Westminster College Participated in One Book, Every Young Child Program
Posted on Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Westminster College participated in Pennsylvania's One Book, Every Young Child program through Westminster's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
The program, in its fourth year, highlights the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers. There are 560,000 children in the targeted age group, many of whom are in the state's childcare facilities, Head Start programs, and licensed preschools or kindergartens.
The Drinko Center received 20 copies of this year's selection, Wendell and Florence Minor's If You Were a Penguin, as part of an AmeriCorps grant from PennSERVE and the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Drinko Center, in turn, distributed 14 of the books to students in the Westminster College Preschool Lab and six to children in the Walker Neighborhood House after-school program.
As part of the Preschool Lab's Week of the Young Child celebration, Westminster College President Dr. Richard H. Dorman read If You Were a Penguin to the preschool students.
The program is a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare; Children's Museum of Pittsburgh; Please Touch Museum; State Museum of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Library Association; Pennsylvania Public Television Network; Pennsylvania Center for the Book; Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children; The Pennsylvania Child Care Association; PennSERVE; HSLC/Access PA; and Verizon.
The sponsoring agencies believe in strongly supporting early literacy efforts, according to Bethany South, who serves as PACC*VISTA for the Drinko Center. The agencies work together to develop a multi-faceted program accessible to all areas and populations of the state.
Through the program, adults with preschoolers learn to support the development of literacy in preschool children by reading aloud and sharing books, stories, and related activities that have been shown to be crucial to early learning.
Contact South at (724) 946-6194 or e-mail southba@westminster.edu for additional information. Visit www.pennserve.state.pa.us for more information about PennSERVE.
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