Our Core Book Approach

Our Core Book Approach
The core books for 3 to 4 year olds
1. “AHHH!” Said Stork

2. A Dark, Dark Tale
3. Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?
4. Dear Zoo
5. Goldilocks and the 3 Bears
6. Handa’s Surprise
7. Jack and the Beanstalk
8. Ketchup on Your Cornflakes
9. Mr Magnolia
10. Owl Babies
11. Peace At Last
12. Rosie’s Walk
13. Shark in the Park
14. So Much
15. Ten in the Bed
16. The 3 Billy Goats Gruff
17. The 3 Little Pigs
18. The Tiger Who Came to Tea
19. The Very Busy Spider
20. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
21. Titch
22. Walking Through the Jungle
23. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
24. Whatever Next
25. Where the Wild Things Are
26. Who Sank the Boat
Delivery: What it looks like in practice
Children are introduced to a new book. They are read the story during three
carpet sessions across the week and an interactive display of the story is set up
in the classrooms. The displays often contain props and resources supporting
the retelling of the story with key vocabulary and a series of questions to
promote higher order thinking. These sessions are sometimes whole class,
sometimes in small key groups. Each class has a different core book –
potentially there are three core books available for every child every day which
complement the book corners which are well stocked with a range of quality
children’s fiction and non-fiction.
The core book is added clearly to the plan and multiple copies of the book are
available for children to access independently.
During week two, the core book is repeatedly read to children with more
depth and questioning where appropriate. Children are now familiar with the
book and can repeat parts and may be beginning to know parts by heart and
make correct assumptions about what may happen next. These more dialogic
style reading sessions happen in the second week when the children are ready
to investigate a story in more depth.
Parents are involved. Each book has a going home set of 8 and across the
second week children in each keygroup take the core book packs home to look
at with their parents and carers. The packs contain not only the actual book
sometimes in another language, but also a clear set of ideas and questions and
activities parents can engage in with their child at home. Sometimes they
contain songs and rhymes for example, ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’ for Whatever
Next. They contain some examples of vocabulary that we would like the
children to know, practice and use. These home learning packs are brought
back to school the next day so that the next keygroup can take them home.
The packs contain web links specifically to animation of the story available to
support children and families who have English as an additional language and
families for whom reading is a difficulty, for example,
So Much:
https://www.oliverthomas.org.uk/courses/so-much-read-by-ramzana/
or Handa’s Surprise:
http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyIV_xYi0as
It also means that children are acquiring some IT knowledge simultaneously.

The parental involvement we know when maximised, creates a deeper
learning with knowledge from school entering the home and vice versa.
Parents as first educators is something we wholly embrace here at Oliver
Thomas.
With our core book approach, we know we are increasing the vocabulary of all
of our children especially those with English as an additional language and
those coming from households with impoverished language models. We are
creating a love for books and a curiosity for print and meaning and the
continued development of imagination, communication and language.
We recognise that many of the books on our list are iconic and therefore
represent a part of our culture, therefore we can associate the book
knowledge with cultural capital – for example, across generations there is a
knowledge of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Next steps for our approach:

• To translate the parent cards into various languages represented here at
Oliver Thomas
• To differentiate the packs, for example to have some books and packs
specifically for the children with SEND and / or to create some book
packs which are challenging for the more able
• To translate all the web addresses in the packs into QR codes for easier
access to the links.
• To add all links with thumbnail pictures of the books to the Oliver
Thomas website
The core books for 2 to 3 year olds
1. Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?

2. Dear Zoo
3. Don’t Put Your Finger Jelly Nelly
4. Farm 123
5. From Head to Toe
6. It’s Mine
7. Just Like Jasper
8. Monkey and Me
9. Oh Dear!
10. Rosie’s Walk
11. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
12. Walking Through the Jungle
13. Where’s Spot

Our Core Book Approach

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Our Core Book Approach

The core books for 3 to 4 year olds

1. “AHHH!” Said Stork

It also means that children are acquiring some IT knowledge simultaneously.

Next steps for our approach:

1. Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?

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