Early Literacy Kits, Round 3

If you have missed the first two posts for this project, you will want to start here and here.  I am slowly getting the rest of the project up on the blog in between summer reading chaos-there will be at least one more post on this topic.

Kit 7-Jump, Frog, Jump
This kit contains:

• Jump, Frog, Jump by Robert Kalan
• Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley (I love when I can add some nonfiction to the kits!)
• Frog puppet
• Five Green and Speckled Frogs playset
• Booklet

Kit 8-Go Away, Big Green Monster!
This kit contains:

• Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley
• Knees and Toes
• Kids in Motion CD by Greg & Steve
• Cloth puppet and 8 Velcro storytelling pieces
• Booklet 

Kit 9-Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
This kit contains:

• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
• 123 by Simon Basher
• 123s and ABCs CD by Ella Jenkins
• Pete the Cat puppet
• Numbers Fun-to-Know Puzzle
• Busy Bug Count and Match Dominoes 
• Booklet

 

While the picture shows the My First Number Pairs game, we decided against it at the end due to the cost of the kit.

Kit 10-Big Red Barn
This kit contains:

• Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
• Everywhere a Moo, Moo
• Animal Favorites CD
• Blue flannelboard
• Funny Farm flannelboard set
• Moms and Babies Fun-to-Know Puzzle
• Booklet 

I still can't keep these kits in on the shelves.  As soon as they hit the shelf, they go back out again.  This makes me want to create more than my original plan, but we'll see.  I

Early Literacy Kits, Round 2

If you missed the first post about this project, you will want to start here.  I have had a lot of librarian interest in this project so I am sharing my progress as I go.  A week ago I finished four more kits!

Kit 3-Mouse Paint
This kit contains:

• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
• Colors Everywhere by Tana Hoban
• Songs About Colors and Shapes CD 
• Flannelboard set made in-house
• Storytelling lapboard
• Mouse puppet
• Shapes & Colors Memory Match
• Booklet 

Kit 4-Polar Bear, Polar Bear

This kit contains:

• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr.
• Polar Bears by Laura Marsh
• Brown Bear and Friends CD
• Polar Bear flannelboard kit and puppet
• Booklet  

Kit 5-Nursery Rhymes

This kit contains:

•  My First Mother Goose edited by Iona Opie
• Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around
• Wee Sing Children's Songs and Fingerplays by Pamela Beall
• Flannelboard set made in-house
• Storytelling lapboard 
• Humpty Dumpty finger puppet
• Jack and Jill picture cards from Literacy Centers and Activities for Nursery Rhymes, Volume 2
• Booklet

 

 

Kit 6-The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This kit contains:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Caterpillar to Butterfly by Laura Marsh
• Very Hungry Caterpillar caterpillar/butterfly and felt pieces
• Very Hungry Caterpillar block puzzle
• Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet
• Booklet

As with our last round of kits, these are extremely popular.  There is currently none of the kits checked in at any of our locations.  While I wish that I could move faster to get these out, I have found that it takes me about 4 hours to put each kit together, from ordering to laminating, to creating content for the booklets, to processing the actual kit when it is ready to go.  9 more to go!

 

Flannel Friday-Two Little Bluebirds

This is one of my favorite rhymes to use with my Tot Time group (12-24 months).  When I saw that Mollie had created a flannelboard to go with it, I stole (um, borrowed) her pattern and made my own.

Two little bluebirds sitting on a hill.

One named Jack and one named Jill.

Fly away Jack. Fly away Jill.

Come back Jack. Come back Jill.

Recently I have been working on circulating early literacy kits.  One of the themes is nursery rhymes and I REALLY wanted to include this rhyme.  To make it more fun, I expanded it a bit.

Two little purple birds

Two little yellow birds

Two little pink birds

Because these were circulating, I used puffy paint rather than googly eyes so I didn't create a choking hazard.  I included a rhyme card with each set (content by me and design by our Community Relations person).  In addition to the rhyme, I give suggestions to parents as to how to play with the rhyme.  For example, instead of using Jack and Jill, use Brad and Bill.

This week's hosts are Lindsey and Dana over at Jbrary!  Stop of by for some great ideas.  As always, for all Flannel Friday information stop by the official blog.

Early Literacy Kits

One of the cool things about working for a newer library system is that there is always something to do.  Everything here has been built from the ground up.  Late last summer I went through a job change.  One of the questions that were a part of the application process was "What new collection would you bring to the library?"  My answer was early literacy kits.  They support our collection goals and our current programming (we have a big early literacy program here called Play to Learn).  My idea was that these kits would take what we do in our early literacy programming and send it home in bags for parents and children to do at home.

I know that this never happens, but as we were turning in last year's final grant report to a local organization, they asked if we were reapplying as they really wanted to fund us again.  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, me and the person I was replacing spent the next 48 hours putting together a grant proposal for early literacy kits.  Two months later we were funded.  Whoo hoo!

I started putting together notes as to what to include and where to buy it.  Of course, very few of our items are sold through the same vendors.  Pinterest became a great place to bookmark ideas.  Our branches wanted some kits too, just not the 15 that we were planning on for our Main Library (space issues). 

Items started coming in and made a huge mess on my office floor-there were piles everywhere.  Things got put together in groups, were processed, and started filling our bags.  I worked with our Community Relations Specialist to create booklets for each bag (I came up with the content and she made them pretty.)

Today I finished our first two kits!  They are out on display and I created a binder so customers can see what is in each backpack.

Display

Binder

Kit 1-Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This kit contains:

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
• My Big Animal Book
• Brown Bear and Friends CD
• Flannelboard set made in-house
• Storytelling lapboard
• Brown bear puppet
• Brown Bear puzzle
• Booklet

Kit 2-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
This kit contains:

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
• ABC
• Wee Sing & Learn ABC book and CD
• Coconut tree puppet made in-house
• 26 coconut letters (A-Z) made in-house
• Alphabet Match Me cards
• Uppercase Tactile Letters
• Booklet

The rest of the early literacy kits should be appearing in my library (and here) over the next month.  13 more to go!