EARLY LEARNING OUTREACH AND COLLABORATION
Fletcher Free Library, Burlington VT visits local Head Start with the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Program
Photo: Fletcher Free Library
Play-Based Learning &
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Stay & Play Toolkit
Stay & Play is a library service model developed to serve and support the informal child care providers (friends, family or neighbors). Those providing informal care can often lack access to access to the information, resources, and support available to formal, licensed child care providers.1
In 2016 the Oakland Public Library received a Packard Foundation grant to create programming specifically designed for family, friend and neighbor child care providers.The Oakland Play Cafe was then piloted around California as the Stay and Play. Stay & Play builds on the early learning foundations and best practices promoted, for more than a decade, by the California State Library’s Early Learning with Families (ELF) initiative
The five components are listed below and further explained in Implementing Stay & Play.
Implementation:
1 The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 2015. Informal Child Care in California: Current Arrangements and Future Needs.
In 2016 the Oakland Public Library received a Packard Foundation grant to create programming specifically designed for family, friend and neighbor child care providers.The Oakland Play Cafe was then piloted around California as the Stay and Play. Stay & Play builds on the early learning foundations and best practices promoted, for more than a decade, by the California State Library’s Early Learning with Families (ELF) initiative
The five components are listed below and further explained in Implementing Stay & Play.
- Outreach: Targeted and focused outreach to family, friend, and neighbor child care providers
- Play: Meaningful play opportunities that are child-directed and encourage caregiver and child interactions
- Story Time: Library story times specifically designed for informal child care providers and the children in their care
- Resources: Programming, resource materials, and/or community experts to better equip informal child care providers with child development, safety, and early learning information
- Food: Provision of food or opportunities to accommodate the food needs of children and their caregivers
Implementation:
- Early Learning Approach: Learn about the underlying principles of Stay & Play.
- Community and Library Assessment: Use these tools to strategically get to know FFNs in your community and determine your library’s capacity.
- Design and Outreach: Implement the logic model to intentionally design your Stay & Play services.
- Program Delivery: Explore the nuts and bolts of creating your space and then running an in-person Stay & Play program series.
- Evaluation and Continuous Improvement: Discover practical tools to plan your evaluation strategy to support your program design, and to complete the evaluation effectively.
1 The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 2015. Informal Child Care in California: Current Arrangements and Future Needs.
How Play Helps Math Learning
Becoming acquainted with common and hidden hazards in your library, home and community can help you take important safety steps now to prevent a tragedy later. Consumernotice.org Child Safety Tips
Ways to reach out and work together:
*See side story Underlined-Click on for linked story
Boston Basics Chattanooga Basics
Head Start*
Library Baby Shower
Reimagining School Readiness Toolkit from Center for Childhood Creativity at the Bay Area Discovery Museum
Stork Storytime READS*
Storytime on the Move:
Daycare
Homeless Shelter
Laundry & Literacy
WIC Programs
Toy Library Network
Kindergarten GearUp
For those of you currently facilitating school readiness programs in the library, or if you have plans to launch a school readiness program, here is one model that could provide a template for your curriculum. Kindergarten Gear Up is a kindergarten readiness program developed by the San Diego County Library to help both kids and caregivers prepare for kindergarten. It is targeted toward families whose children have not attended preschool. Kindergarten Gear Up is a series of ten one-hour sessions that can be scheduled once a week for ten weeks, or twice a week for five weeks. There are separate activities for children and caregivers, so successful implementation requires two programming spaces and at least two to three staff members. All the Kindergarten Gear Up content is freely available for any library to adapt into its programming. Content includes detailed lesson plans, a library of activities, booklists, caregiver handouts and discussion questions (in English and Spanish), posters, fliers, activity sheets, and more. Please note that this is a time-intensive program series. If you maintain a full program calendar, you will probably want to replace a current program rather than add Kindergarten Gear Up.
Online Storytime Scavenger Hunt Using Book Award Books
Here is an example using the New Hampshire Ladybug Picture Book Award Books:
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Reimagining Program Development and Evaluation
Looking for a structured but flexible approach that facilitates program development, evaluation, and fast-cycle iteration. Check out the IDEAS Impact Framework toolkit
The IDEAS Impact Framework provides that approach, drawing on existing research and development tools and applying them in new ways to set a higher bar for program development and evaluation.
IDEAS Stands for:
Looking for a structured but flexible approach that facilitates program development, evaluation, and fast-cycle iteration. Check out the IDEAS Impact Framework toolkit
The IDEAS Impact Framework provides that approach, drawing on existing research and development tools and applying them in new ways to set a higher bar for program development and evaluation.
IDEAS Stands for:
- Innovate
- Develop
- Evaluate
- Adapt
- Scale
New Toolkit to Address Accessibility to Technology
February 6, 2021 ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers
ALSC - Professional Tools for Librarians Serving Youth
Photo: Fletcher Free Library
Mary Danko, Director
Fletcher Free Library
Burlington, VT
Fletcher Free Library, Burlington VT - Champlain Valley Head Start
The Fletcher Free Library launched the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program in partnership with Champlain Valley Head Start. This pilot supports kindergarten readiness by fostering an interest in reading & will increase the guardian/child bond by supporting parents in reading with their children by improving access to books at home. Providing free books to children will immediately benefit families, while accompanying reading logs offer a fun & interactive way to measure long-term impact. The pilot will reach Head Start sites in Burlington's New North End, a neighborhood that houses many New American families. This area, 3 miles from the library, has requested satellite services. This program allows the library a unique opportunity to creatively meet the needs of an under-served population. Grants have helped us purchase imprinted book bags for the children to take home weekly, books for the bags, a fall family kickoff event to celebrate reading, incentives, & inclusion of an additional Head Start preschool & in-house library launch of the program to reach all Burlington youth. 45% of
Burlington children speak a language other than English at home; 45% receive free or reduced lunch.
Burlington children speak a language other than English at home; 45% receive free or reduced lunch.
Hosting Outdoor Story Time in All Kinds of Weather
Polly Mahoney from the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth, NH reports having great success in transferring their story time to an outdoor format. For helpful hints and some of their favorite outdoor story times:
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Brain Breaks - Action Songs for Children - Move and Freeze Popular children’s brain breaks, action and dance song, Move and Freeze. Move and Freeze is from the award-winning CD, “Brain Boogie Boosters.”
GoNoodle is free for teachers, parents, and kids! In addition to energizing content, GoNoodle has 300+ dance videos, mindfulness activities, and more engaging videos for kids!
Embedding EDI into Early Literacy Programming
Here is a link to the recording : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YCv-l9IsS0ckfU8oH7vtrDD1UZej-VCx/view?usp=sharing
Here is a link to the slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10FP0O5qCA-LcT-YtNft9XasGEL7j-ggg/view?usp=drive_web
Here is a link to the slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10FP0O5qCA-LcT-YtNft9XasGEL7j-ggg/view?usp=drive_web
Stork Storytime READS
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As creator of Stork Storytime READS (formerly Womb Literacy), Jennifer Jordebrek says, why wait until baby and chaos arrives to impart early literacy skills information to new parents. Adjusting to being a new parent is overwhelming. Physicians are trying to send the good message, but even well baby check-ups can be stressful. Why not encourage a reading routine now with expecting parents?
Jennifer Jordebrek is the Assistant Director at the North Liberty Community Library in North Liberty, IA. On the libraries website, the stork storytime page makes it easy to replicate this program at your library with a Librarians Tool Kit, podcasts and information on their annual Stork Storytime EXPO. Jennifer Jordebrek also pointed out that 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a great follow up to this program. Thank you Jennifer for this great resource that can work at any size library. |