STAR

1. STAR Using the Sing, Talk, and Read philosophy for Baby Lap Time

2. What is “Lap Time” • A program for the smallest patrons (newborn to walking) • Encourages parent child interactions • Specially designed to foster developmental milestones • Focuses on songs, rhymes, bounces, and short stories

3. Why have a Baby Lap Time? • Provides an engaging environment for new parents • Offers and provides resources on Early Literacy • Makes parents aware of their role in the education process • Promotes the library and it’s resources • Helps foster the parent-child bond • Develops life long library habits • Model best practices for early childhood development

4. What is “Early Literacy” • According to the organization Zero to Three, the definition of early literacy is, "what children know about communication, verbal and nonverbal language, reading, and writing before they can actually read and write." • Early literacy encompasses the child's totality of experiences with conversation, oral and written stories, books, and print. Young children need a variety of skills in order to become successful readers. • Specific early literacy skills become the building blocks for later reading and writing. • Research indicates that children who enter school with more of these skills are better able to benefit from the reading instruction they receive when they arrive at school. • Children who are read to from an early age have a larger vocabulary and better language skills when they start school. It is NOT teaching children to read!

5. The Early Literacy Skills • Vocabulary, knowing the correct names for things, is an extremely important skill for children to have when they are learning to read. Most children enter school knowing between 3,000 and 5,000 words. • Print motivation is a child's interest in and enjoyment of books. A child with print motivation enjoys being read to, plays with books, pretends to write, asks to be read to and likes trips to the library. • Print awareness includes learning that writing in English follows basic rules such as flowing from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, and that the print on the page is what is being read by someone who knows how to read. • Narrative skills, being able to understand and tell stories, and describe things, are important for children being able to understand what they are learning to read. • Letter knowledge includes learning that letters have names and are different from each other, and that specific sounds go with specific letters. • Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smaller sounds in words. Phonological awareness includes the ability to hear and create rhymes, to say words with sounds or chunks left out and the ability to put two word chunks together to make a word. Most children who have difficulty in reading have trouble in phonological awareness. • Oral Language is the foundation of early literacy that includes listening, speaking and non-verbal communication. • Background Knowledge or what children know about the world that helps them understand what is being read.

6. The Early Literacy Practices • Singing: Singing is an easy and enjoyable way to involve children in language. It helps children learn and remember new words and to hear the smaller sounds in words. Strong vocabularies and being able to hear the syllables in words are critical to helping children be ready to learn to read. • Talking: Talking with children is an easy way to help them develop language and other early literacy skills. Conversations and storytelling with children introduce them to many new words and to story structure and help them better understand what they read later in school. • Reading: Shared reading is the single most important way to help children get ready to learn to read. It teaches them new words, shows them how a book works, and introduces them to the printed word. Introducing reading as a fun activity helps to motivate a child to want to learn to read. • Writing: Reading and writing go together. When children experiment with writing, they come to understand that printed letters stand for printed words. Being away of print helps them be prepared to learn to read. • Playing: All of the practices above should be done within the context of play, but play is an activity in and of itself as well. Pretend play, dramatic play, sorting, doing puzzles-- these all help children develop skills that will make it easier for them to learn to read.

8. Milestones Birth to 3 months • Visual begin tracking high contrast colors • Cognitive prefer human voices provide comfort/babble • Movement hand and leg control grasping/ opening and closing hands • Social copy expressions squeals with delight and selectively smiles

9. Milestones4-7 months • Visual distance colors • Cognitive grabbing moving items hand to hand • Movement sitting up/crawling • Social react to “no” understand tone of voice imitate sounds/actions

10. Milestones8-12 months • Visual is visually attentive • Cognitive sorting looking for hidden objects more dexterous • Movement sits unsupported can use pincher grab can stand • Social observes the movement of others

11. Lap Time Activities Hello Songs Tickles Body awareness Rhymes Bounces Short Stories Shakers Lullabies Book Share

12. Resources • http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/ • http://www.earlylit.net/storytimeshare/ • http://www.mgol.net/ • http://www.clel.org/content/online-resources-planning-baby-storytimes • http://libguides.dclibrary.org/star

13. My “Typical” Songs/Activities Bouncing up and down in my little red wagon (x3) Won't you be my darling One wheel's off and the axle's draggin’ (x3) Won't you be my darling Jonnie has a hammer and he can fix it (x3) Won't you be my darling The Grand ol’ Duke of York, He had 10,000 men He marched them up to the top of the hill And he marched them down again And when they’re up they’re up And when they’re down they’re down But when they’re only half way up They’re neither up nor down Tommy Thumb Twinkle Twinkle Shakers Mirrors Scarves Hello Toes, how do you do? I’m just fine and I’m dancing too… With a do do do do dodda dodda do I’m just fine and I’m dancing too! (knees, tummy, hands, neck, head) Round and Round the Garden Goes the Teddy Bear One Step, Two Step, Tickle them under there! Round about, Round about goes the wee mouse Up a step, Up a step, All around the house. Eye Winker, Tom Tinker, Nose Blower Mouth Eater, Chin Chopper, Gootchie Gootchie Goo! This is the way we wash our feet, Wash our feet, wash our feet, This is they way we wash our feet So early in the morning. (knees, tummy, hands, neck, ears, hair)