Literacy Skills: Narrative Skills, Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness

This post will be part one of my discussion on literacy skills. Today, we'll cover three and then we'll cover the last three tomorrow.

Vocabulary:
What is it?
This one is pretty simple. Knowing the names of things is a great skill when children are first learning to read. They can use the pictures as clues but, if they don't know what the picture is of, they'll struggle with the words on the page.
How can you help?
Building vocabulary can be as simple as talking to your child about the things they see around them and reading the books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Narrative Skills:
What is it?
Narrative skills is the ability to describe things and also understand and tell stories. This skill will ultimately help them learn how to read and enhance their conversation skills. Beginning narrative skills show themselves when a child is able to tell about an activity at school or relate a story about going to the store.
How can you help?
There are a few ways to encourage this literacy skill. Ask your child to tell you about the story they just read instead of having them passively sit while you read the story. Having your child relate stories that have a sequence to them will also enhance this skill.

Phonological Awareness:
What is it?
Hearing and manipulating the sounds in words is called phonological awareness. This includes the ability to hear and make rhymes, say words with certain sounds left out or put two sounds together to make a word. Trouble with this skill is where most trouble reading tends to surface.
How can you help?
Words games are a great way to help your child with this skill. Some examples include making up silly words or saying words with a pause in between ("tr" and "uck").

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is Summer.



Let's Have a Tree Party! by David Martin

Let's Have A Tree Party! is such a fun book. The kids love the illustrations and the rhythm of the book is just very entertaining. We spent some time discussing what an opossum was because our possum population is certainly lacking in the Southwest :)  



Summer by Siân Smith



This book was my foray into nonfiction during storytime. We discussed what the seasons were and appropriate activities/dress for each. The kids had fun telling me which of the activities presented in the book they were going to be doing this summer.



Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson



Mouse is adorable and one of my kids this morning took a special liking to this book. For their first summer, Mouse and Minka have a picnic in the park and enjoy foods and summer time traditions like kite flying and fireworks. 



Bugs Galore by Peter Stein

This is another great rhyming book. We sang Itsy Bitsy Spider prior to this book so I had the kids point out spiders and other bugs that tehy recognized. They reacted loudly when the book talks about bugs that end up in your soup!

And, again, for the kids who just could not seem to shake their wiggles this week, I pulled out my no mess paint bags. This is beginning to be an every week occurance :)

Literacy Skills

I'm sure this skill set is familiar to a great number of you, but I thought it might help to have it handy online.

I've created bookmarks with these listed on it to hand out to parents but there are a number of ways to make parents and caregivers aware of them including signage in the story time or children's area of your library and discussing applicable skills during your reading time together.

• Print Motivation
• Letter Knowledge
• Print Awareness
• Narrative Skills
• Vocabulary
• Phonological Awareness

I'll be going further indepth on each of these over the next few days so make sure to follow up for tips and tricks :)

No Mess Painting and Object Recognition

Here is one of the crafts I made recently. This plastic bag filled with paint and buttons works great as a tool for children to practice their letters or for little ones to interact with as their brains are busy developing and cataloging the world around them.

I would've preferred to use colored paint but only had access to white paint at work. There are many variations with this. You could include googly eyes, beads or shapes made from polymer clay. The bags I made have buttons and sequins in them along with a few rhinestones that I had lying around.

I pull them out when my kids are a bit too rowdy for a story and the kids and the parents really love these.

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is Colors.

Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd

Dog's Colorful Day is perfect for a colors story time. I've seen some great felt boards accompany this story but have yet to create my own. The kids really enjoyed showing me which spot was new and counting up to 10. This was a really interactive one for them which I think everyone enjoys.


I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

Yet another Karen Beaumont book makes an appearance at my story time, I can't help myself! I asked the kids to point to the body part that the narrator had just painted as a way to engage them. The parents also really liked the language in this one.



My Many Colored Day by Dr. Seuss

This is an extremely colorful book that would also be excellent for an emotions/feelings themed story time. I turned this into a sort of activity book, as well. I had them flap their wings like birds, buzz like bees and show me which color was their favorite. This really helped make the story individualized, too.

Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

I really thought this would appeal to all ages but it seems like the older kids were the ones who really got it. This book has fantastically vibrant colors on the pages that I thought would attract the babies but this morning they were in a mood that lent itself better to activities and songs than books and that's okay! The older kids had a great time telling me what color the objects actually were and shouting out the color on the pages as we went along.

For the kids who just could not seem to shake their wiggles this week, I pulled out my no mess paint bags. 

iPad at Story Time

I've had quite a few people ask me about how I use my iPad during story times. It started out as a fun way to bring my iPad to work and actually use it for something besides online shopping and playing games (what it gets used for in my off hours).

Two of my favorite iPad apps for Story Time are both by Software Smoothie - iBaby Buttons and Felt Board.



Felt Board by Software Smoothie

Felt Board  ($1.99) is a really neat app that mimics the traditional felt board that story time attendees have come to know and love. The app provides you with numerous cut outs of animals, people, clothing items and backgrounds to assemble whatever your imagine can create! One of the cons of this app is that you can only have one felt board at a time, making it hard to pre-plan anything. Check Youtube for some neat videos of users demonstrating this one.

iBaby Buttons by Software Smoothie

iBaby Buttons ($1.99) is a little less structured. This app is a lot of fun if you're comfortable allowing the children to touch the iPad themselves. Sort of a free form activity, the app puts colorful orbs whereever the screen is touched. Touch the spot again and an image appears with a corresponding sound - for example, a baby with laughter. One more tap causes the bubble to pop. I find that this is a good one to fall back on if the babies just aren't into the ideas of stories

Fun Felt by Qurios

A third app that I really enjoy is Fun Felt ($.99). This is similar to Felt Board but doesn't come with any premade backgrounds or outfits. I enjoy it because, in that sense, it acts more like a traditional felt board. I've used it with great success when I want to do my letter of the day activity. I hide the letter behind different shapes or the same shape in different colors and have the children identify which it is hiding behind.




I'll continue to search for useful story time apps and let everyone know as I stumble up on them. Let me know if you find any you love, too!


***This is not a paid endorsement.

All Mighty Song Cube!

This is three sides of my story time cube. It isn't gorgeous but I don't think it's bad for a box I taped together myself, Microsoft Clipart and some packing tape.

I got the idea from Mel's Desk (a fantastic resource!) and decided that I had to have my own.

For those of you unfamiliar with a song cube, it's basically a fun way to choose what songs to sing during story time. A song's title and a symbol to represent it are on each side. Mine has:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star //star

I'm a Little Teapot //teapot

If You're Happy and You Know It //hands clapping

Row, Row, Row Your Boat //sailboat

The Wheels on the Bus //bus

Itsy Bitsy Spider //spiderweb

This will help children with print recognition when they see the words each week and can associate them with the symbol. Once you've used it enough, the kids will start to shout out the name of the song that it lands on. It's also an easy way to up participation by allowing someone different to roll the cube each week!

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is All About Me.

We started with our letter of the day, M. The kids accurately told me that "Momma", "Mug" and "Monkey" started with M.
After a frantic rush to find new books because I decided I didn't like the previous titles just hours before story time was to start, I selected the following.



You're Finally Here! by Mélanie Watt

After doing our warm ups, I wanted to start with this book because it's high energy and fun. It also allows for a decent amount of audience participation which I try to encourage! The kids seemed to like this one all right but didn't really get as excited as I was :)



Me and You by Janet A. Holmes and Judith Rossell

This is a sweet, but not saccharine, book about all the things one can do and how it's always more fun when friends are involved. Since this was another bunny book (accidental!), I let the kids demonstrate their hopping and they really enjoyed that. I think the parents liked this one because it has a cute message.


I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont

Karen Beaumont's stories are some of my favorites and this is no exception. The little girl is so full of energy and self confidence, it seemed like the perfect way to end our story times. Everyone liked this one for the great illustrations. it got a lot of interaction from the kids with them shouting out things like, "I can do that!".

Our fingerplays this week were a rousing rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and Ten Little Fingers. We also used the Song Cube which I'll be writing a post about later this week. (UPDATE: Read the Song Cube blog post here. )

Story time Warm Ups and Closings

Repetition is very important when children are first learning. Hearing the same sounds repeatedly helps them commit them to memory. It also adds enjoyment because, eventually, the child will be able to anticipate endings or use their imagination to change the story. All of this adds to the level of participation in story time and with at home reading.

For our story times, I like to open and close with the same songs. This allows the experienced children and families sing with me and lets newcomers know what to expect upon their return! Creating this sense of community is largely important when trying to make children feel welcome and encouraging participation.

The opening activity is just a way for us to get the wiggles out. I altered a game that I knew previously and created Bunnies which allows the kids to exert some energy before sitting down for active listening and finger plays. It goes like this:

You place your hands on either side of your head. I say "Bunnies up high!" And the kids raise their arms. Followed by "Bunnies down low!" and "Bunnies to the side!" which are self explanatory. The final instruction is "Bunnies are go!" which is the signal to sit down quietly so that we may begin.

Our opening song is "Clap and Sing Hello!" sung to the tune of Farmer in the Dell which is the same tune that our closing song, "We Wave Goodbye Like This" is sung to.

What songs do you like to use? Do you use repetition or change it up frequently?

Welcome to Pattycake Play Date!



Pattycake the puppet.



Pattycake the dog.



  



The name Pattycake Play Date was inspired by my Pembroke Corgi, Pattycake. When I accepted a position as a children's librarian, I decided that her puppet counterpart would be the perfect addition to my story times. A star was born! (I'm sure there is some really awful puppy/puppet joke floating in there, somewhere)

This blog will showcase the best and worst of my story times along with some tips, reviews and other topics related to Pattycake and children's librarianship. I'd love to hear from you, so please don't hesitate to get in touch :)