The Loudest Librarian!

Early Literacy Tip: When reading a book with a repeated word or phrase, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, pause to let your child fill in the word. You can also point to the word to reinforce their print awareness. I was so excited this week to see storytime families actively engaging in our focus on […]

Early Literacy Tip: Ask your child to search for different characters or items in the illustrations of books, like finding the little mouse on each page of Good Night, Owl. This makes sharing the book a more interactive experience. It will also teach them to look for details in the illustrations, which can help them […]

Early Literacy Tip: Share the sounds that letters make, especially strong consonants like F or P, and make a game of noticing words you hear throughout the day that start with that sound. This past week, we continued our journey through the alphabet by focusing on the letter F in storytime. As usual, I started […]

Early Literacy Tip: Encourage kids to make up their own verses to favorite songs that you sing together (for example, ask them to come up with different types of animals for Old MacDonald to have on his farm). Singing together is one of the best and easiest ways to help kids develop phonemic awareness, the […]

Early Literacy Tip: Take advantage of any opportunities to write your child’s name–on drawings or crafts they make or on nametags (I’ve started providing blank labels for nametags at storytime each week). Say each letter aloud as you write their name, and point out other words you come across together that start with the same […]

Early Literacy Tip: Talk about the different sounds that letters make. Understanding that each letter makes a particular sound (or a few different sounds) is key to building the decoding skills kids will need to learn to read later on. This week, we continued our storytime journey through the alphabet, this time focusing on the […]

Early Literacy Tip: Books with repeated phrases that kids can easily remember (like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?) help them associate the printed word with the spoken one, and helps build their basic sight word vocabulary. This week we continued our journey through the alphabet by focusing on the letter B in […]

Early Literacy Tip: Books with “sound words” like “Crash” and “Bang” are a fun way to help build phonemic awareness (the knowledge of the sounds that make up words). As an added bonus, these words are often prominently displayed, making them great for helping kids build the connection between the sound of the word and […]

Early Literacy Tip: Find ways to play with rhyming words together by changing the words to favorite songs, or coming up with your own verses. Rhyming and music are both powerful tools for teaching the sounds that make up language, which will make it easier for kids to learn to decode words when they are […]

Early Literacy Tip: Point out repeated words and phrases in the books you read together, and have your kids say them with you each time you read them. This helps build the connection between written and spoken language, and helps develop their sight vocabulary. Happy New Year! For storytime this week, I decided to do […]

Early Literacy Tip: Engage children in the books you read together by inviting them to mimic sounds and actions from the story, and asking them questions about the pictures and what they think will happen next. Interactive picture books are a fun and easy way to get kids involved in the story. Interactive picture books […]