Reading With Kids: 7 Things to Notice On the Cover

Reading with Kids: 7 Things to Notice on the Cover

When reading together with your child take a moment to notice the following on the cover before you begin;

1. Read the title of the book. You might like to point out the words which make up the title with your finger.

2. Read and point out the name of the author.

3. And the illustrator.

4. Point out any letters which are significant to your child, for example, the first initial of their name.

5. Before reading a book for the first time, look at the cover illustration and talk about any clues you can see which might help you both to understand what the book is about.

6. Look at the spine of the book – point out the title and talk about why a book has a spine, SquiggleMum has a great post about book spines here.

7. Use the correct vocabulary – cover, title, author, words, illustrator, illustrations, spine.

Whilst you might not do all of these things every time, taking time to explore the features of the book cover helps your child to;

Build prior knowledge of what the book is about,
Make predictions, and
Set the purpose for reading,

all of which are important, especially when it comes to comprehending what you (and later they) are reading.

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Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

Posie Patchwork says
October 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM

Ah yes, we used to do all that, just out of interest more so than it being a learning thing, although i now realise all the added extras i did were innate learning . . . & as my 4 are mathematical, we'd read the publishing house details, dates & print information. They all get As for library!! Love Posie
Martianne says
October 25, 2010 at 5:05 PM

As a former teacher and current tutor, I would like to say your tips are right on! These are things I consider natural to do, but many other folks simply don't even think about doing them. So, thank you for spreading these easy literacy ideas!

And, thanks, too, for your great comment on THH. Take a break today, go rake a pile of leaves up and enjoy jumping in! :)
Jamie says
September 7, 2014 at 9:47 AM

Another important thing to have the child guess is if it is a "real story" or "pretend story", informational vs literary (or what we used to call non fiction/ fiction). For example, if it's a picture of a real mouse or a drawing of a mouse wearing clothes.
- Christie Burnett says
  September 7, 2014 at 10:49 AM
  
  Great idea, Jamie :)
Marie says
September 10, 2014 at 4:17 AM

We did all of this with our son's, my husband used to read the Mr Men books to our boys and he would read the title then read the name of the author to them, the funny the is we where playing trivial pursuits with the boys years later and the question came up who was the author of the Mr Men books we all just looked at each other and burst out laughing!

Reading With Kids: 7 Things to Notice On the Cover

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