Sharing Picture Books with Preschool Teachers

This week, I got the chance to speak in front of preschool teachers during an in-service day about children’s literature trends and share some great new titles that have been published in the past couple of years. The preschool reached out to the library looking for some sort of presentation during their in-service day. And I decided, rather than talking about brain development and the importance of early literacy (which is always important) I wanted to offer these teachers valuable information that they could take back to their classrooms and implement almost immediately.

I started the presentation talking about children’s literature trends; themes you’re likely to see in picture books – acceptance, inclusion, empathy, diversity, own voices. I shared the quote from Rudine Sims Bishop, “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.”

Then I shared 45 titles that have been published in 2015, 2016, and 2017 giving a brief book talk about the story as well as offering an easy extension activity for each title. These extension activities don’t take a lot of times or supplies, but it’s a great way to create a full lesson plan around sharing a story. I focused on combining fiction with nonfiction, sharing songs and fingerplays, other titles that focus on the same theme, art experiences or movement activities for the titles. Each teacher received a complete list of titles and extension activities before my presentation started, so they were able to just to follow along and flip through the books I brought with as we discussed each one!