Chabad Early Childhood of the Shluchim Office launches a new curriculum that promotes growth and development in literacy skills and reading exposure. The new series titled “Book Buddies” is a literacy based learning series that features a Jewish book each month along with a lesson plan, accompanying activities and hands-on explorations that bring the learning to life.
“”This curriculum goes beyond just reading a story, to elaborating subtle and complex elements of literacy,” wrote Wendy Drezek PhD, Author of Early Literacy and Nature Curricula. “In addition, it provides multimodal supporting materials for extending and enriching the learning and engaging each learner.”
Early literacy is a current trend in early childhood education that prepares students for future development of reading and writing skills. Exposing young children to letters, sounds, vocabulary and the retelling of stories prepares them to build foundational literacy skills. The beauty of “Book Buddies” is that while working on these fundamental skills students are exposed to Jewish values and concepts that come alive through the books selected and the lesson plans that are included.
“As a preschool teacher, I found well chosen books to be a very effective way of conveying values, concepts and skills to my students, so I started to use them as the foundation and focal points for my units.,” shared curriculum writer Mrs. Devorah Weiss. “It’s been so incredible to bring my favorite childrens’ books to life while reinforcing important values and skills in a fun and meaningful way. I hope it will be just as fun to implement in classrooms all over the world!”
Instilling Jewish pride and developing moral values are core principles of a Chabad preschool and the base on which these lessons were built upon. Each fun and innovative unit will have students enthralled by Jewish concepts and exciting hands-on activities. Teachers will discover how to start their lesson plan with a book as the foundation and then extract core values and develop them into practical classroom activities. This method ensures that the students are learning on a multi-sensory level and have the most opportunities for skills development.
For more information, email cecadmin@shluchim.org or visit chabadearlychildhood.com.
Chabad Early Childhood is a project of the Shluchim Office, supported by the Walder Foundation.
