The creative adult is the child who survived.
– Ursula K. Le Guin

An article on the NAEYC website that provides tips for families about supporting children’s early literacy explains:

”Preschoolers may enjoy co-authoring books with you. They can draw pictures and dictate text…Writing together helps children feel their stories are worthwhile and coaches them to think about the components of storytelling such as the concept of beginning, middle and end. You are also showing them that written words have meaning to people.”

This same strategy applies in an early childhood classroom. In the beautiful bilingual book, Treasures in the Thicket, part of the Reimagining Our Work (ROW) collection, educators Bethica Quinn and Rosalina Rodriguez discuss ways to maximize the experience of creating class books together.

Treasures in the Thicket tells the story of the authors’ preschool class creating a book about the animals of San Francisco (where their school was located) to be given as a gift to children in New Zealand during a study tour Bethica and Rosalina were planning.

As the authors deeply explored the children’s creative process, they discovered “treasures” about how children’s representational expression revealed their thought processes, values and culture. These discoveries are shared throughout the book. And, because the children’s entire book is included within the full book, other educators might choose to read that book to the children in their own groups as inspiration and provocation.

This is such an excellent resource for any educator wanting to explore book creation with preschoolers that Exchange would like to offer it at a very supportive price.