Have you noticed an abundance of red stickers on some of the books in Youth Services lately? Are you wondering what they mean? Good news! This new labeling system is to assist you and your younger child in finding just the right books, especially when browsing the shelves.
The large red “T” sticker on the spine of some Easy picture books indicates that this book is great for teaching early literacy concepts such as colors, numbers, shapes, opposites, or phonics, as well as containing short rhyming text, well-known children’s songs or nursery rhymes. Each book is a good example of at least one of the 5 practices that develop early literacy skills: read, write, sing, talk and play. These books are suitable for any age, but particularly for 1 – 5 year olds. For a list of books demonstrating these practices, and more information on early literacy, visit the Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy website.
Can’t get your 3 year old to leave the library without checking out a Spiderman or Dora book, but you don’t know where to find them in the Easy books? Favorite character books are now located on shelves under the windows of the Mayfield South room, and are marked with clear red tape over the spine label. This collection includes favorite characters, mostly from television shows, and they are organized by the main character’s name: Barbie, Caillou, Dora, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Lego, Sesame Street, and Thomas, to name a few. These books are typically written by many different authors, so this is a way to keep them together.
If you are looking for more traditional, literary characters that generally are written by a single author, they will remain located in the Easy book collection. This includes characters such as Arthur, Angelina Ballerina, Franklin, Froggy, Madeline, and Curious George.
Hope this helps you find what you want! As always, you can ask any friendly Youth Services staff person for assistance and advice.
In our Storytimes we love promoting language because language is a key ingredient in developing young readers. Something really simple that you can do at home to begin developing reading skills is to simply talk to your child. Children, even infants, begin learning language by watching and listening to loved ones talking to them, you are their first teacher! When you talk to a child you are expanding their vocabulary and good readers have a big (enormous, huge, gigantic) vocabulary. When you talk to your child they begin to understand what words mean and the more words they understand, the easier it is for them to read. Also, talking to children helps them make connections to their own life, which improves reading comprehension skills.
Things to try at home:
1. Create a photo journal for your child. Take photos of your child doing things such as going to school, playing at the playground, picking a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, etc. Print these pictures and put them in a photo book that your child can keep on his/her bookshelf. You and your child can look through the photos and talk about those fun experiences in the book, your child will love telling you about what they are doing in the pictures!
2. Play guessing games. Pick a game you want to play with your child and have them guess what it is, give kids clues to help them guess. This also works with food…have them guess what you will make for dinner by telling them how you will make it.
3. When you are reading to your child you can talk about the pictures they see on the pages. You can also talk about the story or the characters, books are great conversation starters!
4. Talk about what baby is seeing. Even if you feel silly talking to an infant, it is important to talk! “Look at the big green leaves on the tree; they are high in the air!” You can talk at the grocery store, on a walk, in the airport—help your child understand the world by explaining what is around them.
If you would like to learn more about how to talk to children, you might like to read
How to talk so Kids will listen and how to listen so kids will talk.
If this book doesn’t interest you, we have plenty other books on family communication you can try!
