Ask us to help you find some non-fiction books about dinosaurs! We can all learn new words and new things together from these books. Dinosaurs Galore! by Giles Andreae is a non-fiction book that has fun pictures and mentions many different types of dinosaurs, their special features, and the pronunciations.
–Tip by Carol C., Youth Programming Assistant
Splish-splash, drip-drop, kaboom… Rain makes all sorts of fun sounds! Letters put together make fun sounds and words too! The early literacy skill of phonological awareness is being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. So on the next rainy day, make some rain sounds of your own using your hands, a drum, and especially your voice!
–Tip by Carol C., Youth Programming Assistant
Before children learn actual letters, they are aware of shapes. Playing with shapes helps children see the differences in letter shapes. You can have your child look for shapes in the pictures of books like these: Pie in the Sky by Lois Ehlert and Round Is a Pancake by Joan Sullivan Baranski. See how many circles you can find together!
–Tip by Barb M., Youth Programming and Outreach Assistant
Print motivation means being interested in and enjoying books. Find a board book to check out this week and share it with your baby each day, even if it’s just a page or two at a time. Try a board book with textures, or a lift-the–flap style, or one with baby animals or photos of babies, that you and your little one can look at and talk about just for fun. It’s okay if you only share part of it at first, but see if you can add a little more each time. Just remember to keep it fun!
–Tip by Jan P., Preschool/Childcare Liaison
You are your child’s first teacher. Researchers have noted that there are six early literacy skills that you can help your child with before they actually learn to read—one of which is narrative, the ability to describe events and tell stories. Stories like Red, Red, Red by Valeri Gorbachev have a certain structure with a beginning, middle, and an end. By exposing your children to storybooks, you help them become familiar with the way language is written. Not only are storybooks fun to share, but being familiar with their structure will also help your child know what to expect when they begin to read stories themselves.
–Tip by Brad J., Youth Technology Librarian
In some books, you can find text in the pictures, showing examples of environmental print, like the signs and labels we see around us every day. Pointing these out to your kids, and asking them to help you find them, helps to reinforce the early literacy skill of print awareness. In Go! Go! Go! by Roxie Munro, each scene has two spreads. The first is just an illustration, but there is a sign or label within the picture that you can point to or that your child can help you find. The second spread has text you can read aloud as part of the story, as well as a flap you can fold out to show the action that’s happening.
–Tip by Erin E., Youth Programming Coordinator
Books like Puppies, Puppies Everywhere! by Cat Urbigkit demonstrate the specific names for things, like the difference between puppies and dogs. This helps your child learn new words and to better understand differences between similar things. While reading with your child, as well as in your day-to-day speech, point out the difference between baby and adult animals, and other different words. This is one way to increase children’s vocabulary.
–Tip by Claire B., Youth Outreach Coordinator
Clapping words helps children hear them divided into parts. This fun activity helps develop their phonological awareness, the ability to break words into parts. This is one of the skills researchers say is important for children to have before learning to read. Talk about the word “winter”—sound out the different parts of the word (win – ter). Say them separately and then together again, first slowly and then faster. Clap once for each syllable of the word. You can also try the same thing with other words, such as season, snowman, icicle, snowball, and snowflake.
–Tip by Keary B., Youth Collection Specialist
Alphabet books are one way to help children become aware of letters, how they look, and what sounds they make. It is best not to quiz your young child on the letters, but rather to mention them in the context of something that they enjoy, like a book.
–Tip by Erin E., Youth Programming Coordinator
In the book Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Baby? by Barney Saltzberg, Cornelius’s mother keeps telling him that his baby sibling is still too young to do things with him by saying, “No, not yet!” over and over again. As you read with children, having them say a repeated phrase with you throughout the book helps to keep them involved in the story. This is one way that you can support print motivation.
–Tip by Julie D., Elementary School Liaison
