kcpl.staff.user

The question I get asked the most by early childhood educators is, "How do you hold their attention when reading aloud?" While easy to answer, the skill takes a lot of practice. The best way to capture a young child's attention with reading is to enjoy reading aloud. Regardless of what you are reading, children as young as infants recognize that you are focusing your attention on them. They observe you sitting calmly and hear the variations in your voice. They are watching your facial expressions and your non-verbal movements. All of this information is being processed in the child's brain. The attention you give to a child when you read aloud activates the reward center of their brain, causing them to want to repeat the experience. So chose a book that you enjoy reading and let the kids watch you have fun with it!

Even though three to five-year-olds can't read, they are still eager to know what's going to happen. Try using a visual schedule to keep preschoolers focused and on task. When kids take ownership of checking off activities, they are more engaged in every facet. Here are some simple pictures I use to keep kids engaged during storytime.

SUPPLIES: empty paper towel roll 3 pieces of cardstockdark blue light blue brown frog print off glue stick ruler scissors pencil 2 paperclips   STEPS: take the dark blue card stock sheet and lay it down on your work station “landscape”. Then take the ruler and make a mark every two inches, you want to create five columns. From the top to the bottom draw a straight line for guided cutting. Do the same for the light blue and brown cardstock sheets. PDF for the frogs I used: Five Green Speckled Frogs On the light blue cardstock, between the newly drawn lines take creative liberty and draw a wave across the page. It can be one continuous wave, or 5 small waves that all look the same. On the brown card stock, go up about two inches and cut lengthwise along the paper, you should have 2-inches x 2-inches brown squares. Cut out all the green frogs, waves, and blue strips. Take the blue strips and make a small glue strip on one of the ends, fold it over (without creasing), it should make a teardrop shape. Repeat step for all 5 strips. Starting from the middle of the rounded edge, glue a brown square on each of the 5 teardrops. From there, glue a frog on top of the brown square. Flipping the teardrop over you want to put the wave on the opposite side, make it flush with the square part of the teardrop, where you glued it together earlier in step 5. Your teardrops are now ready for the tube, simply slide each one on, putting a paperclip on each end between uses to ensure all pieces stay together.   Written by: Teresa [...]

Learning about other cultures and holidays builds compassion in young children. Try these books for learning about holidays from around the world:                

This adage isn't just for the aging. "Use it or lose it" applies to young kids as well. The brain goes through a process of neural pruning, where it will eliminate anything that isn't being used. How can early childhood educators take advantage of "use it or lose it"? Provide lots of opportunities for kids to practice what they learn. Here are a few ideas: Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Reinforce through repetition. Reading the same story or playing the same game 50 times may bore caregivers, but young kids will benefit from the repetition. Ask about a child's experiences. Bringing up the memory of events reinforces the initial learning experience. "Tell me about the animal noises you learned today." Create similar experiences. Link prior experiences to new experiences. "Does this chicken puppet look like the chicken we saw yesterday?" Contrast experiences. Link previously learned skills to things that are not the same. "This turkey is different from the chicken. How are they different?"

Just in time for Thanksgiving and fall, Racing to Read has added a Native American themed deposit collection for preschoolers. Request the collection today. 859-962-4062 Written by: Richelle Rose, outreach programmer for the Kenton County Public Library and children's book critic.