The International Preschools library curriculum is based on the premise that young children deserve high quality books, which reflect their own experience and encourage them to imagine experiences beyond their own, books which satisfy their innate curiosity and which invite them to dream. The emphasis of the curriculum is to encourage young children to desire to read for information as well as pleasure and to encourage reading readiness.
Reading readiness includes:
- Print awareness and print incentive
- Phonemic awareness
- Sustained attention
- Factual knowledge
The children are introduced to the concepts of:
- Author
- Illustrator
- Story structure
- Book categories and organization
The International Preschools library is a lending library. Children learn to care for books, take turns with books, and return books.
The curriculum is presented using picture books, story telling, puppetry, music and finger plays. The literacy needs of each class are incorporated.
All the children have the following literacy needs: To hear rhythmic language, rhymes, chants, and song.
- The red rooms need all of the above plus: to participate in using repetitious books, point-and-say books, books that pose simple questions, simple stories with predictable plots.
- The green rooms need all of the above plus: simple stories that can be dramatized, counting rhymes and songs, repetition of captivating phrases.
- The pre-Kindergarten rooms need all of the above plus: to retell or memorize stories, to use characters and situations from literature in socio-dramatic play.
- The Junior Kindergarten class needs all of the above plus: to memorize favorite stories and “read” them; to sustain interest in stories with more plot and character development; to enjoy stories that explore basic concepts, human emotions, relationships; and to distinguish between real/make-believe or good/bad behavior.
(Based on Lamme, Cox, Matanzo, & Olson and Papalia & Olds.)