Print Motivation

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Our Early Literacy Tip of the Day is on print motivation or showing children how to love books. You know that kids love to read the same book over and over. This is how children learn, so go ahead and read Dora the Explorer or their favorite book one more time. Your kids will love you for it.Early Literacy Aside--Empower: As you leave, please pick up a book from the table and read it with your child. If for some reason your child is not interested, don't force it on her. Find something she is interested in or wait until your child is ready to listen. It's OK to not finish a book! Don't make it a chore that needs to be done.

Submitted by Kim Connett, Marion (OH) Public Library

Little Raindrops Fingerplay

Fingerplay:  Little Raindrops
This is the sun, high up in the sky. (Form large circle with arms up)
A dark cloud suddenly comes sailing by.  (Move hands through the air in a parallel motion.)
These are the raindrops,  pitter, pattering down. (Bring arms down, flutter fingers)
Watering the flowers, growing on the ground. (Cup hands to form flowers.)

Activity: Make a book based on this fingerplay. Use the pattern here (Little Raindrops Booklet pattern) to represent the items in the fingerplay. There are four pages for your book (one for each line of the fingerplay). The pattern is a Word document so you can change the size of the objects to save paper, if you wish. The children cut out the pictures. They can cut around them to make it easier. The adults write the words to the fingerplay on each page. For children too young for this craft, the adults make the book FOR their young children. The umbrella can be used on the cover of the book.

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Making a book with or for your child is very special. By showing care in making them and including your child in the process you make this activity around a book enjoyable. Your child can memorize the words to the rhyme and can "pretend" read it to you. Praise your child. This helps develop print motivation, a child's interest and enjoyment of books and reading. OR Making a book with your child shows them how books work. This helps them with print awareness, how to handle a book, which will get them comfortable with using books as they learn to read. Submitted by Jaime Duval and Whitney Whitaker, Radford (VA) Public Library

Who Is Driving? by Leo Timmers

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Today I'll be pointing out some activities we are doing that support ealry literacy in the area of vocabulary. This is the term that researchers give to knowing the meanings of words. You can see what we do here in storytime and you may get some ideas of what you can do with your children throughout the day.Read the book Who Is Driving? by Leo Timmers. Pause occasionally to talk about a picture and ask what they see in the picture. Add a word or two, synonyms to the words in the the book, the children might not know. Early Literacy Aside--Example: As you can see, I don't just read the book. We talk about the pictures and ask questions. Allow time for your child to say something back, even if you don't understant exactly what they say. You can see I added in a couple of unfamiliar words too. Early Literacy Aside--Empower:  Our youngest children learn words that name things they can see (pig, tractor, hippopotamus). As children get older they understand words for feelings and concepts, and older still, they understand words for ideas. It is good to expose even young children to all kinds of words, but they will understand the words for things they can see first.

Submitted by Saskatchewan Library Association conference participants

Pictures in books

Aside: As your baby begins to talk, respond by elaborating on what he says. For example, if your baby points to a picture and says "cat" respond by saying, "Yes, that's a little cat with orange fur." Talking about the picture even if your baby doesn't understand everything also helps build your child's vocabulary. For example, you could say, "Look, the two kittens are playing with the string. They are having fun together."Submitted by Cindy Christin, Bozeman (MT) Public Library

Board books

Early Literacy Aside--Example: Board books are a great investment for babies! They allow babies to handle books freely, and even chew them. Good first choices are board books with pictures of everyday things. Try pointing to the pictures and then to the real objects around you.This helps babies get the idea that pictures and words are symbols for real things, a basic concept for later reading.Share a board book of your choice.

Submitted by Cindy Christin, Bozeman (MT) Public Library

Nursery Rhymes

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Rhymes help teach "phonological awareness," an awareness of the sounds that make up words. You may have noticed that your child enjoys the way a nursery rhyme sounds even if it doesn't make much sense to him. When you introduce a new rhyme or song, repeat it at least twice. Three times is even better. And be sure to keep repeating the old, familiar rhymes too. Submitted by Cindy Christin, Bozeman (MT) Public Library

Songs

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Singing songs is  one good way for children to become aware of the different sounds that make up words. We call this phonological awareness. Singng helps them get a feel for the rhythm of language and how words are divided into syllables because there is a different note for each syllable. This will help them sound out words when they learn to read. Submitted by Cindy Christin, Bozeman (MT) Public Library

Whose House Is This? by Charles Reasoner

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: There are many ways we can help children enjoy books as we share books together. Children who have positive experiences around books and reading are more likely to stick with learning to read even when it is difficult. I'll be pointing out some ways to share books to make it enjoyable. As you read the book have children repeat the phrase, "I do. I'm a . . . " with each animal. Early Literacy Aside--Example: Having the children participate by guessing the animals and responding when the animal appears helps them enjoy the book. This helps support their print motivation.

Submitted by Tara Smith, Roanoke County (VA) Public Library

Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Read the book The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Encourage adults and children to make the sounds of the animals.Early Literacy Aside--Example: Having your child hear and make the sounds of the animals in this story is one enjoyable way to help develop phonological awareness, to eventually be able to hear the smaller sounds in words. Submitted by Nancy Gattoni, Roanoke County (VA) Public Library

Pete's a Pizza by William Steig

Early Literacy Aside--Example: I am going to read one of my favorite children's books. I love reading this book; it is a lot of fun. When reading with your children, choose books YOU enjoy. Your child picks up on your feelings and understands the enjoyment of books and reading. This supports print motivation, a love of books.Read the book Pete's a Pizza by William Steig putting motions to the words.

Submitted by Linda White, Washington County (VA) Public Library

Old MacDonald Has a Farm Song

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Researchers have found that one of the early literacy skills is phonological awareness. This is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words, like rhyming, playing with syllables or parts of words, and hearing beginning sounds of words. The beginning of this skills starts with children hearing and saying the sounds of animals.Sometime durng storytime sing "Old MacDonald" with the children, including several animals--cow, pig, sheep, chicken, duck, etc. Early Literacy Aside--Example:  Making the sounds of animals contributes to phonological awareness and hearing sounds in words. Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Take advantage of opportunities to sing and say the sounds of animals with your children. It's fun and it also helps them hear the smaller sounds in words.

Submitted by Kimberly Burnette-Dean, Roanoke County (VA) Public Library

Jazzmatazz! by Stephanie Calmenson

Early Literacy Aside--Example: What a fun and noisy book this is! Listen to the different kinds of sounds that music can make like plink, plink and bang-a-bang along with the jazz rhythm of Doo-dat, diddy-dat, diddy-dat, doo! As children learn to hear and make not only animal sounds but sounds of many different things, they are developing phonological awareness which will later help them sound out words as they learn to read.

Shapes--Explain Aside

Early Litearcy Aside--Explain: Today our early literacy tip is on letter knowledge. You may think of letter knowledge as being able to write letters. Actually there is a lot to know related to letter knowledge long before children can write the letters. One aspect is recognizing shapes. Today I'll be pointing out some fun ways we can help them recognize and talk about shapes.

Print Awareness--Explain Aside

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Our early literacy tip of the day today is on print awareness. There are many ways we can help children understand that print has meaning. Research studies point out that about 95% of a child's attention goes to the pictures. Today in storytime I'll be pointing out some ways we can help them focus on the print as well.

Reading--Language of Books

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Reading is one of the best ways to introduce new words to your children. Many books have unfamiliar words. ones we would not use in regular conversations with our children. Talking about even one or two of the words before, during or after reading the book is one way to build your children's vocabulary. Knowing lots of words, having a large vocabulary, helps children not only understand what they later learn to read, it also helps them recognize words when they later try to sound them out. Today we'll see how the language of books expands your child's vocabulary.

This Is the Way We Wash Our Face

Song: This Is the Way We Wash Our Face (Sung to the tune of Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush)

Let's sing this song and tell a little story about how we take a bath.

"This is the way we wash our face (actions to words to all these)

shampoo our hair scrub our skin dry with a towel, etc. Early Literacy Aside--Example: This song helps us learn different vocabulary words about bathtime, like shampoo and scrub. I hope you will talk about this when you take a bath tonight. What other words can you come up with? Talking about interesting, fun words like this will help your children recognize words later on when they read them.

Submitted by Stacey Harwood, Henrico County (VA) Public Library, Twin Hickory Branch

Hickory Dickory Dock or Any Nursery Rhyme

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Nursery rhymes are important to do with your children, not only here in storytime, but at home as well. The rhyming and repetition of words helps your child develop the awareness of different word sounds. This helps develop their phonological awareness which is important for later sounding out words. Also, nursery rhymes are fun to sing and act out! Submitted by Michelle Edwards, Gloucester Library (VA)

Storytime Handout: Animals All Around Us

Animals All Around Us Handout by Glencoe (IL) Public Library

Roll Your Hands (song) from Toddlers on Parade by Carol Hammett

Sing Roll Your Hands from Toddlers on Parade by Carol HammettWords: Roll, roll, roll your hands fast as fast can be. Do it now, let me see Do it now with me.

Tap, tap, tap your feet Shake, shake, shake your hips Roll, roll, roll your hands [Repeat one or two times all together. Clap together when done.]

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: This is a good rhyme to do as you are bathing or diapering your child. Use different parts of the body and words for different actions to help increase your child's vocabulary. Even though your baby does not understand everything you say, it is important for her to hear you say many words. The wider variety of words that your child hears, the larger her vocabulary will be, and the more easily they will later be able to read.

Five Little Ducks (song) from Rise and Shine by Raffi

Sing the song Five Little Ducks (on Rise and Shine by Raffi)
Early Literacy Aside--Example: There are many songs that have children say the sounds that animals make. Saying animal sounds is the beginning of being able to hear the smaller sounds in words, which later helps them sound out words when they learn to read!