Playing Book Level 3-5

Playing tells the joyful story of two children engaging in cooperative play with various toys. Through repetition, rhyme, and predictable patterns, this book fosters foundational reading skills and supports social learning. Children are introduced to plurals and phonemes such as œd and œp, with vocabulary centred around familiar playroom items like dinosaurs, blocks, and puzzles. This narrative encourages children to recognise onsets and rimes in words, and understand how meaning is built through visual and structural text cues. With its strong themes of cooperation, friendship, and shared experiences, Playing is ideal for reinforcing positive classroom interactions and promoting literacy through familiar, engaging content.

Educational Benefits:

• Develops social-emotional learning through cooperative themes.
• Builds understanding of plural word forms and phonemic awareness.
• Encourages use of story structure to model independent writing.
• Strengthens left-to-right directionality and reading fluency.

Classroom Ideas:

• Ask students to bring or draw their favourite toy and describe it.
• Reenact the story using classroom toys.
• Use a photo walk activity where students document their play.
• Write a class book about things students like to play with.

Safety & Information:

• Ages: 4+
• Book dimensions: 14.5cm x 16.5cm; 16 pages
• Ensure all classroom toys used are age-appropriate and clean.
• Adult supervision recommended for use of cameras or tablets.