PAINT THE WESTSIDE REaD

Adelaide Miethke Preschool is proud to be a partner of the Paint the Westside REaD program. This program is a joint initiative of the Department of Education preschools, children’s centres and schools in the Inner West Partnership, The City of Charles Sturt and Uniting SA.

In 2017 children across our community grew an egg by reading, singing, talking and dancing with it in our preschools, children’s centres and community spaces. From this egg hatched Lizzie the Literacy Lizard. You may have seen the book HELP ME HATCH by Cheryll Johns which was published for the program. Lizzie is the program mascot whose role it is to promote the importance of reading, talking, singing, rhyming and playing with children every day from birth.

Lizzie shares a monthly message about ways families and educators can support children’s literacy development and we use these messages within our program. We aim to have Lizzie visit each term as part of the project. We will also promote Paint the Westside REaD events and holiday programs that Lizzie is involved in.

Every child will receive a Lizzie Library Bag when they begin preschool and will be able to borrow from our children’s borrowing library each week.

We also have a ‘book swap box’ located in the Occasional Care room where families can bring a book they no longer want and swap it for another from the box.

There will be lots of Lizzie things happening across our centre and the community as we continue to build Lizzie’s profile and share the monthly messages.