Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Early Literacy Aside--Example: You can use unfamiliar words with your children and model what they mean. For example, you can whisper when reading "whispering" and have your child say a quiet, "hush." This is a simple way to expand the words your children know. Let's try it as we read Goodnight Moon.Read Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Prepositions

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: When you go to play in the park next time with your children, talk about some of the concepts we talked about today--over/under, top/bottom, left/right. The best way for children to learn these concepts is not by memorizing what they mean, but by learning them as they are playing.  By helping them learn these concepts, they will later better understand what they read.Natalie Beaver, Sacramento (CA) Public Library

Sing your own songs

Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Singing with your children helps them to hear words broken into smaller parts because there is a different note for each syllable. Hearing these smaller parts of words will help them later to sound out words.Early Literacy Aside--Empower: We sang some songs today in storytime. You can make up your own songs and sing about the things you do everyday. Singing helps children hear words broken down into part and you can do this throughout the day in fun ways. Heather Bratt

Baby's Bath with flannel board

This rhyme, I'll do with the flannel board. First I'll say the rhyme, and put up the figures. Then we'll all say the rhyme together.Baby's ready for a bath. Here's the baby's tub. Here's the baby's washcloth. Rub a dub a dub. Here's the baby's cake of soap, And here's the towel to dry, And here's the baby's cradle, Rock-a-baby-bye.

Early Literacy Aside--Example: As we say rhymes with our young children they hear both the rhythm of language and the rhymes. Being exposed to rhymes helps them hear the smaller sounds in words, a first step in later learning to read.

by Amy Alapati and Virginia Krute, Montgomery County (MD) Public Library, based on version in Ring a Ring o’ Roses, 9th ed. Flint Public Library, Permission granted Flint Public Library, Flint, MI

babybathFB

Freight Train with flannel board

Preparation: Use the attached pattern to cut out large flannel board pieces. You can make the pictures smaller to cut out pieces that you will hand out to the storytime participants. Activity: We have just read the book Freight Train by Donald Crews. Now let's play a matching game on the flannel board. Here is the whole train. [Put up the cars of the train and name them. Describe their color, shape, etc. Pass out one car to each of the storytime participants. Remove your whole train. Put up one car and describe it.] I have put up the cattle car. It is green and looks like a rectangle. It has two lines in the middle that cross each other. They look like an X. Several of you have a green cattle car. If you do, come up and make your match on the flannel board. Good job! [Continue with other cars.]
Early Literacy Aside--Example: When we play matching games with children, we help them notice characteristics of objects, what is similar and different. This type of thinking will later help them notice differences and similarities in letters as they learn to identify letters and learn to read.
Flannel board pattern: freighttrainFB
small cars can be used for individual handout

Old Macdonald Had a Farm Handout

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Today we talked about farm animals and sang Old Macdonald. Here is an activity sheet for you and your child to draw farm animals and talk about the sounds they make, which is a first stem to helping your children hear the smaller sounds in words. Don't worry if you can't figure out which animal your child has drawn. Your child will tell you what it is. Enjoy!

Old Macdonald Had a Farm Handout

Playing with Directional Words

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: We can help children learn new words as we play with them. In today's storytime we read We're Going on a Bear Hunt which had directional words. Here is a game you can play. Show your child an item (a shoe perhaps) and hide it in a room with a little of it showing. Give your child hints about where to find it using position words like right, left, above, below, and so on. You can also give clues like, "You're getting warmer or colder" as they get closer or farther away. Here is a handout with the game and some activities to support pre-reading skills.

Handout--game with five practices

Jack and Jill Rhyme and Song

Nursery Rhyme: Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Preparation: Have the words to the rhyme up on a chart. Have the group say, not sing, the words. Then have the group sing the rhyme. Ask the adults what differences they noticed when singing it vs. saying it.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Singing slows down language so that children can hear the smaller sounds in words. This helps children later to sound out the words when they learn to read.

A Rhyming We Will Go

Early Literacy Aside--Example: Let's take an interesting word from this book we just read. [Choose a word.] Now we'll play this song game. Helping your children make rhymes or notice words that rhyme is one way to help them hear the smaller sounds in words which will help them later to sound out words.Song to the tune of A Hunting We Will Go A rhyming we will go A rhyming we will go We’ll catch a rhyme In the nick of time And this is how it goes.

I caught the word _____!  What rhymes with ______? Good, what else rhymes with _____? 

 Repeat as often as you like. Rhyming words can be nonsense words!

Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Remember the rhyming song game we played earlier? You can play this little game any place, any time you are with your children--in the car, waiting in line, at the doctor's office. These little things you do all add up to make a difference in helping your child be ready to learn to read. When you help them hear and make rhymes, you are helping your child develop phonological awareness, hearing the smaller sounds in words so they can later sound out words when they learn to read.

 

Old Macdonald using sounds

Early Literacy Aside--Example: Helping children hear the beginning sounds of words is one way to develop their phonological awareness--their ability to hear the smaller sounds in words. This will later help them sound out words when they learn to read. You can put new words to the tune of the song Old Macdonald. I'll say two words and you see if you can hear the beginning sound which is the same for both words. SSSSSad and SSSSSSilly. What's the sound that is the same for both words? Right! /s/ Now we'll sing a song about it. Let's try it. To the tune of Old Macdonald Had a Farm What’s the sound that these words share? Listen to these words: Sad and silly are these words Tell me what you heard. With a /s/, /s/, here and a /s/, /s/ there Here a /s/, there a /s/, everywhere a /s/, /s/ /S/ is the sound that these words share. We can hear the sound!

Try other words and sounds. It is easier for the children to join in with the sounds if you talk about the words before singing the song.

Pop Goes Pre-Reading

Song for Explain Early Literacy Aside:To the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel
Our early literacy skill today
is letter knowledge [fill in the name of the skill].
Getting to know lots of shapes [Substitute aspect of skill being highlighted]
will HELP children read.

Add information related to skill: Researchers have found that children recognize letters according to their shapes.  Talking with young children about shapes is one way to support emerging literacy skills.

Some examples for other skills, to fill in:
Skill=vocabulary: Explaining unfamiliar words . . .
Information on skill: Researchers have found that children who have larger vocabularies, who know more words, can more easily recognize words they sound out and can also more easily understand what they read when whey learn to read.
Skill=print motivation . . . Having fun while sharing books
Information on skill: Researchers have found that children who have enjoyable interactions around books and reading are more likely to stick with learning to read even when it is difficult.
Skill=phonological awareness . . . Clapping out the parts of words . . . OR Having fun with rhyming words . . .
Information on skill: Helping children hear the smaller sounds in words will help them later to sound out words when they begin to read.
Skill=print awareness  . . . Pointing to signs all around . . . OR Pointing to words in a book Information on skill: Understanding that the written word stands for the words helps children understand how reading works.
Skill=background knowledge . . . Reading information books . . . OR Telling your children what you know . . .
Information on skill: Children are naturally curious. By adding to the information they know on topics that interest them, they will later be able to better understand what they read. Skill=background knowledge . . . Having children retell stories . . .
Information on skill: When children retell stories they learn how stories work, that the have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This will help them later when they have to write stories in school.

Choose only one skill to highlight (to say the aside).