Early Literacy Tips Video

I stumbled upon a great video for parents about early literacy from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. These years are important ones with your little ones. There are easy ways to incorporate learning into your everyday moments. Before you know it, you'll have raised a reader! :)

Tongue Twisters!

Oh Say Can You Say? by Dr. Seuss

Did you know...that children hear a letter sound most easily at the beginning of a word? Remember those tongue twisters, clapping and jump-rope rhymes that we use to say as kids, like Miss Mary Mack? When several words have the same beginning sound, it's called alliteration. An easy way to help children recognize those beginning sounds of words is by saying tongue twisters. Singing those tongue twisters and rhymes actually help children develop their phonological awareness - an important early literacy skill. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear the smaller sounds in words. It helps with later reading. Go ahead, try a tongue twister now, for fun! Here are two familiar ones: 

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers, 

How many pickled peppers were in the peck that Peter Piper picked?

 

and 

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack 

All dressed in black, black, black 

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons 

All down her back, back, back. 

She asked her mother, mother, mother 

For 50 cents, cents, cents 

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants 

Jump over the fence, fence, fence. 

They jumped so high, high, high 

They reached the sky, sky, sky 

And they didn't come back, back, back 

'Til the 4th of July, ly, ly! 

(Early literacy tips found in The Early Literacy Kit: A Handbook and Tip Cards by Betsy Diamant-Cohen and Saroj Ghoting, copyright American Library Association, 2010.) 

Literacy Tip: Listening & Speaking

Did you know...?

It takes longer for children who are just learning to talk to respond to our questions. This happens because four parts of the brain have to work together for your child to form a response to what you say. Adults need to be patient with young children. We should wait anywhere from 5 to 12 seconds for them to respond. That feels like a long time because adults usually respond in about 2 seconds. But the extra time you give children allows them the practice they need to respond more quickly over time.

Next time you're reading aloud a book to your child, stop on one of the pages and ask them a question. This could be a question about what they see on the page. (You could point to an item and ask, "What is this?") Or ask an older child what they think will happen next. Wait for your child to respond! Then talk about it more together.

from The Early Literacy Kit: a handbook and tip cards by Betsy Diamant-Cohen and Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting (ALA Editions, 2010)

Early Literacy Skills Video

Check out this great video from Garden City Library (Garden City, Idaho) on developing the six early literacy skills every child needs to become a successful reader.

Grocery Store Literacy from Reading Rockets.org

I saw this post from Reading Rockets earlier today: (see http://ow.ly/phLE) about "Grocery Store Literacy". Using everyday activities, like a trip to the grocery store or post office, can be a great opportunity to teach young children about letters, words, environmental print, and narrative skills. Reading Rockets has developed "take-along" activity sheets for you to download, print, and use to turn your routine errands into fun, learning times! These activity sheets feature some of the characters from PBS Kids.

Here's a screen shot of a sample activity sheet from the Reading Rockets website:

Storytime Plus: Upcoming schedule

Join us for Storytime Plus!

Continue the storytime fun and explore how you can enhance your little ones' readiness to learn by developing their early literacy (pre-reading) skills. Each Storytime Plus will be tailored that that particular day's storytime age group. We will continue in the Storytime Room for 30-45 minutes after storytime wraps up. No registration is required.

Schedule:
May 8 - Wobbler Storytime - Topic: Book Sharing
June 3 - Infant Storytime - Topic: Summertime Fun With Books
June 9 - Toddler Storytime - Topic: Summertime Fun With Books

For more information, contact the Youth Services Department at (541) 766-6794.

Video Early Literacy Tips

It's never too early (or too late) to introduce a child to the wonderful world of books. Some people might ask, "Why share a book with a child that can't even talk? And what does it look like when you do?" Check out the videos on the Birth to Six site from Hennepin County Library here for information on the importance of sharing books with babies and toddlers. These terrific videos were produced as part of the Read to Me Program - an intergenerational reading program.