The Key Skill (Really) Among the Big Six!

The Nov. 2008 issue of SLJ (pg. 33) contains an article, by Renea Arnold and Nell Coburn, on the six early literacy skills that all of us are a-buzz about. The authors describe a presentation by college professor, Christyn Dundorf, which illustrated how the EL skills lead to success in reading. What jumped out at me, as I read the article, was that Dundorf singled out print motivation as the key EL skill. Duh! This affirmed what I have always believed, and even expressed to parents (as a professional opinion, of course) in my programs. Make books and reading fun, and the other skills will follow. Engage them and they'll come back for more. And the more thay come back for, the easier it will be for them to leap into independent reading. And a lifelong appreciation for the power of the printed word. This is big stuff we do with the little ones!

Pre VPK

Lately I've noticed that my preschool storytime participants seem generally younger than in the past, and also less able to attend to longer stories. At first I began wondering if, perhaps, I was losing a bit of the spark that enabled me to develop a strong rapport with my preschoolers. Then, after mulling it over for awhile, I realized that children's librarians, at least in our state of Florida, prabably are working more with the younger end of the 3-to-5 year olds, as VPK targets 4 yr. olds+ Many of the 4 and 5 year olds, who might have attended library programs before starting kindergarten are now being siphoned off to VPK . My current preschool storytimes consist of mostly 3 yr. olds (except for that one precocious, homeschooled 5-yr. old). So yes, the shorter stories (+ a variety of activities before and after the books) often work better, because yes, they are a younger group. Those of us who have been in the field for awhile know that there is a wide window between ages 3 and 5 yrs. Developing programs to meet the needs of our unique audiences is an exciting and gratifying challenge.