Getting Ready to Read by Playing

Playing and pretending are great ways to get ready to read! Puppets and stuffed animals are a simple way to act out and pretend to be part of a story.

After reading a story, encourage your child to use toys or puppets to act out the story. Puppets can be anywhere from the really fancy store-bought puppets to something as simple as a paper bag with a face drawn on it. And they don't even have to match the story.

Ask your child to tell you about what he's playing. When he tells you the story, he's developing important Narrative skills. You can also add to the story and expand on their answers. For example, "Why did the frog jump in the water when he met the crocodile?" You may even be able to add some new words to his vocabulary.

Not sure what book to read? Come on in to the library! I'm sure we can help you find something both you and your child will love!

Toddler Time

The toddlers enjoyed these stories last week:

Trashy town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

Walking through the jungle by Debbie Harter

Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz

Children love to say "No!" without the risk of getting in trouble, so the Pigeon book is always popular. For that same reason, they also enjoyed "No!" by They Might Be Giants.

Using popular books, such as Mo Willems, makes children want to read, which is Print Motivation, which is so important when it's time for children to learn to read. Trashy Town introduces new vocabulary, as well as lending itself for children to act out the "Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!" refrain.

At craft time, the children created a garbage truck of their own using simple shapes. Recognizing the shapes helps to build letter knowledge. And the coloring and gluing develops fine motor skills, which helps in writing as the children get older.

Preschool Story Hour - Shapes

School is back in session, so we are back to our regular program schedule. On Tuesday our preschoolers had a program with lots of shapes! Shape recognition is an important part of getting ready to read, as well as an important part of math. Our letters are largely composed of simple shapes, combined to make our letters. For example, A, V, and W are triangular. O, C, and G are mostly circular.


Last spring we got this fun book which was the inspiration for the day:

Windblown / Édouard Manceau

Colorful paper shapes are found and we don't know whose they are. Several animals (created from those shapes) claim ownership until eventually the wind gives them to us, the readers. After reading the book, we recreated the creatures, using felt pieces. And for the craft, the children were given their own set of the paper shapes to make whatever picture they wanted. They could add lines to complete their shape. We could have added some science in by talking more about the wind.

We also enjoyed these books:

Cowlick by Christin Ditchfield
Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert
Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
The Shape of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds

We watched A Picture for Harold's Room. I'm  always amazed at how, with just a few simple lines, Harold and his purple crayon are able to create a whole world.

There are some simple ways that you can explore shapes with your child:

*Look for shapes in everyday objects. What shapes does you child see when she looks at a house or a fish?

*Use cut out shapes to create a picture. The shapes can be as basic or complex as you choose.

*Talk about what they are seeing and creating. This builds a child's vocabulary.

One last note: We'd love to see what your child creates! Feel free to let them bring in their artwork and tell Miss Holly and Miss Linda all about it!

April Showers...

As I'm sitting here on this gray, rainy day, I'm sure hoping that these April showers do bring some May flowers! Of course, there's always something bright and colorful happening at the library!

 It's been another busy month and we're not even half way through!

We celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Mo Willems' Pigeon books this month! Mo Willems' books are wonderful for young readers and pre-readers. The artwork is so expressive and gives children an opportunity to talk about emotions, which develops vocabulary. The books have lots of rhyming and repetitive phrases, which work on phonological and narrative skills. And they're just so fun that children love them! Don't most kids love the opportunity to tell someone "No!" without getting into trouble? (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!)

In Preschool Story Hour for our 4 and 5 year olds, we did a storytime about Spring. We read Possum and the Peeper, which then led to the children requested several other frog books I had available including a huge favorite, The Wide Mouthed Frog.

I think we've also found a new favorite song - "Swing Your Partner" from the Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times cd. It's a square dance type of song that we've done in a circle and I've heard, "Let's do it again!" several times!

For a craft, we made and decorated those colorful windsocks that you see over to the left. A relatively simple craft, but gluing the streamers and feeding the yarn through the small punched holes works on fine motor skills, which children need to learn to write.

And we can't forget our monthly Lego program! We had several new children attend last week, so the fun just keeps growing!



So, what's coming up?
Saturday, April 13 from 10am to noon: Trash to Treasures Craft Program for all ages.

Tuesday, April 16 at 10:30am and 1:00pm, Preschool Story Hour for 4 and 5 year olds and 3 years old who are ready to come in independently.

Please register for our programs so that we can plan for all our children: 

Children's Programs at the Cedar Lake Branch Library

Catching up with the Babies

February and March have made our program schedule for the 3 and under crowd a little unusual. Since both months started on a Friday, we've had Toddler Time and Mother Goose on the Loose in the same week.

The February 28th Toddler Time focused on Winter. Miss Linda shared two stories with the children.

Bear snores on by Karma Wilson

The mitten : a Ukrainian folktale by Jan Brett

Both books offer wonderful opportunities to learn new words and are good for having the children retell the stories.

The children also played with parachute and created a snowstorm in the children's programming room! They finished by creating their own mitten, complete with animals to practice retelling the story.

Join us this week for these programs:

Thursday, March 14 at 10:30am: Toddler Time for 2-3 year olds and their caregiver

Friday, March 15 at 10:30 OR 11:30am: Mother Goose on the Loose for infants to 35 months and their caregiver.