ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to introduce activities for using meaningful texts with children that have been successful in an Early Years classroom. The activities outlined here are designed to allow children to demonstrate what they already know, as well as educating them in new lessons about reading. The chapter documents the theory behind using Big Books. As well as promoting comprehension skills, Big Books can be used to look carefully at features of print. Big Books were devised as a way of making stories available to a wider audience. Because the children were copying behaviour that they had seen in adults, many of them became adept at reading with the book held next to them, teacher-style, showing the pictures and questioning their very attentive audience. Group reading around multiple copies of the same text provides similar opportunities if the right atmosphere for learning and risk-taking is created.
