Early Literacy Signage

A bunch of us in the blogosphere will be sharing our early literacy messages over the next couple of weeks.  I thought it would be helpful to start off by sharing some of the things that we do around the department at my library.

First, early literacy is our biggest initiative for our under 5 group.  It drives our goals, our programming, and our purchasing.  We have a great staff that I work with, but I tend to hear a lot of "but I know that already".  If the information stays in our heads, then our public doesn't know and we aren't staying relevant.  Here's the deal-our public doesn't know this stuff.  Many of our customers are first-time parents without an early childhood background.  They like the "why" of our messages, but what they are really looking for is the "how".  Signage is a pretty easy way to convey these messages.

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Let's start with an easy one.  Does your library use ECRR2?  How do you convey that to your customers?  ECRR2 makes it really easy to share the five practices that lead to reading.  We have a poster in both our story time room and our activity room.

We have a giant magnetboard in our activity room with this sign posted next to it.  What I like about it is that it tells 1)why we use magnets, 2)ideas of how to play with magnets, and 3) the skills we are working on.  Every so often I change out the activity ideas, but the message and skills remain the same.

Our activity room also houses a flannelboard with a rotating sign.  We currently have a bunch of pairs of felt flowers.  While this sign doesn't highlight the "why", you will still see the "how" and the skills practiced.