Join us monthly for a school readiness podcast for parents (Growing Readers), and a storytelling podcast for kids (A World of Stories).
Growing Readers podcast will be released at the start of every month. Each month Summer (Children’s Manager at the Pine River Library) and Heather (Director of the Early Childhood Council) discuss a domain of school readiness for kids 0-5 and easy ways that you can get the kids in your life ready to thrive in school. Check out our Growing Readers tab for more resources.
A World of Stories will be posted sporadically.. Oral storytelling is an important aspect of learning new words, talking, and eventually writing.
Want to go further with storytelling? Jump on our community storytelling podcast and tell us what happens next! Listen and record below. This will be updated daily!
Listen to Growing Readers:
June: Listening!
July: Storytelling!
May: Social Emotional Readiness
April: Talking
Listen to A World of Stories:
April: The Library Chicken
March: Grimm’s Fairytales
February: Rapunzels Adventures
Community Storytelling
Listen to the story so far and tell us what happens next! I will listen to the voice messages you leave and add them to our story regularly!
Five activities to keep in mind to keep while building literacy skills at home:
READ books together:
Have them sit on your lap and follow your finger as you read.
TALK about the book:
What was funny/scary/surprising?
What do you think happens next?
Make sure to pass the conversation back and forth. Even if they are babbling, giving them time to respond and interpreting their responses will help them learn.
Get ready to WRITE by doing activities that build fine motor skills:
Drawing, ripping and cutting paper, and building with blocks.
PLAY games:
Hold the book upside down or backwards and start reading it if they don’t notice the change.
Pretend to be the characters in the story.
Make up your own stories.
SING:
Singing slows down and breaks apart each word into unique syllables. This helps them learn words and helps get the ready to sound out words when they are learning to write.