June/July 2008

Welcome to our new Early Literacy Newsletter!

In this issue you will find:

• Summer 2008 'Read To Me' Club
• Recommended Read-Alouds
• Fingerplays and Songs
• Mem Fox's Ten Read-Aloud Commandments
• Storytimes @ Your Library

Summer 2008 'Read To Me' Club

Visit any Scottsdale Public Library Branch and pick up a summer reading activity sheet. This special program is designed for parents and caregivers to do with their child or children ages 0 - 3. Complete 8 or more of the activities and bring in the sheet for a fantastic prize! For older children, we have the wonderful 'Read Your Way to the Ballpark' Summer Reading program with lots of prizes to earn. If your child finishes that program, he or she will receive a ticket to a Diamondbacks Game! And grown-ups, don't feel left out because we have summer reading programs for adults and teens too! Scottsdale Reads This Summer!

Recommended Read-Alouds

Click, clack, moo: cows that type / by Doreen Cronin ; pictures by Betsy Lewin. When Farmer Brown's cows find a typewriter in the barn they start making demands, and go on strike when the farmer refuses to give them what they want.

Good night, Gorilla / Peggy Rathmann. An unobservant zookeeper is followed home by all the animals he thinks he has left behind in the zoo.

Fingerplays and Songs

"Open Them, Shut Them"
Open them, shut them, open them, shut them,
Give a little clap/
Open them, shut them, open them, shut them,
Put them in your lap.
Creep them, creep them, creep them, creep them,
Right up to your chinny-chin-chin.
Open up your little mouth.
But,
Do not let them in!

"To Market, To Market"
To market, to market to buy a fat pig.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market to buy a fat hog.
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
To market, to market to buy a current bun.
Home again, home again, merket is done.
To market, to market to buy a pound of butter.
Home again, home again, THROW IT IN THE GUTTER!

Mem Fox's Ten Read-Aloud Commandments

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single dayreading aloud.
2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.
3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.
5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time.
6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.
7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.
8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.
9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.
10. Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.
    
    Mem Fox is the author of many popular books for children and adults, including Time for Bed, Sleepy Bears, Possum Magic, and Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. A former professor of literacy education, she lives in Adelaide, South Australia.

Ready to Learn Storytimes:
The Ready to Learn initiative educates parents and the community about the importance of early brain development. Storytimes offer a great opportunity for parents to positively interact with their young children and help lay the groundwork for future learning. All programs are designed for caregivers to participate with their children. 
Call for information about group visits.

Family Storytime - all ages (30 min)
A special time for children and their families to listen to stories and participate in fingerplays, music, and rhyming activities. Children under three must be accompanied by an adult.



Shake, Rattle & Roll - all ages (30 min)
Children and their caregivers participate in movement, fingerplays and other musical activities that help with the development of a child's emotional, language, memory, motor, mathematical and spatial skills.

Tiny Tot Time - 0 to 24 months (30 min)
An early literacy program that uses rhymes and songs to help children get ready to read.