Blogger Ariel Barreras

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…

Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Strengthening Underserved Communities through Collaboration Between Librarians and Media Specialists.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, access to knowledge and information is crucial for the growth and development of every individual, especially our underserved populations. Librarians in public libraries and media specialists in schools play significant roles in fostering the love for learning, promoting literacy, and empowering communities. When these professionals collaborate, their partnerships can become a force for positive change, extending informative and educational opportunities to those who need it most. In this blog post, we will explore what synergy between librarians and media specialists in supporting underserved communities may look like.   Before delving into a partnership, you should understand the uniqueness of both Librarians in public libraries and Media Specialists in schools. This is vital because it allows for targeted support and resource allocation in their respective environments. Recognizing their distinct roles enables the development of specialized programs and services that cater to the diverse needs of their…

Guest Blogger

Too Many Toys: Recovering Library Programming and Play Spaces

Play food scattered atop a table in the children's play area with other toys on the surrounding floor.

Have you ever looked around the library and wondered where all the toys came from? Or who was going to clean them up? Did it make you want to cry? Or maybe kick and scream and have a bit of tantrum? I’ve been there, and I’m guessing you have, too. Whether you’re looking at a public floor play space or programming toys, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Supporting play in libraries often means giving children and caregivers access to many toys and activities. Open-ended toys provide more learning opportunities, but often means more loose parts. If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen something that would be just perfect for your program or space and purchased it. But when does it become too many toys? Can you recover? Let me tell you what my library did.

Blogger Kirsten Caldwell

Using PBS as a Resource

I recently had the amazing experience of being a member of the PBS kids community learning cohort through PBS Wisconsin and I want to share some of the amazing resources they have available. PBS Kids PBS Kids has online games, videos, shows, and even apps that are all free to access. They are educational, simple, fun, and great for kids. I recommend this app to any parent who asks me for a good recommendation. PBS Parents PBS Parents has articles, access to all of the shows, coloring sheets, activities that have been planned that they can do with their kids, and more. They can answer some questions like what age their child is, what show they like, and what they are looking for, and PBS will present them with a list of activities! They also have a newsletter which I subscribed to because they are always sending out new and…