It was a reading day at PlusKids, and we found our surprises in the garden of knowledge.
Together with the children we read "The Cookie Mouse and the Surprise in the Garden", a story that carried us into an adventure full of imagination and gentle lessons. Reading in a group has an advantage solitary reading does not: after every page someone can stop to ask a question, and children's questions take the discussion in directions you never expect. That is how they end up talking about the characters, their motives and what they would have done in their place — taking, without knowing it, their first steps in analysing a text.
Our team of teachers built educational and interactive activities around the book, so that the story would not end with the last page. A well-chosen text bears a great deal: it can be retold, drawn, acted out, and each time the child returns to it with a different kind of attention.
At PlusKids we champion reading, because it is the skill that supports every other subject: a child who reads easily understands the wording of a problem faster, follows an explanation better and writes more coherently. That is why every child enrolled in before school or after school received a subscription to the Bookster library.
Reading opens doors onto new worlds — and at their age, those doors open most easily of all.