Early Literacy in Everyday Places: The Car

Whether the trip you're taking is long or short, the car is the perfect place to have fun with early literacy. Here are some suggestions for making the most of your car rides:

• Look for out-of-state license plates. Encourage your child to look for unfamiliar license plates and to figure out which state is printed on them based on the letters they start with. If you're on an especially long drive, keep a list of all the states you see and challenge your child to be the first to spot one you haven't found yet. 
• Put kids on the lookout for signs.Car trips can seem really long for kids who can't tell time. Break up the trip into kid-friendly segments by having your child watch out for particular signs that you know are coming up on the roadside. Give them clues as to how many letters are in the word they are looking for, or what letter the word starts with and ask them to "help" you by letting you know when they can see the sign. 
• Listen to an audiobook.Listening to a well-produced audiobook is a treat for kids and parents alike. Choose something that will appeal to you and your child and pause now and then for discussion and predictions. This is a great way to work some relaxing reading into your vacations! 
• Play the Alphabet Game. There are many variations on this game, and the one you use will depend on the age of your children. Some play it as a letter hunt, where everyone looks for the letters of the alphabet, in order, on the signs and vehicles they pass. Others choose a category and attempt to name something in that category for each letter of the alphabet. Another possibility is to choose one letter and name as many things as you can that start with it.

Reading with Little Miss Muffet: February 2015

New Book Behaviors

• Stacking and unstacking. Little Miss Muffet has started to discover that items can be piled on top of one another - blocks, cups, pieces of paper, and naturally, books. As pleasing as it is to make a pile, it's even more exciting to knock one down, so usually by the end of the morning, the living room floor is carpeted with picture books and Miss Muffet is slipping and sliding all over them as she walks to the kitchen for lunch. 
• Frustration. Miss Muffet is also beginning to understand that books have certain limitations. End papers are often fastened to the front and back covers, library book jackets are taped and glued in place, and the flaps in life-the-flap books have to be moved  a certain way in order to get them to open. When things don't work as she expects them to, Miss Muffet gets frustrated and pounds on the book or throws it to show that she is angry and/or wants help. 
• Orientation. Within the past couple of weeks, Miss Muffet has started to notice when she is looking at a book upside down, and she will turn it around to make sure everything is facing the right way. In one case, there was  an animal on a page who was intentionally upside down, and she actually turned the entire magazine she was reading upside down so she could see him going in the right direction. 

Five Current Favorites

• Blue on Blue by Dianne White, illustrated by Beth KrommesI picked up this book for myself because I had heard good things about it, but had not yet seen it. Little Miss Muffet loved it from the first reading, and it was her most requested read-aloud for the duration of the time it was checked out from the library. Her favorite illustrations were of the two dogs, at whom she would bark every time they appeared. Because she loved it, I read the book so many times that I starting reading too much into it and making up entire subtexts that were not implied by the author or illustrator! This is definitely the book I have read to her the most times in her life so far. 
• Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie FlackWe have acquired some of the books I had as a child, including many I received from the Children's Choice Book Club when I was a preschooler. Angus and the Ducks is one of these. Miss Muffet loves to say "woof" and "quack" so this is an ideal story for her. It's also just short enough that she can sit through the whole thing once before losing interest and demanding to hear something else. 
• You... by Emma Dodd
  This is the UK version of a book that was published in the US as More and More. It features a pair of monkeys - a parent and a baby - and Miss Muffet is obsessed with their faces. She especially likes one page where the monkey sits with his hand on his head, and she likes to point out the moon in the nighttime scene. Though I have read this book a fair number of times, this is one she also frequently looks at on her own. 
• First 100 Words by Roger Priddy
  In the interest of exposing her to words other than animals and their sounds (which she has mostly mastered), we purchased the oversized version of this board book for Miss Muffet. She loves to name the objects she recognizes and point to others so that I will tell her what they are called. We liked this book so much, we also bought a second one by the same author: Colors, ABC, Numbers.
• All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee
  This is one of my favorite picture books, and I really didn't expect to be sharing it with my child until she was at least in preschool. It turns out, though, that she loves pointing out all the people in the illustrations, and looking for things like the ball left behind in the rain and the man standing alone on the dock as the sun goes down. 

One Tip from Mom 

• Keep some of the books you own in reserve. My husband and I are both librarians, so we buy lots of books and receive lots of books as gifts. At any given time, Miss Muffet has access to probably half of the books that are appropriate for her current developmental stage. The rest are kept in a cabinet. I do a rotation of her books periodically, mostly to add some variety to my read-aloud repertoire, but I have also been known to pull out a long-forgotten interesting book to curb crying when she doesn't want to be in the playpen, but I need her to stay in there for 10 minutes. At this age, her memory is pretty short, so every time we bring out a book that has been hidden away, it's like we bought a brand-new one. 

4 Story Time Themes for St. Patrick's Day

Having trouble finding books to suit a St. Patrick's Day themed story time? Think outside the box and try one of these related themes instead.

Rainbows

Many Irish legends talk about looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so rainbows are a perfect St. Patrick's Day topic! A rainbow theme can incorporate almost anything having to do with colors, so every children's librarian can use this theme, regardless of location or collection size.

Suggested Books:

• A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman
• Rain by Robert Kalan and Donald Crews
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert 

Extension Activities:

• Song: I Can Sing a Rainbow 
• Action Song/Rhyme: Rainbow Over the Waterfall
• Flannel Board Song: Harold's Other Crayons 

Orange, White, & Green 

Orange, white, and green are the colors on the Irish flag. Using this theme, you can add a little Irish flavor to what is essentially just a color-themed story time with a specific focus.

Suggested Books: 

• Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger 
• It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw 
• Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
   

Extension Activities: 

• Flannel Board Sorting Song: Orange, White, and Green 
• Flannel Board: King of Green 
• Flannel Board/Fingerplay: Five Little Pumpkins Round
• Song with Puppet: I'm a Little Green Frog
• Nursery Rhyme: Mary Had a Little Lamb 

Magical Creatures 

Irish folklore is filled with leprechauns, fairies, unicorns, and other mythical beings. Connect your story time to Ireland by focusing on these fantastical creatures.

Suggested Books: 

• Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea
• Where the Giant Sleeps by Mem Fox
• Alice the Fairy by David Shannon 

Extension Activities: 

• Action Song/Rhyme: Flap Little Fairies 
• Fingerplay: This Little Leprechaun 
• Flannel Board Song: Five Little Fairies
• Flannel Board Rhyme: I Saw Five Little Unicorns

Luck

Enjoy the luck of the Irish at story time with a focus on good luck!

Suggested Books:  

• My Lucky Little Dragon by Joyce Wan
• Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley 
• A Good Day by Kevin Henkes
• Lucky Tucker by Leslie McGuirk

Extension Activities: 

• Action Song: If You're Lucky and You Know It 
• Flannel Board Rhyme: One Green Shamrock 

Flannel Friday: The Little Bird (Song by Elizabeth Mitchell)

I have always loved Elizabeth Mitchell, but somehow only recently discovered her song, "The Little Bird." In three verses, it describes how a little bird hops in the bright green grass, sits in a strawy nest, and flies in the big blue sky. It would be a great action song, but because of its simplicity, it also makes a great flannel board, especially for babies and toddlers. Here is my clipart interpretation. (The song can be heard here on Spotify and on Elizabeth Mitchell's Blue Clouds album.) 

The little bird hops through the bright, green, grass 

and the bright, green, grass grows high.

The little bird hops through the bright, green, grass 

and the little bird sings oh my.

Oh my, oh my, the little bird sings oh my.

The little bird sits in a strawy nest 

and the strawy nest sits still.

The little bird sits in a strawy nest
and the little bird sings oh well.

Oh well, oh well, the little bird sings oh well.

The little bird flies through the bright, blue sky 

and the bright, blue sky floats by.

The little bird flies through the bright blue sky 

and the little bird says bye-bye.

Bye-bye, bye-bye, the little bird sings bye-bye.

Because the bird says something in each verse, another option is to add speech bubbles to your flannel board like this: 

Having the speech bubbles can help the adults at your story time know what to sing when, and it also provides an opportunity to teach kids - especially preschoolers - to recognize some simple sight words and letter sounds.

I am hosting Flannel Friday this week. The round-up can be found here.