to compile some books that have worked great in my classroom and some that have worked well for other teachers.
Within this post, you will find tips and tricks for picking out the best chapter book for your kindergarten class as well as some great ideas. The Best Chapter Books For Kindergarten will help you!
Help Build Visualization Skills
Now, it may seem like visualization skills in our youngest learners should be a given. However, it is a skill that needs to be practiced and practiced often. Chapter books for kids help to expand the visualization skills of your kindergarteners by allowing them to completely make up the scene in the book themselves.
They make up stories about their favorite cartoon characters and insert them into situations they have seen on tv, experienced at home, or better yet experienced in a book. It is rare for our students in this age of technology to be exposed to a story with no pictures, graphics, or animation of any sort.
By reading a chapter book to your students with no pictures, your students get to create their own images in their minds of what things look like as they are described.
Develop a Love for Kindergarten Chapter Books
Our greatest hope as teachers is that our students develop a love of reading and learning in general. Most of us love it and want to share the love with our students, that’s why we’re teachers.
Certainly, as teachers, we want to encourage and demonstrate reading in the kindergarten classroom. We are giving our students a leg-up in learning to love to read. Soon enough they will be choosing their own stories and books to get lost within.
More Books!
Basically, the more books you expose students to, the better. They will develop a taste for a certain genre of books and crave to know and experience more. This will naturally stimulate their love of learning and reading.
Here is that list of The Best Chapter Books for Kindergarten again for your reference. While you’re looking at that list, please check out these other ideas for great reading. The Best Science Books for Kindergarten, The Best Social Studies Books for Kindergarten, and Back to School Read-Alouds Your Students Will Love are also full of great book ideas.
While you’re busy buying all these books, I have one more thing to share with you. This is a great storage system for keeping all your books in order. This system keeps them visible so your students can read them in your classroom.
Now that you have a list of books to go buy, and a new storage system to check out, I’ll leave you with a few parting thoughts. If you aren’t using chapter books for kids in your kindergarten classroom read aloud, you need to get started.
Ultimately, chapter books for kindergarten will help expose your students to a larger range of literary genres. As students are exposed to a larger range of literary genres, they will also expand their vocabulary. Naturally, their attention span will extend, they will build visualization skills, and develop a love of reading.
Freebies!
To help grab your students’ attention and get them excited about reading chapter books I created these fun bookmarks that your students can color! You can start reading your new chapter book as they color to help grow their attention span! Just click on the link below to grab the freebie!
Free Bookmarks
