At the daycare centre Perno-Pansion päiväkoti’s Heinikonkatu unit, new methods have been introduced to promote reading. A library room with a reading hut has been built in the daycare centre, inviting children to pause and enter the world of stories.
In the calm library room, the reading hut decorated with white curtains and cushions looks so inviting that even an adult would like to sit down there with a book. Making reading attractive and a close part of everyday life at the daycare centre are key goals in Perno-Pansio.
Perno-Pansion päiväkoti consists of three municipal daycare centres. Of these, the daycare centres Heinikonkatu and Hyrköistentie are located further away from Pansio Library. Trips to the library are easier for older children than for younger ones. The situation is different at the Pernontie unit, which is located close to the library. When the library is far away, the library has been brought to the daycare centre, supporting access to a diverse range of literature.
Promoting reading is a shared goal in the area
The concrete progress made in promoting reading is largely thanks to Henna Kokkala, who works as a language and culture teacher in early childhood education at the Heinikonkatu unit of Perno-Pansion päiväkoti. In cooperation networks, Kokkala has been called a true reading heroine. Kokkala, however, highlights the importance of cooperation with the library and the project planner for reading work in the Kirjasto täynnä lapsia project, as well as teamwork within the daycare centres.
– Promoting reading is a shared matter and a shared goal. And everyone at our daycare centre has become enthusiastic about it. Groups have visited the daycare centre’s own library to read and to borrow books for their groups and for reading outdoors. You can read anywhere.
As part of the City of Turku’s literacy strategy, Perno-Pansio has established its own working group for promoting reading. The group includes different actors from the local primary school, youth centre and organisations.
– I am very happy that the working group for promoting reading will be able to continue its work to develop literacy in the area also next school year, says Kokkala.
Supporting literacy and children’s linguistic development has always been important in early childhood education, but its significance has only grown.
– Literacy work is important and needs to be developed. This is especially true because recent studies have brought worrying news about the decline in children’s and young people’s reading skills, Kokkala says.
It is important for adults to act as reading role models. For this reason, Kokkala sees closer cooperation between the daycare centre and the library as an important future development project, helping families find their way to the library.
– It would be important for parents to also discover the services of their local library. One idea is to hold the daycare centre’s parents’ evening at the library, Kokkala says. In the calm library room, the reading hut decorated with white curtains and cushions looks so inviting that even an adult would like to sit down there with a book. Making reading attractive and a close part of everyday life at the daycare centre are key goals in Perno-Pansio.
Perno-Pansion päiväkoti consists of three municipal daycare centres. Of these, the daycare centres Heinikonkatu and Hyrköistentie are located further away from Pansio Library. Trips to the library are easier for older children than for younger ones. The situation is different at the Pernontie unit, which is located close to the library. When the library is far away, the library has been brought to the daycare centre, supporting access to a diverse range of literature.
Early childhood education teacher Henna Kokkala (left) shows childcare worker Inka Törnqvist the newest books in the daycare center’s library.
The reading hut in the library room is always open
Heinikonkatu’s own library room with its reading hut was completed in October–November 2025. Each group can reserve the library room in the booking calendar on the door whenever the room is available. Retreating to the reading hut with books and stories brings much-needed calm to the lively everyday life of the daycare centre. Books can also be borrowed from the library room for use in the groups.
The daycare centre library also has a shared song bag available for the groups. The song bag has been put together in cooperation with the group staff. The songs in the bag were originally collected for outdoor music play. Like books, songs and rhymes support linguistic development.
– In terms of a child’s development, it is already far too late if support for literacy only begins when the child starts school. It is important to read aloud to children from infancy. This helps children get used to hearing stories, supports the growth of their vocabulary and allows them to hear the rhythms of language, giving their linguistic development a good start, Kokkala reminds us.
The library room was furnished using treasures from the storerooms of the daycare centre, which was built back in 1980. Beautiful role-play costumes also hang on hangers in the room, allowing characters from the stories to be brought to life. The library’s book collection, which changes monthly, is on loan from Turku City Library.
A bedtime story from the entrance hall library
In Perno-Pansio’s municipal daycare centres, reading, songs and rhymes have been consciously increased in everyday life to support the development of literacy. At the start of rest periods, children are also read a nap-time story before calming music is played. During rest periods, the Lukulumo app designed for early childhood education or audio stories are used. Families’ reading is also supported with bedtime story library boxes located in the entrance halls of the groups.
The entrance hall bedtime story libraries for borrowing books were introduced in the Heinikonkatu groups in January 2026. The books were donated from the library’s withdrawn books. Each group in the daycare centre now has bedtime storybooks that parents can easily borrow. Each library always contains as many books as there are children in the group, meaning 21 books. The books rotate between the groups each month.
Inside the books there is a bookmark that serves as a loan card, making it possible to know where each book is. A book can be borrowed home for 1–3 days. The groups’ entrance halls also include book tips for parents behind QR codes.
– The entrance hall libraries have been well received, and the books are being borrowed nicely, Kokkala says happily.
The good practices have also inspired the Hyrköistentie unit of Perno-Pansio, where a library room and entrance hall libraries have also been built.
Parents can borrow a bedtime storybook from the entrance hall library.
The dream is a library of multilingual literature
Perno-Pansio is a multicultural area, and around twenty different languages are spoken in the families of the daycare centres.
– Arabic, Romani, Ukrainian, Russian, Estonian and Somali are the most widely spoken language groups. One dream for the future is to have more multilingual books in our bedtime story library for families. Of course, picture books can also be used as bedtime stories by telling the child your own story based on the pictures. Like reading, this develops the child’s linguistic skills, Kokkala points out.
Audiobooks are also one tool for multilingualism in the daycare centre’s own story sessions. The Lukulumo app offers audio stories in several different languages. A multilingual story also offers important insights for children whose mother tongue is Finnish.
– We can first listen to a story in Ukrainian, for example, and then in Finnish. For children who speak Finnish as their mother tongue, it is a valuable developmental experience to understand what it feels like to listen to a story in a completely unfamiliar language, Kokkala says.