Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Manitowoc's 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Event

Submitted by Susie Menk, Youth Librarian at Manitowoc Public Library


In August, Manitowoc Public Library hosted a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Event.  We wanted to do a graduation party but decided that might limit participation.  We decided to just do an event to celebrate 1000 Books before Kindergarten—for those who have already completed it, for those who are in the middle of the program and for those who have never heard of it.

We planned several stations based on the five early literacy skills—reading, writing, singing, playing and talking.  We started out the event by gathering everyone into our normal storytime setting and doing a read aloud book.  The book was read twice, once just a read through, the second time a dialogic reading.  


It was fairly obvious to parents, which type of reading engaged their child more, which lead into a brief (VERY SHORT) discussion of the five early literacy skills.  We encouraged parents to do the stations WITH their child and as you can see in the photos, they did!!!

Many of the ideas we used can be found on the Manitowoc Public Library Pinterest page

We did Song sticks, upper and lowercase matching games with plastic eggs, color matching with clothespins, flannels, nursery rhyme games, a puppet theater, dress up clothes, letter matching with pool noodles pieces, magnets on a board, writing and drawing on a white board, flannels, shape matching and creative play with Legos™.  Most of these materials are things we keep on hand or were cheap and easy to make. 

It was a great success.  The best part is we kept the activity pieces and parts and now have them to use in storytimes!


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