Mel's Desk

Here’s a way to add some alphabet learning to your storytime! Knowing the names of letters is often the first alphabet skill children learn. But we all know how the letter names LMNOP all get squished together when we sing the ABCs to the traditional tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!”

One thing you can do in storytime is sing the ABCs to a different tune. Add a comment to the parents about why you’re doing this so they know it’s not just to be tricky and cute, but it will help their children hear the separate names of the letters.

First, sing the traditional version of the ABC song with your families. There are lots of ways to segue into this if you feel you need a transition (I *love* transitions!). You can notice the letters on the children’s nametags, or on the cover of the book you just read (“That was Three Little Bears. Look, I see a T and an L and a B. I bet you know a song about ALL the letters!”), or lead into it after you sing any song together (“That was fun! Let’s sing another song we know. Let’s sing the ABCs!”).

Then tell the parents, “When you sing the ABC song to different tunes, it gives your child another way to hear all the names of the letters–especially the ones that get run together, like LMNOP. Knowing the letter names is an important first step to knowing letter shapes and sounds. Let’s try to sing the ABCs a different way. Let’s try _______ . We’ll probably goof up a little, but it will be fun!” Give them the name of the tune you’ve selected. You might want to hum the melody first to get it into the grownups’ heads, then sing it together. Have a good time!

There’s lots of tunes that will work, but I’ve got a handout that maps out the letters to a few different songs if you need a place to get started.

Updated October 2015: The wonderful Jbrary team recorded themselves singing all the tunes on the ABC handout! Thank you!

Here’s a way to play with rhymes during your storytime! When you add a comment to the parents about what you’re doing, it helps them learn how singing and rhyming will help their child get ready to read. When parents know the “how” and “why” it can help them stay motivated to do the “what”!

For this activity, I spent a long time looking at nursery rhymes. What I wanted was to find some rhymes where the rhyming word was a concrete object that I could show with a picture. This was harder than I thought it was going to be! For example, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star / How I wonder what you are.” The rhyme is “are” but there’s no way you can make that be a picture that kids can name. Same with Mary Had a Little Lamb–the rhyming word is “go”!

I finally came up with three rhymes and rhyme fragments that would work, and found photo clip art for each image: Hey Diddle Diddle (the rhyming pictures are FIDDLE and SPOON), the first two lines of One Two Buckle My Shoe (SHOE and DOOR), and (thanks to my husband for this one!) Sing a Song of Sixpence (PIE and KING).

You can transition to this activity after you sing a song together or read a rhyming book. You can say, “Did you hear the rhyming words in that song? We say words rhyme when their endings sound the same, like CAT and HAT. Can you help me say some rhyming words?”

Then start to say one of the rhymes. When you get to the rhyming word, pause, and put the picture up before you say the word. See if the kids can name the picture and provide the rhyme! The reason I wanted them to be able to say it is so they can practice their expressive vocabularies, and hear the rhyme as they vocalize it themselves.

Do two of the rhymes, then say to the parents, “Grownups, when you let your child fill in the rhyming words of a familiar poem or song, they learn to hear that some words end with matching sounds. Hearing the ending sounds of words is a first step to hearing EVERY sound in every word–this is a skill that will help them as beginning readers.”

After you give your message to the adults, have the kids help you with your last rebus challenge, then go on to your next activity!

Here’s a way to model talking with kids during your storytime! You probably already do this without even thinking about it. Just add a comment to the grownups in your storytime to help them learn how it helps their children get ready to read.

Pick a time during storytime when you are handing something out to the children, or getting a flannelboard or a CD player ready. Instead of just doing it, narrate what you’re doing out loud. Just keep a running commentary going. For instance, “OK, it’s time to hand out our egg shakers so we can sing Shake Your Sillies Out! I’m going to walk around with the box so everyone can choose some. There are different colors of shakers! Emily took a blue one. Ethan took a green one. There’s enough for everyone! When everyone has one, we’ll start our song.” Etc.

Then before you start the song, tell the parents, “We know that children with big vocabularies have an easier time when it comes to reading, because they recognize more of the words that they see on the page. One of the ways you can help your child is by telling them what you’re doing as you do it, like I just did when I handed out the shakers. The more words they hear, they more words they learn! Talking with your children will help them get ready to read.”

Here’s a way to model talking with kids during your storytime!

Before storytime, look for a photo of yourself when you were a child. Think of a story or anecdote about yourself that goes along with your storytime plan or theme for the day.

After you read a book or do an activity in your storytime, get out your photo and say, “This is a picture of me when I was little.” Then tell your story.

For instance, if I just read “Splish Splash” by Nicola Smee, I might say, “When I was a little girl, I didn’t live near the ocean, but my grandma lived near a creek. My sister and I would go down to the creek and catch crayfish. They look like little lobsters and they would pinch our fingers! We’d keep them in buckets till dinner time, then we would let them go again.”

Depending on your group, you might feel comfortable asking your children to tell you about a time they went to a lake or the ocean or a pond.

Then tell the adults, “When you tell your children stories from when you were little, you are helping them learn how stories work–that they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Knowing how stories work will help them understand the stories they read themselves. Talking with your children helps them get ready to read!”

Last year, the Every Child Ready to Read materials for libraries were updated to focus on the 5 practices parents can do to help build early literacy skills in their children. These practices are reading, writing, singing, talking, and playing.

At my library, we’re starting to create literacy messages around these five practices. We’ll deliver these messages to the parents and caregivers attending our storytimes. As I help to develop the messages, I’m having fun doing some reading and re-reading about each of the practices. So here’s a little information about how talking with children can help get them ready to read!

This information is based, in part, on the Every Child Ready to Read toolkit, but also on the reading and learning I’ve been lucky enough to pursue over the last few years.

Build Vocabulary

The more words children hear in conversations during their early childhoods, the larger their vocabulary when they go to school. That big vocabulary helps them recognize words when they see them for the first time in print. They will understand more of what they read and be less frustrated as beginning readers.

The University of Oregon’s Center on Teaching and Learning has a good recap of some of the research on vocabulary size.

Increase Comprehension

The more books children read, and the more adults talk to children about the story, characters, and ideas in books, the more children can make connections between the books they read and their own lives. Children (like grownups) enjoy recognizing themselves in print and that pleasure motivates them to read more and discover even more connections.

Comprehension is such a critical part of successful reading. If you don’t understand what you read, you won’t be motivated to keep reading. And you certainly won’t be able to enjoy the story or use the information in the book you’re reading. The more children know about the world before they start to read, the more this background knowledge can inform their attempt to decipher what’s on the page. Parents who discuss new information about how and why and when things happen with their children are giving their children an excellent foundation they will build on every day as readers.

Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension: a long article from Reading Rockets about reading out loud and thinking out loud to build connections and understanding.

A brief statement from the Bank Street College of Education on the value of activating and acquiring background knowledge for beginning readers.

Learn about Stories

When adults tell stories to children, either familiar folktales, or family stories, it helps children learn that stories have a specific structure: they have a beginning, middle, and end, and that they have characters who take action and encounter conflict before resolving a problem. When children understand how stories work, they can carry that framework to their reading, where it can support them as they try to determine the meaning of the text.

The Role of Storytelling in Early Literacy Development: from the site Australian Storytelling.

Scroll down on this page to find the PDF called “I Wanna Be a Storyteller,” a best practice handout for parents from the Center for Early Literacy Learning.

What resources have you found that discuss how talking leads to reading?