Pull-Back Books

Cars and Reading at the Same Time?!?

Materials:

• Pull-back books from Usborne Books and More

Skills:

• Reading
• Fine motor skills
• Positional words
• Visual discrimination
• Prediction

Age: 3 and up

My little boys love many things, but they absolutely LOVE anything related to cars, trucks, trains, planes... anything that "goes." That alone was a good reason for me to be excited about these books. The books combine a simple story with a vehicle (a helicopter in this case) that drives around a track in the story. SO FUN! 

Here is how it works: Each page contains text for the story along with a track for the vehicle to travel on. You pull the vehicle back to wind it up and then release it to travel around the page. We usually watch it travel and then read the words describing the journey that it took. My kids love it! They could make that helicopter follow those paths a hundred times if I let them.

Now this is where the teacher in me gets super excited. I am already happy about anything that helps kids to engage in a story, but there is more. The text of the story follows the path that the helicopter takes, so children can practice tracing their fingers along a path as the words are read (or the helicopter is traveling). Also, (and this is the coolest part) the story is FILLED with positional words. Nice! Positional words is a skill that preschool kids should be working on, and it is one of the hardest things to comprehend. What is the difference between "in front" and "behind?" "Above" or "below?" For some reason this is such a hard thing for kids to grasp, but having it reinforced in a fun and engaging way is amazing!  

I am a person who loves any good book, but these books make me downright excited because they find a way to engage children in reading in a unique way while all along they are reinforcing an important skill. Perfect!

[Disclaimer: I am an independent consultant for Usborne Books & More, however, they do not employ me to review their books or compensate me in any way for my reviews. These are my personal thoughts and do not reflect the views of the company.]