Picture This! Using Picture Books in the Classroom
Picture Books for Preschoolers
If you work with preschool-age children, you will be able to begin higher-level literacy concepts with picture books. These include:
Retelling Recalling what happened in the story. This can include remembering the characters, setting, problem, and solution.
Making connections Children can understand what is happening in a book and relate it to a situation going on in their lives.
Practicing rhyme As you read, you can stop at a word and practice rhyming skills with your students.
Cause and Effect Books like, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie explore the relationship between action and outcome. If one thing happens, it will cause another thing to occur.
Picture Walks
Preschool-age children can begin to better understand the concept of picture walks. Picture walks happen when teachers take the time to solely take a look at just the pictures before beginning to read, looking at each illustration page by page. While doing this, teachers can ask students questions about what they think will happen and engage in conversation about the text. Picture walks are a wonderful way to get students excited about reading a story, as it gives them just a taste of what is to come. It ignites their curiosity, and they will be curious to see if their predictions are correct.