About Story Bears
What to expect when you visit Story Bears
Each Story Bears session is unique but they all follow a similar overall structure:
When you arrive with your little one, there will be a circle of mats, and books and toys out for them to explore until the start of the session, when we start with our welcome song.
We then move on to enjoying that session’s story together. Some children prefer sitting still and paying close attention while others feel the need to move around. We plan in opportunities for joining in with the story and often use puppets to help increase children's focus. Children are often paying more attention than you think!
After enjoying the story we link ideas from it with some singing, percussion instruments, movement or other games for you to do with your child.
We then all move on to freely explore rich activities connected to the story through things like small world play, sensory trays and crafts.
We encourage you to arrive to the session five minutes before the listed start time.
The benefits of Story Bears
The largest influence on your child’s social and educational development is you. That can sound like a lot of pressure! But the good news is that it only takes small, easy activities to create a really positive effect that will last the rest of their lives. The talking, reading and singing you share with your little one through their early years are some of most important things you can do for them. By doing so, you are laying the foundations of their language development and setting them up for success!
At Story Bears, our fun and friendly sessions are full of language development opportunities, as well as providing your child with plenty of rich learning possibilities linked to the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) framework of the National Curriculum. Our carefully crafted sessions meet the EYFS framework through stories, songs, percussion and play, as well as the opportunity for personal and social development among children of a similar age.
Stories
Stories are an unbelievably great tool for building your little one’s vocabulary and research shows it’s never too early to start sharing books together - in fact there are several benefits:
Sharing books aloud (even after a child is able to read most things for themselves) helps us to model more diverse language to our children. The more different words they hear, the more of them they learn to use.
Books about experiences outside of their own lives teach our children about the world and the vocabulary needed to talk about it.
Picture books are visually helping children to see and make sense of the language they are hearing, anchoring its meaning for them.
Story Bears aims to be an additional spoke in the wheel in helping your child find joy in what they read and sharing books, setting them up on a journey of a life long passion for reading. After all, avid readers are shown to have bigger brains, more academic success, strong imaginations and great empathy!
Songs
Did you know songs help with your child’s early understanding of maths? The repeating elements of nursery rhymes help your child identify patterns and anticipate what comes next. Rhymes also help to develop awareness of phonics (the different sounds in words) in your child - an essential pre-reading skill!
Action songs are brilliant at reinforcing your child’s coordination as well as building strength and balance for fine and gross motor movement.
At Story Bears we offer a variety of recorded music and familiar nursery rhymes to sing together - we feel it is important to include nursery rhymes so it is accessible for your child and easily revisited beyond the sessions.
Percussion
Our particular favourite instruments are shakers, rhythm sticks and of course our bodies! Musical instruments are a great way for you child to express themselves and experiment with cause and effect. They build your little one’s hand-eye coordination, and gross and fine motor skills. Making sounds with instruments also develop your child’s ability to discern between spoken sounds (it’s sometimes difficult to remember children don’t start out being able to hear the difference between ‘pit’ and ‘pick’, for example!) which will help their reading and spelling later on. We include plenty of songs in our sessions that help build your child’s repertoire of musical skills - playing along to a beat, playing fast and slow or loud and quiet.
Play
Play is fundamental to your child’s development. It’s where children can explore and push the boundaries of their understanding of the world and other people. Having opportunities for children to self-direct their play and build on what interested them in the story is really important to us at Story Bears and we love seeing what ideas they come up with! Our play stations give your child chance to revisit the characters or events in the story and bring them to life in the real world. We offer lots of opportunities for mark making, manipulating materials, constructing, sorting, filling and emptying; all of which cover a multitude of areas within the EYFS framework.
What age does my child need to be to attend?
Our classes are mixed aged aimed at children 4 years and below. We think it is never too early to start exposing your little one to stories and songs, and socialising in a group! Our sensory play trays often include ‘taste-safe’ materials, so you may want to have introduced solid food before you start coming along. But there will still be plenty to enjoy even if your child isn’t there yet!
I worry about attending classes because my child finds it tricky to sit still, how should I handle this?
Children have an innate desire to move their little bodies and that’s ok! At Story Bears, we’re prepared for every type of paying attention - some children sit still and show their focus more obviously, some move around or play with toys and only show how much they’ve been paying attention when they join in with a rhyme or missing word out of nowhere! The important thing is that in our sessions, we give children the opportunity to engage with a fun activity rather than trying to make them join in in a particular way. Our session leaders are patient, used to being around young children, and want every child to leave having had a great time!
What if I can’t make a session that I’ve booked?
Sometimes a child is sick or things come up unexpectedly. You’re able to reschedule a booking to a different day and/or venue up to 1 hour before the start time. Simply go to your booking confirmation email and hit the Reschedule Session button. Or if you feel you need to cancel, email chat@storybears.co.uk up until 12 hours before the session start time and you will be issued credit to use in the future. We do not offer refunds or credits on special one-off sessions.
FAQ
Why do you ask about allergies?
Wherever possible, our sensory trays contain ‘taste safe’ materials, meaning they have been made from food and we don’t have to worry as much if they end up in little mouths! We need to know if anyone has any allergies so that we can make adjustments if needed. If you are concerned about attending with an allergy please get in touch.
Can I bring my child’s brother or sister too?
Yes! We charge a top-up of £2 for a sibling over 6 months. When you book, tick the Sibling box above the calendar. Then on completing your booking make sure you put in the second child’s details. Siblings under 6 months are welcome to join your other child for free.
Can more than one adult attend?
Sure! Both parents are welcome to attend or you can bring along a grandparent too!
Do you have more questions?
