Ready to Read Blog
Looks like 13 is not our lucky number. It’s predicted to be raining all morning.
Please return your books and costumes at your convenience.
Thanks, everyone!
Andrea
My experience reading with children of all ages covers many years. Recently I learned something new that I would like to share with other readers - young children NEED to hear the same story repeatedly. We know that children like to hear stories again and again, but did you know that children need it? I read once a week to 4 year old children in a PEEP class. I was in the routine of checking different books out of the library for each reading time. I learned from the teacher that she is required to read a story to the children for four days in a row. It takes preschool children that much exposure to a story to fully grasp the plot and take in the pictures, etc. Since then I have been reading the same books to these children for four weeks and it has made a difference. I have found that each time they are more responsive to me and begin to have their favorites. We have so much more fun now that we all know the story and can talk about it and the pictures. I'm pleased that the PEEP teacher shared this tip with me. You're never too experienced to learn!
Nancy Kehrle
Volunteer Reader
My first placement as a Ready to Read Volunteer was in a Head Start classroom at Eastside Community Center this spring. I loved the experience and plan on being back at Ms. Janet’s class in the fall. One thing I learned is 2 to 5 year olds never get tired of Ed Emberley’s “Go Away, Big Green Monster!”
On the last day of school I was surprised when one of the children announced she wanted to read to me because she’d been particularly shy, rarely raising her voice above a whisper.
As children often do, she looked at a book and made up her own story. “Once there was a boy who wanted a cat,” she said in a very confident voice. As she turned the pages, I realized there was no cat in any illustration. Her entire tale was of a boy who wanted a cat but never got one. What a wonderful storyteller she was, making up a story about something not seen on any page!
Gay Guard-Chamberlin
Kalamazoo Public Library
Volunteer Reader
Book
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I am the coordinator of the Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (W.I.C.) at the Family Health Center in Kalamazoo. As a Ready to Read program site, we give gift books to families with children from birth to five years of age and encourage parents to read aloud. Earlier this week I had an opportunity to model for a mother, the power of a book. I was working in my office and heard a child whining in the next room. I went to see if I could help. I asked the 3 year old, who was squirming in his mother’s lap, if he wanted to read a book with me, and he said yes. I went to retrieve an oversized copy of “The Snowy Day” and I began to read the story aloud to him. The boy was intrigued by the pictures of the snow and fascinated by the fact that he could not see the boy’s feet because they were covered by snow. We continued a wonderful conversation about the story. Before they left the office, the child’s mother told me that she was amazed by the amount of time that this book held his interest!
Irene Allgaier, MA RD
WIC Coordinator, Family Health Center
I first became involved with childhood literacy two years ago through Rotary, when Ann Rohrbaugh suggested I read with local elementary school kids through “Books and Bagels.” I apparently passed, because KPL next asked me to read to preschoolers at Party in the Park 2008. And, apparently none of the kids evaluated me too harshly, because I was invited back again to Party in the Park 2009.
Though having little experience reading to children, especially preschoolers, I've found my participation to be extremely rewarding. The kids have short attention spans and are easily distracted if a storybook character should happen to wander by while you’re reading your book. But, if you’re fortunate enough to have a “good” book, and if you're prepared to make your delivery a little “over the top,” the kids are, during those few short moments, eager, attentive and utterly captivated. This year I was lucky enough to read a book with “pop ups,” and it was precious to see the kids’ faces momentarily “light up” when the page was turned and the story literally “popped” off the page at them.
This is a unique and special event for preschoolers in our community; for hopefully getting kids excited about books so that we might increase childhood literacy in our community and, in turn, open up a world of opportunities. I hope there will be continued support for this event and, should you be offered the opportunity to participate as a reader, I would encourage you to accept.
Kurt Sherwood
Miller Canfield
Book
Volunteer reader, 2009 Party in the Park
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalamazoopubliclibrary/3576158175/in/set-72157618973564660/
What a great time I had at the "Party in the Park". I loved playing a chicken and clucking my way through the park to the various groups to read them "Chickens to the Rescue!" I even got the children to cluck with me throughout the story. And could the weather have treated us any better! Can't wait to do this again next year. I do have a banana costume and could possibly read a banana story....I don't know...it was so much fun as the chicken.
Kim Elliott
Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce
Book
Party in the Park 2009
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalamazoopubliclibrary/sets/72157618973564660/I had a WONDERFUL time reading to the kids at the Party in the Park. The goose was a great prop. I changed my voice to have "Gander" read to the kids and ask them questions about the pictures or the rhymes. They were fascinated by him, some even wanting him to bite their hands. I let them stroke his neck. One little child asked me if he was real. I'd love to read to the kids again at next year's Party.
Mary Lou Fleckenstein
Kalamazoo Public Library Volunteer Reader