By: Justine Ferrara, Union (NJ) Public Library Do you want to incorporate CLEL Bell books into your storytimes? Are you looking for some caregiver tips, rhymes, songs, and activities to freshen up an existing storytime? Read on for some ideas to plan and execute an engaging storytime all about reading! CLEL Bell Award Winners & …
By: Holly Van Hoy Are you lucky enough to have caregivers and/or community members offering to volunteer at your library during storytime, but feeling unsure how to include them? Here are a few ways that I have been able to welcome caregivers and community members as creative partners in my storytime sessions. Hand Them a …
by Alex McCall / Douglas County Libraries It is easy to convince a librarian that speaking, talking, and reading to children from birth is a vital component of early literacy. From day one, babies’ brains develop neural pathways based on their caregivers’ words, intonations, and gestures that lay the foundations for them to read later …
by Jessica Fredrickson / Emeritus CLEL Training and Advocacy Chair As Melody Garcia recently posted on the CLEL Blog, early math skills are essential to both later math AND reading success! Reading math picture books in storytime is one great way to help young children build early math skills. The flannel board is another powerful …
by Katherine Bunker / High Plains Library District Almost three years after the CoVid-19 pandemic changed the way library professionals engaged patrons, many of us are still navigating the best approach to patron engagement. In the absence of in-person programs due to social distancing restrictions, the popularity of Take-and-Makes (a prepared craft or activity to take home …
Angela McCaffery / West Custer County Library District For a few years now the West Custer County Library has been hosting a playgroup. The weekly playgroup is for children ages 0-5 and their caregivers. The playgroup was originally started by a patron. She asked if she could use the children’s area in the Library once …
by Katherine Bunker / High Plains Library District In another pandemic-dominated year, our passion for helping children “experience the joy of reading and skills in life that literacy provides” did not wane. Storywalks evolved as an existing passive program and morphed into a safe social distancing program for libraries to offer to their communities. In …
by Julia Makowski, Buena Vista Public Library Guest Blogger I’m new. New to my job. New to libraries. And like everyone else I know,…
By Alberto Pellicer, Denver Public Library Guest Blogger Hello! My name is Alberto Pellicer and I coordinate Phone-a-Story at the Denver…
by Cindy Johanson, Douglas County Libraries Guest Blogger Sightings of bears – stuffed bears, that is – are on the rise in Colorado this…
