Kids Blog

Rhyme Time! Best Books for Rhyming

The ability to identify and produce rhyming words is an important foundational reading skill. Rhyming can also be silly and fun! Parents and caregivers can help children develop this skill by reading high-quality rhyming picture books to children, starting at birth. Many picture books feature rhyming as part of the text, but I would like to share with you some of my favorites that I have enjoyed reading to my own children and to my library storytime friends.

Cloudy With a Chance of Vocabulary!

Vocabulary is literally the name of the game when it comes to boosting children’s language and literacy development! The more words children know, the more they will learn about the world, which in turn will help with later reading comprehension. 

Fluency Matters! What is reading fluency & how can my kid get it?

What is “fluency” when referring to a child reading? If you’ve ever asked a child to read to you and the child. Reads. The. Words. One. At. A. Time. In. A. Monotone. Voice. And then couldn’t tell you what they just read, you know what reading fluency isn’t. Fluency is reading with accuracy, rate, comprehension, and prosody, which is a fancy word for expression.

What Happened on October 20…in 2016, 2011, 1971, or 1921? Find Out!

A lot has happened over the past 100 years to say the least.

Reading Picture Books Without Reading the Text (Yes, You Can Do That!)

Growing up in a bilingual household was fun and sometimes a little confusing. My friends' parents read them books, but my mom took a different approach. While she would read me the story, she wasn't precisely reading all the text, just the pictures. 

How To Read... "Roar: A Book of Animal Sounds"

Let’s face it, reading to a toddler is hard. We want them to sit still and listen, and they want to throw the book in the air and run around in circles screaming. Because littles have short attention spans and limited vocabulary, following a story with only their eyes and ears is really hard. Two and three-year-olds need to be physically involved with their whole bodies.

Bubble Bubble: Songs for Bath Time!

In my house, bath time equals Storytime! Having your little one soaking in their bubbles is an opportunity for a captive audience. As we’ve learned in Storytimes, the five ways to Build A Reader are to talk, sing, read, write and play- all things you can do while scrubbing away the day! My favorite bath activity is singing, because it’s impossible to be unhappy while singing the word bubbles.

Opposite Day, Every Day!

You’ve heard of Opposite Day, right? One day where the sky is green and the grass is blue, socks on hands and mittens on feet instead of shoes? Well, I am here to tell you that Opposite Day should be every day! I will tell you why. Teaching concepts, like opposites, to early readers is not difficult when there are plenty of great picture books that help relay the information in a format they can understand.

Want To Spark Reading In Kids? Choice Is Key

If I had to choose one mantra for a new children’s library staff member, it would be: “There’s a book for every reader.” Some children walk out of the library with a stack piled high to their forehead, straining to carry their haul, while their grown up reminds them that they’ll be back next week

New and Noisy Classrooms of Today and Yesterday

I recently came across a fantastic picture book called The Noisy Classroom by Angela Shantae, illustrated by Alison Hawkins. In it, a young student, is worried about the “weird” goings on of the 3rd grade classroom run by the noisy and odd Ms. Johnson.