The arrival of shorter days and longer nights up here in the Northern hemisphere is a bit of conundrum for me. I love the autumn weather and watching the trees change color but seriously do not love getting up for work while it’s still dark outside. However, all year round I love picture books featuring night-time themes. It might have something to do with how easy it is to recommend them as bedtime stories. It makes sense that reading books that take place at night will suit the situation of getting kids ready for bed as the sun goes down. Or, perhaps I am just into the visual aesthetic of night-time scenes and enjoy the many creative ways that illustrators portray them with shadows and glowing images. Whatever the reasons, I thought this was the perfect time of year to share some of my favorite night-themed picture-books with you all. Noisy Night by…
Category: Early Literacy
Early Literacy Program Ideas for Your Library!
Storytime is an essential part of children’s librarianship; it is the first time children are in a more “formal” environment to learn and develop school-readiness skills, and parents and caregivers learn more about early literacy skills. While we try to touch upon the five early literacy practices in our storytimes, there are other engaging early literacy programs that hit these skills! In this post, I will highlight some early literacy program ideas that you can create for your library. Playdough Playtime Who doesn’t love playdough? With this program, your patrons will be able to cover all five early literacy practices! The key to this program is having the right playdough mats for the children to work with. I have been conducting this program for over a year now and it continues to grow because it is fun and educational. Some playmats that I have provided include the alphabet, numbers, nursery…
The Science of Reading: A Primer for Children’s Library Staff
I hope you enjoyed last month’s post called Understanding the Simple View of Reading. I am grateful for the positive feedback I have received. I think that it is vital for children’s library staff to understand how reading develops and how to support it. To inform how I teach my children’s library services and children’s literature courses, I recently joined the International Literacy Association. I immediately noticed many of the emerging resources are about something I have also been hearing a lot about in news media, as well as things like Reading Rockets. You may have heard about it recently too: The Science of Reading. What is the Science of Reading? The term “The Science of Reading” collectively refers to the vast, interdisciplinary body of research evidence gathered and published over several decades about how proficient reading and writing develop and how to prevent and address reading difficulties. It is important to note that…
Understanding The Simple View of Reading
Kids need to have strong language comprehension skills because these will ensure they have a good understanding of what words mean when they say them, hear them, sign them, or read them. They also need good decoding skills because they need to know precisely how letters represent the sounds that make up different words. Kids who can do both, can read.
Storytime Felt Board Fun!
To make storytime a more interactive experience, storytime felt boards sets can be beneficial and used in different ways. Felt pieces can add a visual element to songs and provide an opportunity for children to be a part of the storytelling process. In this post, I will give you tips on how you can create felt pieces for storytime and some examples!
Preschool Outreach Programs
Last month, I began a mini-series on preschool outreach programs and wrote about a program on symmetry. This month, I’ll share a program with a physics focus.
What Does It Mean To Foster Early Writing?
A library colleague and mother of a preschooler, recently remarked that she feels confident about how to promote her son’s early literacy development through talking, singing, reading, and playing. Despite being familiar with ECRR2, however, she is unsure exactly how to nurture emergent writing. If my colleague, who is embedded in the public library world, is unsure about what it looks like to support early writing, she is likely not alone. Are we doing all we can to effectively convey and model what it means to foster early writing and why it’s so important?
Preschool Outreach Programs
I love doing traditional preschool outreach storytimes. Sharing great books and fun flannels? Singing and dancing to silly songs? I’m there for it. However, a friend at another library inspired me to expand my repertoire. I added preschool outreach programs to highlight STEM-focused (science, technology, engineering, and math) picture books and offer opportunities for preschoolers to engage in a different way than storytimes. Over the next few months, I’ll highlight some success stories and look forward to hearing how YOU shake things up in outreach!