It is important for children to know when it is story time. My class always look forward to listening to some new interesting tales as we have certain time of the week to have a story to tell or a book to read. It can be used as a reward at the end of the week or planned whenever the content fit in with a certain lesson plan.
You can teach a lot of new things to your class and supported by stories to help children with greater and deeper understanding. Stories entertain and through this entertainment it is easier to remember things.
As you teach children it is needless to say how much more they can learn if they are interested in a topic. And who wouldn't be interested if you show them a fancy book cover? Their fantasy starts working on the spot. Their curiosity and their brain suddenly want to know everything about the book that you are holding in front of them. They begin to wonder, Who? Where? When? Why? Who else? Etc...
Here we come, inquiry based learning. It will help children to understand and learn things faster and without you or them make a great effort.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Story books can be used as a base of a role-play so even the shy ones are willing to participate as they have some ready-made sentences to say. Or they can be the part of the chorus and use the language without noticing it. You can also make them use their imagination with some directed questions such as what if...? or what would...? Ask them to predict future happenings as well. So they can practice future tense and conditional.
Best way to teach sequence is to have a book to read. Download pictures, write some sentences or draw about the main happenings, sort children into groups and ask to put sentences into the right order. It helps kids to interact with each other without fear and learn a lot of new things in a fun way.
Do follow up art activities when children can design settings, draw or make the characters to act the story out later.
Of course it needs some preparation beforehand to get all the benefits that an English kids book can offer you. It is also crucial to think about the vocabulary that children are able to understand and to get them involved the content has to fit in with their age and interest.