Supporting Hand Strength in Tots

Image by Mari Kanezaki from Pixabay

In a recent ALSC blog post, Maria Trivisonno broke down why it's so important to tots develop hand strength in early childhood. It's all about their future writing. And librariaes can help!

Maria writes: "In my Family Engagement work in tandem with a school psychologist and occupational therapist, I have learned the importance of pre-writing skills in kindergarten readiness…and that many children today have fallen behind in this stage of development.  We worry about the “dangers” of screens concerning attention span and other developmental stages…but scrolling with touch screens is really hampering hand development, a vital part of writing. What can we do to help children develop the physical skills needed for writing?"

To read her very practical and doable suggestions, please stop here. [Write On! The Importance of Hand Strength in Early Writing. Trivisonno, Maria. ALSC blog. January 7, 2024.]

Early Literacy Play Webinar from CLEL

Registration is now open for the next free CLEL (Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy) webinar: 

Choose Your Own Adventures: Research-Based Play Experiences that Work for Libraries

Thursday, May 4, 3-4pm CDT on Zoom

 

Join Michelle Randall, PhD with the Bay Area Discovery Museum in learning how to create research-backed play experiences in your library. Explore examples that pull from fields of education, psychology, and neuroscience to set up intentional problem-solving play experiences. Identify foundational principles such as choice that help you construct adventures that will inspire a passion for discovery in young children.

 

Register here to receive the Zoom link.

 

Hope to see you there (and apologies for cross-posting)!

CLEL Communications Team

Tuesday Tips - Let's Play!

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

There's a fun, new toy in our children's area!

When I got this job last May, the library didn't really have much for a play space. In June, I brought back puzzles that were not out due to COVID, but I knew I wanted more of a playspace. My boss was totally on board and encouraged me to find something. Over the past few months, I had been casually looking for something that would encourage imaginative play. On Facebook, I'm in a bunch of librarian groups where I looked for what others have suggested. I believe it was in the ALA Think Tank group where I found what we needed- the KidKraft Let’s Pretend Wooden Grocery Store. 

The store is very portable. You can fold it and easily move it to a different location. It also doesn't have a large footprint, which helped a lot when figuring out where to put it. Another plus is that the store came with groceries. Some of the groceries are made of cardboard boxes, which probably won't last a long time, but work great in the meantime. I'm currently looking at some Melissa and Doug food to provide more long-term options. My favorite thing about it is that you can move the conveyor belt! The kids love rolling food off of it. 

So far, we have had a great response to the store. There have been many positive Facebook, Instagram, and in-person comments. I also got interviewed by the Daily Citizen, our local newspaper, about it. This was super exciting because it was my first newspaper interview. Overall, I'm very pleased with the store and can't wait to add more play items to the library. 

CLEL Book Award Jury Looking for Members

Mel Depper, librarian and early literacy guru from Colorado shares: "Friends, thanks to a successful trial-by-fire during 2020, the Bells are going all virtual again in 2021! You don’t have to be in Colorado to serve on the selection committee! You do have to be a CLEL member but that’s easy peasy because it’s free to join. And for my ECE peeps, you don’t have to be a librarian! Just someone who loves picture books and has a solid grasp of early literacy/pre-reading skills. I was going to apologize for all my exclamation points but I actually am this happy about the Bells so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The CLEL Bell Award Selection Committee is looking for new members for the 2021-2022 year.

The Selection Committee selects five winners annually based from specific selection criteria. The winners are selected from titles suggested by the CLEL community.

Partner up with library workers from all over Colorado and the country! Time commitment includes monthly meetings, access to new books to review for a couple hours a month, and 2 all-day virtual meetings.

"When I was a part of the CLEL BELL committee two years ago, it was the first time I got the camaraderie for the love of picture books and early literacy combined! I found my people."
-FORMER CLEL BELL COMMITTEE MEMBER

For more information, visit https://www.clel.org/bell-committee-application

Center for Childhood Discovery Resources

Thanks to the ever amazing Jbrary blog (you do have them on your RSS feed don't you?),  a recent post from them highlights some great free downloadable resources from the Center for Childhood Creativity, perfect for all youth library staff to use in serving their birth-age 8 clientele.  The Center is the research arm of the Bay Area Discovery Museum and they want to help adults working with kids by linking research with the practical aspects of work with kids.

To read about their work which includes a School Readiness Toolkit, A Promising Practices for Library Staff and more, stop here! 

Talking is Teaching PLA Program

WLA's PLA Liaison is Bridges Library System's Angela Meyers. If you haven't strarted following her blog, you should. It is chock full of information that she generously shares to all WLA members and non-members alike on her experiences and reports on PLA attendance and membership.

This post reports out on a PLA session called Talking is Teaching: Opportunities for Increasing Early Brain and Language Development complete with links and free docs to download!

WLA YSS Sessions in Short: Using the Five Practices in School-Age and Teen Programming

Presenter: Kymberly Pelky

I attended a session at WLA that focused on taking the Five Practices from early literacy and applying them to programming for other age groups.  Kymberly talked about how this really isn’t a time for learning “new” ideas, but rather a way to rethink things we are already doing and consider how those early lit practices have value when used with older kids – and even adults.  While she was presenting, I started thinking about my own ideas of how I could use the Five Practices in programming with older kids. Most of these ideas are just things that build on things I am already doing or have considered. Generally, I am thinking about Tween and Teen programming here, although some of this would work with younger school aged kids as well.

Read: Book Clubs, Lunch Bunch – meeting to read a book together, Book talks – talking up books that might energize kids about reading

Sing: Music Programs – this could be a sort of “name that tune” game or maybe use some popular artists as a theme, Displays using poplar songs, create themed playlists

Talk: Popcorn and Pages – this is a program I do where we meet and kids get to do the book talks, general talking over crafts or games, building relationships

Play: Minute to Win it, Board or Card games, acting out scenes from books, or even scavenger hunts

Write: Poetry groups, Create displays, write blurbs for favorite books, Post-it note reviews

Think about other ways that including the Five Practices in programming might give you new ideas for programs at all sorts of age levels. I’d be excited to hear about your ideas.

Author: Monica LaVold

To see all the recaps of "WLA Sessions in Short" click below:
Reach One Teach One
Group Problem Solving
Fear Not Coding for the Rest of Us
Plan Less, Program More

Diversify Me

Talking IS Teaching

Leah Langy writes in the IFLS blog Keeping up with Kids about a collaborative effort in the Chippewa Valley to help address the 30 million word gap:

There's a group of early childhood professionals (librarians, teachers, family literacy providers, childcare consultants, and more) in the Chippewa Valley working on an initiative to address the 30 million word gap identified by researchers Hart and Risely in 2003.  What's the 30 million word gap?  It is the difference in the number of words spoken to children, depending on their family/childcare situation, by the time they reach age three.  Some hear 30 million fewer words by age three than their counterparts.  The research suggests that kids from lower income families are more likely to hear fewer words.

The group is using the resources, information and graphics from a website promoting talking with preschoolers to plan their work. 

To read more about the project and the links, click here.

Talking IS Teaching

Leah Langby writes in the IFLS blog, Keeping Up with Kids,  about an early literacy community of practice she is part of in the Chippewa Valley and an initiative they are working on:

There's a group of early childhood professionals (librarians, teachers, family literacy providers, childcare consultants, and more) in the Chippewa Valley working on an initiative to address the 30 million word gap identified by researchers Hart and Risely in 2003.  What's the 30 million word gap?  It is the difference in the number of words spoken to children, depending on their family/childcare situation, by the time they reach age three.  Some hear 30 million fewer words by age three than their counterparts.  The research suggests that kids from lower income families are more likely to hear fewer words.

They are using a valuable resource to help them get started: Talking is Teaching.

To read the rest of the KUWK blog post and link to resources, click here.