What is Early Literacy?

True or False? Early literacy begins at birth.

TRUE!

From the moment your baby is born, he or she is constantly taking in and learning new words, ideas, concepts, and emotions. The process of getting ready to read begins long before a child’s first day of kindergarten. Children’s brains are naturally wired to be curious and make connections in the world around them.

Here are just a few examples of ways your baby is showing early literacy development:

• Making sounds
• Imitating facial expressions
• Babbling
• Pointing to pictures
• Turning pages in a book
• Imitating hand movements (i.e., fingerplays)
• Holding a crayon

Early Literacy Defined

"Early literacy refers to what children know about communication, language (verbal and nonverbal), reading, and writing before they can actually read and write. Early literacy encompasses all of a child’s experiences with conversation, stories (oral and written), books, and print."

(Source: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, www.zerotothree.org)

Sing, Talk, and Read, DC (STAR) is a citywide campaign that was initiated by Mayor Vincent C. Gray last year, which focuses on the importance of singing, talking, and reading with your child to help develop early literacy skills.

Singing helps children learn, memorize, and enjoy new words and rhythms. It also helps children break down and understand the smaller sounds and syllables in words. Picture books by Jane Cabrera such as Row, Row Your Boat add fun verses and colorful pictures to already well-known songs and tunes. 

Talking with children through conversation or storytelling increases the amount of words they hear per day, and proportionally increases their vocabularies. Try telling a story to your little one using a wordless picture book by David Wiesner, such as the 2014 Caldecott Honor Winner Mr. Wuffles.

Reading aloud is not only an important bonding experience to have with your child; it is the single most important way to help your child be ready to read. It also helps motivate a child to read for enjoyment. It is never too early to read to your child. According to Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz, the author of Overcoming Dyslexia, a child can gain 1.8 million words per year by reading only 20 minutes a day. Choose to read a story with great new vocabulary words and wonderful rhythm and rhymes such as Grumpy Gloria by Anna Dewdney.

Interested in more early literacy tips?  Attend a storytime at your local library and check back next month for the next tip in this Early Literacy Series.

A Grinchy Program on the Fly

If you read my blog, you know that I like to be overwhelmingly prepared for my programs. I usually describe the process as "spastic" and "overdone".  Sometimes, however, the situation arises where a librarian needs to come up with a program AT THE LAST MINUTE!  That very day!  As an ultimate test to my Type-A-Librarian personality, someone called in sick on a day they were scheduled to do a program.  Being the only Children's Librarian that day, it became my responsibility to come up with something for the 30+ kids that usually show up to this afternoon program.  

Because TIS THE SEASON, and we had a copy on display, and I saw it, I decided to do a read-aloud of the old classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.  I remember seeing the movie many times as a child (and let's face it, every year into adulthood), but I had never read the book.  I know. Bad librarian!  Thinking this may be the case for other children, I wanted to read the book and show the movie, then talk about differences between book and movie adaptations for this school-age (6-12) program.

As I was prepping for the program, I quickly realized the difference between a CD and a DVD. Unfortunately, our library only had a copy of the CD and not the DVD, and I'd sooner die than play the Jim Carrey version (sorry Jimbo), so; first baby step: adapt!  I did not need to explain to the kids that there was not going to be a movie.  They didn't know that was my plan in the first place.  Instead of beginning a program from a place of disappointment, I set off the program by asking who had ever seen the movie.  About half of the children raised their hands.  I then told them that Dr. Seuss wrote the book long before the movie was ever made, which prompted a great discussion on other books-turned-movies, like Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Lorax. Apparently Captain Underpants is even going to have his own movie- I did not know!

I also decided to take advantage of some of the lovely resources that are lurking around in the interwebs.  I love Dr. Seuss's website Seussville. There are so many fun games and printable resources.  I have used them in the past for my "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!" program and Oobleck program.  Seussville has many Grinchy activities, but I liked this activity book most of all.  I spent some time altering the pdf a little bit (BABY STEPS) so I could print out little 4x5" booklets instead of using a few trees' worth of paper (wouldn't the Lorax approve?).  I love this activity because it encourages kids to really think about what acts of kindness and giving can do to make a positive impact in both your and others' lives.  I just had the kids color the booklet and write in their own ideas for good deeds.  They really impressed me with their thoughtfulness and enthusiasm for the mini project.  I explained to a few little ones what "charity" meant and they really liked the idea of donating their old clothes, toys, and books to children in need.  This was a really special group of kids and I think they made MY heart grow at least three sizes that day.

The Muffin Man

I made this Muffin Man "puppet" to dance around as I sing his song during storytime. He is affixed to a long ribbon tied around a wooden stick. He is very flexible and has some great dance moves.

Materials:

• Felt 
• Ribbon 
• Stick 
• Googly eyes (duh) 
• Glitter glue (another duh) 
• Foam beads 
• Card stock


Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Do you know the muffin man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?

Yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Yes, I know the muffin man,
Who lives on Drury Lane!

Miss Cassie's Tea Party

On Saturday mornings, our library holds a "Family Fun" storytime for all ages.  This is really the only time I use a theme... normally I find themes a little too limiting in terms of choosing titles that are developmentally appropriate for each age group, but this storytime being for all ages lets me broaden my horizons a bit.  And what better time for a tea party? Here is the storytime lineup:

• Hello, How Are You?
• If You’d Like to Read a Book, Clap Your Hands
• The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
• Flannel and Song: I’m a Little Tea Pot
• Madeline’s Tea Party by John Bemelmans Marciano
• Flannel: Birthday Cake
• Song and puppet: Muffin Man
• Rhyme: Patty Cake
• Tea for Me, Tea for You by Edward Gibbs
• Song: Tea for two, two for tea, tea for you, and tea for me! I love you and you love me, we’re a happy family!
• Song: Skidamarink
• May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers
• Song and dance: Teacup Hokey Pokey (Handle, Spout, Whole Pot)
• Our Hands Say Thank You

After the storytime, we did a craft of making little tea cakes out of sponges, glitter glue, and sequins (inspired by The Craft Train).  I pre-cut the sponges into little rectangles and squares, and had a little "table setting" of materials laid out for each child.  They put their cakes together with "frosting" (glitter glue) and had a wonderful time.  I was also able to find these adorable tiny iced tea juice boxes that I served while we did our craft.  After all, what is a tea party without tea?!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  But let's not forget about one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving: a day that's wonderful not only because of the delicious meal with which we celebrate it, but also for the reminder to think about the many things for which we are grateful.  I have a lot to be thankful for this year: my one year old puppy, Oliver, my family, my health, and a job that is so incredibly rewarding and fulfilling!  Not many people can say that they have a job that they look forward to going to every day.  Every day except for Monday, that is, but that's just because I sleep like a perpetual teenager.  Once I've had my coffee I am always happy to be back at work again, because I get to do fun stuff like the following.

Every Wednesday our library holds a program called "Wacky Wednesday"- a program intended for school-aged children (6-12), where kids can come to the library after school for a fun activity.  For the night before Thanksgiving, I decided of course to have a turkey related program.

First, I read Turkey Trouble by Wendy Silvano. The kids were really engaged with the story, which was especially great given the wide range of ages: I ended up having children as young as three and as old as eight attend the program.  I have a flannel that I created for the story.  The book adapts well for the flannel format as the turkey keeps on trying to outsmart the farmer by dressing up as different farm animals so he doesn't end up being Thanksgiving dinner!  I like to use a flannel whenever possible to add that extra visual engagement with a story.

Next, we did a Turkey Book craft borrowed from B-Inspired Mama.  I pre-made little books for the kids by folding a paper bag in half, hole punching two holes along the fold, and affixing a rubber band around a popsicle stick to create the book's spine.  Initially, I created a model craft very much like the example from the aforementioned blog post, but instead used AcccCut maple leaves for the turkey's feathers.

However, with a busy week before Thanksgiving, I ran out of time to pre-cut the features of the turkey's face.  To make my life easier, I just used AccuCut turkeys for the kids to decorate and paste onto their books.  I ended up not making an example to show them, which I think helps encourage kids' creativity because they are then not preoccupied with making their craft look just like the example.  I also wrote "I'm Thankful For..." along each spine to encourage kids to think about the true meaning of Thanksgiving and decorate their books with things they are thankful for.  I melted a little bit (actually, a lot) when a little cutie drew herself and me and told me, "I'm thankful for you, Miss Cassie."  Then she drew her mom and dad on the next page.  Sweetness overload!

I really liked this craft and plan on using it again in the future- you could use countless themes by having kids create a book about really anything, and the preparation ended up being a lot easier than I thought, once I decided to calm down and not be so type-A about having everything perfect.  I need to remind myself of this often, I think that a lot of librarians have the tendencies to be perfectionists, but when it comes to kids crafting, letting them do their own thing ends up being much better for all of us.

Thanks for reading and hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!