Preschool Education - Teaching with Picture Books

Teaching With Picture Books

Picture books are a tool no preschool should be without.  Not only are they easy for little ones to understand and grasp but also they are a hands on teaching tool that works wonders with preschool age children.

Picture books can be in many different forms.  Some just have pictures with a word or sentence under them to describe the picture.  These are great for children because they can learn what the picture is and also the spelling of the word.  The words are usually very simple words and in large letters.  This makes it easier for smaller children to understand.  The can grasp the idea of what a picture is about then as they learn about different letters they can begin to put the letters and sounds together to make the words. 

Other types of picture books have not only pictures and words but also an idea of what the item feels like to the touch.  For instance a picture book about animals may have a lion on one page.  It shows the lion and how it looks, spells the word lion under the picture then also has a piece of material attached to the page that feels like a loins mane.  These types of books really peek the interest of small children.  They want to know how things look and feel.

It also teaches them that they way they perceive something to be isn’t always the way it is. 

If you have a picture book that shows a snake this is one time a child might find it feels different from what they have been told.  Everybody believes snakes to be very slimy creatures.  They aren’t slimy at all.  With a picture book that has a piece of material like a snakes skin the children will learn that some things aren’t as we think they may be. 

Picture books can teach our preschoolers many things about the world around them.  They can find out what different fruits and vegetables feel like or which animals are soft to the touch.  They can learn why things are a certain color or have a certain look to them.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and in the mind of a preschooler a picture can be worth more than that.  It can be a way to learn and appreciate the world around them.