Let's Get Physical - in Kids Programming

Recently, Alison Loewen at Sheboygan's Mead Library shared a blog post with me from her collaborative partner Kris Fritz. Alison and Kris, a retired health and physical educator in the school district, partnered to bring physical activity and literacy together in storytimes. Alison wrote that "this collabation with PE teachers has been great and I think easy model to implement in any library." I agree.

Kris writes: "Although I have retired from my career as a health and physical educator, I continue to advocate about the importance of physical literacy and physical activity...Physical educators — retired or not — can collaborate with school librarians or public librarians to “bring books to life” by incorporating related physical activities into their storytime programming. These activities engage children, enhance their understanding of the material, and inspire them to read more."

Image - Kris Fritz

To read about Kris and Alison's collaboration and the descriptions of these storytimess and the results, please stop here. [Adding Physical Activity During Library Storytime Helps Kids. Fritz, Kris. Shape America Blog. February 13, 2025]

Thanks for sharing with us Alison

Guide to Implementing Play Streets in Rural Communities

Play Streets -- place-based interventions that involve temporarily closing streets to create safe places and free opportunities for physical activity --are a great way to engage youth and families, get people active, and promote community connections. The Guide to Implementing Play Streets in Rural Communities provides guidance and recommendations to community groups, schools, faith-based institutions, or other organizations, on how to plan and put on a Play Street in rural communities based on first-hand experience from community partners in rural Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas. 

To download the free 40 page guide from Baylor University and its partners, please stop at this link.

Creative Learning Center Invites Play in Amery

Thanks to YSS Member and Youth Services Librarian in Amery, Jerissa Christianson for this guest post:

The Amery Area Public Library recently installed a dynamic play space called "Bud's Creative Learning Center" in the children's room of the library. The new space includes a puppet theater, a dress-up center, a play kitchen, a versatile canopy unit that is currently being used as a grocery store, a magnet board, a Thomas the Train table (not pictured), and a block play area. In addition, we purchased toys, games, and props that we will rotate in and out of the play area that encourage the practice of STEM-related skills. For example, children can view encased creatures such as butterflies and a scorpion (!) using jumbo magnifiers, or they can test their color and number skills with a fun, wooden sorting game.

So far, the new space is a giant hit with children and families. Boys and girls alike have been dressing up and chefs, construction workers, police officers, etc. and cooking up something fierce in the kitchen or buying vegetables and bread from the grocery store. The families who engage in play are staying longer and smiling often. Parents are saying that their children can't wait to come to the library.

This project was made possible by funds generously donated in memory of Bud Nelson, a long-time library supporter. Special thanks to Shelly Collins-Fuerbringer of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library for her guidance in the early stages of this process and for sharing her knowledge of and experiences with library play spaces.

Play and Learn

Over the past year, the children's room in the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire has undergone a glorious transformation.  Their recent long range planning process recommitted them to promoting and supporting emerging literacy, and one great way they are doing this is their fabulous Play and Learn area.  I chatted with Shelly Collins Fuerbringer, Youth Services Manager, about the way this is working for them.

Play and Learn area

Using a combination of large pieces (a wooden kitchen set, a store front), smaller toys, and home-made, interactive displays, the youth services staff make sure that there is always something interesting to do.  They are using broad themes, and changing things out every three months or so to keep it fresh.  This time, the theme is community.  Along with a cafe,  farmer's market, school,  and community-helpers dress-up, they made a post office, post cards to deliver, and mail boxes for storybook characters (using high-tech cereal and cracker boxes):

Storybook Apartment Mailboxes

Response has been wonderful.  Families stay longer, and interactions between adults and children are much more high quality—instead of parents “talking at” their children, they are having fun, playing, listening, and communicating in a much more meaningful way. 

A grandmother and child enjoy being mail carriers, and having a conversation about what those red flags are for

 

As the project is new, it is quite time-consuming.  Staff is learning what works best--they are watching for what kids are responding to and figuring out ways to repeat those, while keeping the area fresh.  Shelly says sometimes she'll put something out that she thinks won't last very long before it gets broken, but then it withstands heavy use.  Unfortunately, the converse is also true:  sometimes they'll purchase something that looks extra-sturdy and it breaks right away.  These learning curves, plus developing broad, easy-to-repeat themes, are taking extra time for the next few years.

 There aren’t many instructions in the Play and Learn area—the children’s staff strongly feels that families need to feel free to do what they want to, and shouldn’t be constrained by lists of things to do or instructions.  Attractive, literacy-rich displays and signs and interactive items make this library feel very welcoming!  Families are staying longer, and I can certainly see why.

A map of Eau Claire, with photos of important community locations

WAPL 2008: Playing to Learn, Learning to Play

Mary Discoll, the Outreach Librarian for the Dane County Library Service headquartered in Madison, presented a hands on session on play literacy. Mary uses a vehicle called the "Readmobile," jointly operated by Dane County Library Service and Madison Public Library, to visit Head Start and day care centers that serve children whose families have low incomes.

Mary brought samples of the toys used for each of the play literacy units. She explained that each session lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. She opens each session the same way with a naming song. She then introduces theme for the day by reading at a book. The next activity is to work on the literacy activity. That might involve making a list of items needed for a camping trip or flavors of ice cream, or ingredients for a pizza. While Mary may ask the children to guess at the initial letter a word starts with, she often just scribbles the rest of the word. The children Mary works with are pre-literate for the most part. Her goal is just to make them comfortable with using a pencil or crayon to make marks on a piece of paper to get the sense that writing is important. It is not important for the purpose of the activities that the children actually form letters or words.

After the literacy activity is introduced she has an adult help her model the type of play that the children will be doing. For example if the theme is Pizza Parlor, one adult takes the role of the restaurant worker and the other is the customer. The worker points out the list of ingredients and takes an order pad to write down what the customer wants. Since this is a play activity it doesn't matter what is actually written.

Then the worker uses a cardboard circle as the pizza pan. Add three round circles of felt, one in tan for the crust, red for the sauce, and yellow for the cheese. Mary demonstrated kneeding the felt crust and tossing it into the air and catching it. The worker then reaches into a bag of ingredients and finishes the pizza. The ingredients are various felt shapes (triangles, circles, squares) rather than pieces that look like mushrooms, peppers, or sausage. The worker demonstrates that the toppings need to be spread out on the pizza. Once it is ready, the pizza is put in a toy oven, and handed to the customer when it is "cooked."

Once the adults have acted out the roles of customer and pizza parlor worker, pairs of children are allowed to act out the roles themselves. Mary brings enough props for 20 children to play at a time. Typically there are about 17 children in the classes she visits. She visits the same centers once a month. The children are allowed to play with the props for about 15 minutes. Adults guide the children and remind them to "read" the list of ingredients and "write" down the orders.

The last portion of the session involves the children selecting books they want to check out. All books are check out on the day care center's card, but the children select the book they want to be able to keep for the month in their classroom. Some of the books may relate to the theme for the day or the teacher may request that the books address another theme the center will be using that month.

Elements of play literacy can be infused into almost any story time program. If libraries are doing day care outreach, adding elements of play literacy would certainly enhance their efforts. Mary suggested the book "Literacy Through Play" by Gretchen Owocki as a resource to get librarians started on their own play literacy efforts.

-Submitted by Barb Huntington