Category Archives: Early Literacy Storytime

One of the things that helps children get ready to write is building strong muscles in their shoulders, because these muscles provide stability to the smaller muscles in the forearms and hands. More stability means less effort is needed to … Continue reading →

A foundational pre-reading skill is being able to literally see that there are words on the page as well as pictures. Children need to know that when they are being read to, the readers aren’t just making up stories that … Continue reading →

Speech therapists talk about setting up “communication temptations” in order to motivate children to communicate or speak. A communication temptation is a situation that a child really wants to resolve in a certain way, so they are willing to try … Continue reading →

We know that learning how rhymes “work” is a critical pre-reading skill. Nursery rhymes and Mother Goose songs are such a fabulous way to introduce rhymes and rhyme-play to children. But in addition to helping to boost “decoding” skills such … Continue reading →

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 →