December

It's December with no snow sticking to the ground. It reminds me of growing up (although we NEVER had snow sticking to the ground...goes with growing up in the desert.) It's two weeks until Christmas, a week and half until Hannukah and the winter soltice and two and a half weeks until First of Muharram and Kwanzaa. I hope everyone is enjoying the season and not doing too much. I am working on the winter programming. There is so much I want to do and just not enough days, energy (and me) to do it all. So, some of our programming will be running on alternate weeks. We will see how that goes towards meeting all the needs of our community.

Next week is Gingerbread Houses. I love doing this program. The kids are so creative. It is fun to see what they are going to do.

The kids made the most beautiful topiaries this week. I was so proud of their accomplishment. I am sure they will be displayed with honor in their homes.

Tomorrow is the last day of Make-A-Gift. The kitchen is filled with all the makings. It looks like a craft room rather than a kitchen at this point.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukak, Blessed Solstice and blessings on everyone this holiday season!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Next week we will be sitting down with family and friends and reflecting on Thanksgiving and what it means. (along with the turkey, pumpkin pie, some football and other cool things.) One of the things I am thankful for are the wonderful patrons and friends that I work with (in some cases, they are one and the same thing). Thanks for letting me be part of your community.

Just a heads up. There are new pictures posted on the website although I am still editing some of our pictures.

Octobers passing

November is here and all our holiday programming is beginning. I hope to see many of my friends here over the next month.

I was listening to christmas carols on the radio (101.5) (no groaning) and thought what a great way to introduce new words to our children. I mean "Deck the Halls with boughs of holly". For a child, that's a pretty confusing song. Are they talking about the wood thing outside the back door? Are they going to bow with their friend Holly? And by the way, who are they? The next line isn't any better. What's a tis?

Statistically, the more words a child knows before they enter kindergarten, the better they will do when it is time for them to read. So singing songs with your child is a great way to intoduce new words to them. You and your child will have fun and you will be helping them to succeed.

October

Tomorrow is the last day of October. We are in mid-fall and I am wondering where the time went. Holiday planning is in full gear and tomorrow is the Harvest Festival. I want to encourage everyone to pick a calendar for upcoming events or check the website calendar. There are so many things coming up: Candy making; Make-a-gift; Gingerbread houses to name a few.

AS the fall winds down, I want to encourage everyone to play rhyming games with their children. It seems like such a simple thing, but it encourages the imagination, builds literacy skills and is silly fun.

I want to also encourage everyone to vote. This is one priviledge that not every country has or shares with their people. While we might not agree on who to vote for or if we like a proposition (or not), voting is the only way to make our wishes known and is what makes a Democracy work.

So I wish everyone a Happy Halloween, All Saints Day and A Happy Day of the Dead. (Kind of a weird grouping of holidays!) Come see us at the library soon.

Storytimes have started

School is in session and leaves are already starting to turn. The entire Youth Staff is planning great things for the coming fall and hope you can join us.

New pictures have been uploaded from the summer classes. Take a peek to see how much fun we have had. Opps! The new pictures will be going up on Monday. We had a little difficulty. I did get some of the pictures edited, so go back and look at the summer programs.

The Last Week of Summer Reading

I watch the rain falling outside the window and reflect. The end of summer fast approaches. The reading program has raced ahead. We will be adopting at least two of our endangered animals and, no, I'm not telling until August 19th. The children's department is full of children looking for books and playing, teachers planning the beginning of their school year and parents interacting with their children. All in all, a very pleasant morning here at the Bellingham Library.

So I wanted to talk about how important Mother goose nursery rhymes are for early literacy. "What?" you might say. "Mother Goose!" Yep. They are important for developing rhythm and rhyming (although Dr. Foster from Glouster really only works if you use the BAH-stin accent)
These skills are part of the Phonological awarness skills. A Big word for hearing sound changes, rhythm patterns and word syllables. They also use "rare" words, words that are not use alot in regular language. I mean how many times do you use the word fleece or parlor in day to day conversation with your child? Knowing these "unusual" words actually helps children when it is time for children to read. The more words the child knows going into school, the easier it will be for them to learn to read.

Summer Reading continues

Hi Everyone,

Summer reading continues. Last week, we focused on polar bears and this week it is dolphins. Next week we are on to Penguins. If you are looking for pictures taken at the July events, they will be posted August 2 or there abouts.

I want to encourage everyone to keep reading, singing and enjoying the summer.

New Pictures

I have added LOTS of new pictures to the flicker account so click on the pictures to the right and they will take you to flickr to see them. I finally emptied out the camera and we had a lot of pictures on the camera. Who knows, you might even see yourself!

Print Awareness

What is Print Awareness? Print awareness is knowing that the squiggly lines on the pages of a book or a sign by the road mean something. Adults know what print is but for our very early readers this is a foreign land and indisipherable. Learning to read is one of the hardest things we are going to ask our young children to do. So the first thing we want to do is to begin making them print aware. Pointing out the word "Stop" on a stop sign, running our finger underneath the title as we read it, or pointing out our child's name or first initial all fosters print awareness.

Summer is here

It is the time of flip-flops and sandles, and I will be wearing a mid-calf boot. Something is so wrong with this picture. For those that don't know, I fell and injured my left foot and ankle. That means, for this summer, I'm going punk.

Anyway, sign-ups are happening for the Summer Reading program. Here is an opportunity to help the world we live in and it's inhabitants. For every hour of reading, each child will receive a ticket(s). This tickets will be used as votes for which endangered animal the Friends of The Bellingham Library are going to adopted to honor the reading done. Pretty cool! For more information, talk to us at the library.

Back to Early Literacy: Print Awareness

What is print awareness? It's seeing words. It doesn't mean that that we "know" what the word is, but that we are aware that the squiggles on signs or in the books stand for something. Pointing to the words on a page that correlate to the picture on the page begins the process of print awareness. By pointing to the words, you are showing your child what you are reading. They then begin the process of connecting the words and the pictures together. In the "We both Read" series (Pre-K), children can figure out the written word by the picture thus strengthening their understanding of reading. Are they reading yet? No, but we are developing the skills needed for them to succeed when it is time for them to learn to read.

It's a Library Thing

Check out book reviews of some of my favorite books!
http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=anfirind

Library Thing is as great new website where you can post your book collections online and write reviews about them. Find out more about this website at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibraryThing

As time goes by I will be continually updating my favorite books. This is only the beginning. Bwhahahahahahahahah!

Early Literacy

We all want to do what's best for our kids. We buy them the best clothes, the newest toys (or as new as we can afford!;-)) When our kids go to school, we want to prepare them the best that we can. Unforturnately, when our children come into our lives, we discover that there isn't guide book or the perfect right or wrong way to raise our children. So I am going to talk about things I have learned and share them with you. So my first topic is Reading for the very young or early literacy. Keep in mind, I am not an expert.

Early literacy is made of six parts. (Early Literacy Storytime, Saroj Ghoting, PLA conferance, May 2005) They are:

1. Print Motivation: the willingness and motivation to read
2. Phonological Awareness: Hearing sounds, breaking words apart, rhyming
3. Print Awareness: the ability to "see" words in books and in the environment
4. Vocabulary: learning new words and what they mean.
5. Narrative skills: knowing how to tell a story, retell events or adding descriptions
6. Letter Knowledge: knowing your abc's.

Over the next few weeks, I will talk about each of these different skills and how to impliment them with your child. At first it seems like a lot, but as we work our way through we will learn that getting your child ready to read isn't that difficult.

The last day of Spring break

It is the last day of the spring break and it has been really fun. With the lovely weather, we were able to garden outside. We sang and danced to High School Musical, had a tea party with our American Girls and made Cuppies for the Parent Trap Movie. All in all, a wonderful week.

Now it is time to look ahead at the upcoming summer. We are going to be having a Create a wild animal contest using a small plastic chair. We will have prizes for the most imaginative, most realistic, best use of recycling and other catagories.

I will be visiting all the elementary schools over the next two months and look forward to seeing some of my friends along the way. Be sure and say hi if you see me.