Pick of the Week: How Do You Wokka-Wokka?

 

How Do You Wokka-Wokka? by Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by Randy Cecil (Candlewick Press, 2009)

The narrator tells us, "some days you wake up and you just gotta wokka." Everybody moves in their own unique way. This book is so full of rhythm, rhyme and movement that children may want to get up and dance along. This is a delight (and a bit of a fun challenge) to read aloud. You just might find yourself inspired to make up your own silly rhymes to move to!

Pick of the Week: Three Little Kittens

Normally, I've chosen to highlight a new picture book for the Pick of the Week book. But this week I wanted to draw attention to one of my favorite authors/illustrators for toddlers and younger preschoolers, Lorianne Siomades. Introducing nursery rhymes and Mother Goose books are a fantastic way to help build a child's phonological awareness - or the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. Not only that, sharing nursery rhymes develops a child's connection to his or her cultural history, language and oral tradition. (The library's collection contains books with traditional rhymes in a variety of languages and traditions.) In Lorianne Siomades' Three Little Kittens, children are introduced to the traditional story with large, bright, and colorful illustrations. It's also a great introduction to beginning narrative skills. It's not-too-long of a story - and has a short plot with just the right amount of tension for little ones. This is a good choice for sharing either one-on-one or in a group setting. Additionally, Lorianne Siomades' The Itsy-Bitsy Spider is my favorite book to introduce the popular children's rhyme with babies, toddlers and the younger preschool set. Again, Lorianne Siomades' large, simple and colorful illustrations work well with this younger audience and the rhyme is always a childhood favorite!

Pick of the Week: Late for School!

Late for School! by Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa (Carolrhoda Books, 2008)

Mr. Bungles is late for school and he's the teacher! He rushes like mad to get to school in time...will he make it? This is a great read-aloud that begs for children to chime in. "I missed the train. I won't make a fuss. Down the street, I can catch the....bus!" Children will quickly pick up on the rhyming and anticipate what Mr. Bungles will try next to reach his destination. A fun twist on the daily struggle of getting to school on time!

Pick of the Week: The Sounds Around Town

The Sounds Around Town by Maria Carluccio (Barefoot Books, 2008)

The day has just begun for a baby and his mother, but already the world is full of sounds! Each page contains beautiful cut paper/collage illustrations and simple rhyming text ("There's a chill outside; Mommy puts on my cap. She closes my jacket, snap, snap, snap.") depicting the day's activities. Included in the images is additional sounds the little boy can hear in each scene: "whoosh! flitter, flutter, woof, woof!, purr, purr, snap, snap". Children will enjoy the variety of sounds, and it is a gentle reminder of how interesting and full the day becomes when one pays attention to the sounds around him. Focusing on the sounds and rhymes on each page also helps build a child's phonological awareness. The next time you take a walk, make it a point to listen to the variety of sounds you and your child can hear!

Rhymes to Share with Little Ones

Rhymes are a regular part of storytime for children. Children naturally play with language through rhyming and songs. This is an important part of language development and helps build their phonological awareness. Phonological awareness, or the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds of words, is a critical skill children need to get ready to read. To develop this skill, parents and caregivers can share music, poetry, and books with rhyming language in them. It also helps to learn a small assortment of rhymes to share with children throughout the day. Share a lively one during playtime, a soft quiet lap rhyme at bedtime, or a silly one during a car ride to pass the time. Some favorite rhymes include:

A B C
Big A, little a,
Bouncing B!
The cat’s in the cupboard,
And can’t see me.

BANBURY CROSS
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see an old lady upon a white horse.
Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.

DANCE TO YOUR DADDY
Dance to your daddy,
My little laddy.
Dance to your daddy,
My little lamb.
You shall have a fishy,
In a little dishy.
You shall have a fishy
When the boat comes in.

HICKORY DICKORY DOCK
Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down.
Hickory, dickory dock.

JACK BE NIMBLE
Jack be nimble
Jack be quick
Jack jump over the candlestick!

MISS MARY MACK
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 didn't come back, back, back
'Til the 4th of July, -ly, -ly!

THE MOON
The Moon is round
As round as can be
With two eyes, a nose,
and a mouth, like me!

RIDE AWAY, RIDE AWAY
Ride away, ride away,
Johnny shall ride,
And he shall have pussy-cat
Tied to one side;
And he shall have little dog
Tied to the other,
And Johnny shall ride
To see his grandmother.

WEE WILLIE WINKIE
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown;
Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,
“Are the children in their beds?
For now it’s eight o’clock.”

Spotlight on Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and play with the individual and smaller sounds in words.

Phonological awareness includes the ability to hear and create rhymes, to say words with sounds or chunks left out and the ability to put two word chunks together to make a word. Most children who have difficulty in reading have trouble in phonological awareness.

Nonsense, rhyming, and word play. These are the hallmarks of early childhood songs, rhymes, poetry and picture book language. They are also aspects of phonological awareness, an important early literacy skill. Every time you share a nursery rhyme or fingerplay, play word games, or read-aloud a picture book with rhyming language, you're helping your child get ready to read!

For more suggestions on children's books and music to help build this skill in young children, check out the phonological awareness spotlight on the library's Birth to Six web site.

Pick of the Week

Lickety-Split by Robert Heidbreder, illustrated by Dusan Petricic (Kids Can Press, 2007)

Lickety-Split is a side-splitting smorgasbord of sights and sounds unlike any other book. Tag along as our hero trips the rhyme fantastic and spins a tongue-twisting tall tale for his heroine. He ziggity-zags, clickity-clacks, skippity-skips and zippity-zooms from one adventure to the next. Will he defeat the Viking warrior? Tame the dragon? Knock one out of the park? Will our heroine believe him if he does? -- Publisher's description

Pick of the Week

Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Harcourt, 2007)

Jazz-lovers and non-jazz-lovers alike should relish in keeping rhythm and beat with this lively new picture book by Lisa Wheeler. Baby and his family get the music going ("Grandpa toot-toots, Granny sings scat. Bitty-boppin' Baby goes rat-tat-tat!") and then wind down to sleep with the music of jazz. Children may be inspired to get up and move while you read this story! The snappy, rhythmic text found in Jazz Baby also promotes phonological awareness - the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. Another way to promote phonological awareness is to share music with young children. Listening to the sounds and beats in music is not only fun, it can help prepare them for later learning success. Clapping out the syllables of the word as you sing together and listening to the rhythms of various styles of music can help tune a child's ear for phonological awareness. This is an important skill for learning to read.

To round out your Jazz Baby experience, listen to Go, Baby Go! by Baby Loves Jazz, available at the Library.

September Spotlight

September Spotlight: Talk to Your Child

During the month of September, the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library's Birth to Six site is putting the spotlight on the importance of talking with your young child.

One of the best gifts you can give your child is the gift of language. Babies are born ready to learn any language. Babies and toddlers are much better at hearing the different sounds that make up language than adults. It is this skill of being able to hear the different sounds that make up their native language that eventually helps them learn to read. Being able to hear and play with the smaller parts of words helps children decode written words on a page. This skill is "phonological awareness," one of the six pre-reading skills research has shown that all children need to become successful readers.

Vocabulary is another important pre-reading skill. Knowing the names of things helps a child eventually make the connection between sounding out a word and understanding it. The more words a child hears, the more prepared she is to learn to read.(1)

It's never too early to start sharing language with your child. Research has also shown a direct relationship between the growth of vocabulary in children under age 2 and the extent that parents and caregivers talk to them.(2) Additionally, if you or your family speaks another language, this is the best time to introduce the other language to your child.

The best way to teach a child new words is to talk to him - and to read to him! Picture books contain rare words that we don't normally use in every day conversation. But it's not just reading-aloud that will help your child's vocabulary grow. There are so many ways to share language with your child. The Library's Birth to Six News blog will be highlighting different ideas for talking and sharing with your child this month.

(1) - For more information, please see: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/ECRR/ECRRHomePage.htm. Every Child Ready to Read brings together research from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, The Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children.

(2) - For more information, please see: Right From Birth: Building Your Child's Foundation for Life, Birth to 18 months by Craig Ramey, pg. 88-94.