Category Archives: Early Literacy Storytime

We know that children learn through all their senses–it’s why so many toys go in their mouths during baby storytime, or why math manipulatives such as unit blocks or Cuisenaire rods can be so insightful to play with. The kinesthetic … Continue reading →

Yup, reading a CD. Good readers don’t just read books…they read maps and signs and recipes and forms and instructions and labels and dozens of other print sources. When we call out that type of reading, modeling it and naming … Continue reading →

Young children enjoy learning all the sounds that animals make, don’t they? We make a lot of animal noises in baby storytime, that’s for sure. One thing I like to tell the parents is that when we talk about what … Continue reading →

Learning to read is a long, complicated cognitive process with many aspects. But we know that a critical early step is when the light bulb goes off and a child understands that all those squiggles on the page MEAN SOMETHING. … Continue reading →

Reading is more than just sounding out words–it’s also understanding what those words mean. Comprehension skills are important not just in and of themselves, but because if a child doesn’t understand what they are reading, they will get frustrated and … Continue reading →

A key step on the road to reading is recognizing that spoken words are made up of separate sounds (phonemes) and that those sounds are represented by letters on the page. Incorporating printed words into play time allows opportunities for … Continue reading →

Earlier I mentioned a literacy tip you could add to a Shapes Storytime to highlight the relationship between learning shapes and learning letters. Here’s another storytime activity that showcases shape differentiation! Talking about attributes of objects and toys while playing … Continue reading →

Being able to put the events in a story in sequential order is part of narrative skills. It’s related to comprehension skills because if you have a good understanding of a story or an event, you will be able to … Continue reading →