Issue 11

What is Early Literacy? Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Research shows that children get ready to read years before they start school. There are six early literacy skills that parents can incorporate into their children's daily life. These six skills are: Vocabulary, Print Motivation, Print Awareness, Narrative Skills, Phonological Awareness, and Letter Knowledge. More detailed information about these six skills is available at http://multcolib.org/birthtosix/elitskills.html/

You can help your baby, toddler and preschooler learn important skills now so they can become good readers. There are many simple and fun ways to do this. We invite you to bring your child to Library storytimes, which utilize research-based techniques to build early literacy skills. This newsletter will help you extend storytime benefits by including book-related activites, fingerplays and crafts.

Poetry is a fun way to stimulate phonological awareness, which is the child's ability to hear the smaller sounds in spoken words and recognize rhyming words. In this issue we feature poetry collections for preschoolers and picture books with rhyming texts.

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Rhymes can help children look more carefully at the natural world around them. Use rhymes to start conversations with your child. This rhyme gives you a chance to talk about turtles.

I had a little turtle. (Make a fist with thumb poking through.)

He lived in a box. ( Cover fist with other hand.)

He swam in the water. (Make swimming motions.)

And he climbed over rocks. (Make climbing motions)

He snapped at a minnow. (Make a grabbing motion)

He snapped at a flea. (Make a grabbing motion)

He snapped at a mosquito. (Make a grabbing motion)

And he snapped at me! (Make a grabbing motion)

He caught the minnow. (Clap cupped hands.)

He caught the flea.  (Clap cupped hands.)

He caught the mosquito. (Clap cupped hands.)

 But he didn't catch me!  (Point to yourself.)

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After reading the story try making up some rhyming riddles about the animals in the book. Here are a few examples:

It likes to eat bones and rhymes with log.  DOG

It swims in a pond and rhymes with luck.  DUCK

It's soft and purrs and rhymes with hat.  CAT

Re-read the story and ask your child to predict what will happen next.

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Ride along with Baby and her family from the busy city to the quiet countryside. As they pass different animals, the parents ask Baby what each creature says and Baby always answers "Moo!"

Filled with sweet rhymes and adorable art, Baby Says "Moo!" is a perfect book for toddlers.