Early Literacy Ideas from Preconference, part 1

At the recent YSS Early Literacy Play and Learn Pre-Conference, we showed a slide show with great early literacy spaces and programs from around the state.  Over the next few months, we'll be featuring these photos, sometimes with a little closer look at what is so great about them.  Watch for them in upcoming posts!

Starting out with a few great Early Literacy interactive space ideas from Jody Hanneman from the Black River Falls Public Library  (watch for more from Jody in a later post, too).

 "The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree is about 5’5” and kids love it.  I saw a tiny one in the Lakeshore catalog and asked a crafty coworker and her woodworker husband to make me one on a grand scale.  It is covered in felt, and the letters are felt as well.  It helps kids to recognize letters and they love to spell words on it."

"The dinosaur print is the coolest thing I have ever purchased with taxpayer money.  I keep it in front of my desk to lure children to me.  It also encourages math by getting a conversation going about size, scale, and comparison.  Many times kids will point out that the dinosaur only has three “toes” and they have five.  They also almost always say that their grownup’s footprint is bigger." 

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"The Question of the Week is a chart that I bought from Lakeshore that introduces kids to voting/polling and the result is a bar graph.  The question starts a conversation that can be about math, in terms of what has the most/least, but it can also inspire other conversations and sometimes guides what books they check out.  The questions have been about many things—the topics in the box cover transportation, animals, family, food, yes/no, colors, feelings, and numbers—and I change it every other week.  The change also encourages more visits—kids want to have their name on the chart."