Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy 

2015 CLEL Bell Awards Winners

February 5, 2015

We are happy to announce the 2015 CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards for Early Literacy! 

The five winning books consist of one title in each of five categories selected from a shortlist of 25 titles. Each category represents an early literacy practice: Read, Write, Sing, Talk, and Play. The books, in their content, theme, or design, support caregivers’ interaction with their children through these five early literacy practices. Research has shown that engaging children in these practices builds language skills and prepares children to become successful readers.

Early Literacy Practice: Read

 

Books Always Everywhere by Blatt.  Follow along with a diverse set of babies and toddlers as they fill their days with playing, sharing, and reading. Books Always Everywhere encourages families to see that books and reading can be joyful parts of their daily activities.    

For Early Literacy Activities Sheet about this book, click here.

Early Literacy Practice: Write 

The Crayon: A Colorful Tale of Friendship by Rickerty.Two quirky creatures take turns scribbling with crayons, mixing and naming colors as they go, in this humorous story about friendship. For young children, the scribbles in the illustrations and the conversations in the text model age-appropriate written and oral language skills.

For Early Literacy Activities about this book, click here.

Early Literacy Practice: Talk

Froodle by Portis. A bird leaves the usual chirps behind in a quest to find just the right new thing to say. Full of unexpected but fun made-up words, Froodle is a celebration of language and self-expression. 

For Early Literacy Activities about this book, click here.   

Early Literacy Practice: Sing

I Got the Rhythm by Schofield-Morrison. From storefront to park, an exuberant girl rejoices in the sounds and music she hears during a busy city day. Her actions show children how to listen closely to the world around them. The story's rhythmic language and rhyming words help build phonological awareness skills. 

For Early Literacy Activities about this book, click here.  

Early Literacy Practice: Play

Tea with Grandpa by Saltzberg. A young girl and her grandfather spend a delightful time together singing, having a tea party, and chatting. Tea with Grandpa stands as a wonderful model of child-directed, open-ended play and presents a positive example of how technology can help children maintain critical family relationships. 

For Early Literacy Activities about this book, click here.  

Cathy 

Early Literacy Research

A New York Times article on Language Development, Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds. 

Books Build Connections Toolkit from the AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics. This site includes video clips, advocacy information and handouts for families on reading with young children. 

Too Small to Fail, Too Small to Fail aims to help parents and businesses take meaningful actions to improve the health and well-being of children ages zero to five, so that more of America’s children are prepared to succeed in the 21st century.

The 30 million word gap, this White House blog that explains this and other programs and offers tips. 

Cathy 

Early Literacy - the building blocks of reading

According to the organization Zero to Three, the definition of early literacy is what children know about communication, verbal and nonverbal language, reading, and writing before they can actually read and write. Early literacy encompasses the child's totality of experiences with conversation, oral and written stories, books, and print.

Learning to read begins BEFORE your child starts school — as a matter of fact, it begins at birth! There are five early literacy practices that every child needs to get ready to read, listen and write. 

Talking

Writing

Reading

Playing

Singing

These practices are easy to do in your everyday interactions with your child. We are focusing on these practices in our story times. 

Talking

• Children learn about language by listening to parents and caregivers talk and by joining in conversation.
• Talking, telling stories and stretching conversations help children learn new words, learn to express themselves and learn how to have a conversation.
• Infants and young children need to hear the language (or languages) they will eventually speak in order to learn it — so if you speak two languages at home, it is beneficial to speak both languages to your child.
• Talking to your child in the language you are most fluent in is the best way to help your child develop early literacy skills.
• Very young children can understand spoken words long before they can speak any of them — so talk to them and you will be amazed at how your child responds.
• Talking to your child about many different events, ideas and stories helps them develop the general knowledge they need to understand the content of what they will read in books when they are older.

Writing

• Writing and reading go together! Both are ways to represent spoken words and to communicate information.
• Scribbling and drawing are forms of writing — they may not be words, but the lines and pictures your child draws mean something to them.
• Scribbling and drawing help children develop eye-hand coordination and the fine motor control they need to hold a pencil.
• As children write, they become aware that the printed letters and words have meaning. They begin to understand the purpose of reading through the process of writing.
• Writing doesn't always have to be writing — it can be tracing in sand, playing with clay or play dough, or crinkling up newspaper to help strengthen finger muscles!

Reading

• Reading together remains the single most effective way to help children become proficient readers.
• Children who enjoy being read to are more likely to want to learn to read themselves.
• Reading together develops vocabulary, comprehension, and general knowledge needed to understand other books and stories when they are older.
• Reading introduces children to "rare" words that they may not hear in everyday conversation.

Playing

• Play is one of the primary ways young children learn about how the world works and learn language.
• Play helps children practice putting their thoughts into words.
• Play helps children think symbolically — that this item stands for this thing ("This box is a rocket ship!"), which helps them understand that words can stand for real objects or experiences.
• Play is how children practice becoming adults and process what they see and hear everyday.

Singing

• Singing helps children learn new words.
• Singing slows down language so children can hear the different sounds in words and learn about syllables.
• Singing together is a fun bonding experience with your child — whether you're a good singer or not!
• Singing develops listening and memory skills and makes repetition easier for young children — it's easier to remember a short song than a short story.

{From Kent District Library http://www.kdl.org/kids/go/pgr_five_practices Accessed 9/16/14} 

Cathy 

Collection Spotlight: Read to Me Bags

Our Read to Me Bags are for babies and toddlers! (Although they appeal to older children too.) 

They are created around a theme and contain 2 board books, 1 music cd, 1 puppet and nursery rhymes. 

"Reading aloud and talking about what we're reading sharpens children's brains. It helps develop their ability to concentrate at length, to solve problems logically, and to express themselves more easily and clearly." Mem Fox, Reading Magic.

Some of our Read to Me Bag subjects:

Colors       Bedtime       Numbers    Puppies  ABC's   At the Zoo      Silly Time 

        Playtime     Things that go           Baby Faces     Potty Training   Bath Time 

   Animals    Noisy Fun     Holidays: Halloween, Easter and more  Seasons: Fall, Summer 

               Getting ready for a baby     Dinosaurs      Mo Willems Pigeon and many more! 

How can a puppet help your child's development? Learning through play is fundamental to our children's education, helping them to develop the necessary skills in life. Puppets can stimulate children's imagination, encourage creative play and discovery and are a wonderful interactive way to introduce narrative to even the most reluctant reader. They can be a powerful way of bringing story time to life; puppets can provide a focus for role play, encouraging the child's imagination and involvement in activities and can play a fundamental part in the recitation of stories and verse. In addition, hand puppets with workable mouths and tongues are an excellent motivational resource to inspire the teaching of phonics within literacy. {The Creativity Institute website http://www.creativityinstitute.com/puppetsineducation.aspx - accessed 8/19/14}

How does music help your child's development? {The Benefits of Music Education by Brown. http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/  Accessed 8/19/14}

•  Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. While children come into the world ready to decode sounds and words, music education helps enhance those natural abilities. “Growing up in a musically rich environment is often advantageous for children’s language development,” Luehrisen says.
•  “There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain,” says Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University,
• Research has also found a causal link between music and spatial intelligence, which means that understanding music can help children visualize various elements that should go together, like they would do when solving a math problem.

How do Nursery Rhymes help your child's development? 

Here are four main reasons nursery rhymes can be beneficial for kids:

1. They are good for the brain. Not only does the repetition of rhymes and stories teach children how language works, it also builds memory capabilities that can be applied to all sorts of activities. Furthermore, as Vandergrift points out, nursery rhyme books are often a child’s first experience with literacy: "Even before they can read, children can sit and learn how a book works." This extends to the pictures and music associated with nursery rhymes: it is a full visual and oral experience.
2. Nursery rhymes preserve a culture that spans generations, providing something in common among parents, grandparents and kids—and also between people who do not know each other. Seth Lerer, Humanities Professor at the University of California San Diego and expert in the history of children’s literature, says that reading nursery rhymes to kids is, in part, "to participate in a long tradition … it’s a shared ritual, there’s almost a religious quality to it."
3. They are a great group activity. Susie Tallman, who has put out several award-winning nursery rhymes CDs, and is also a nursery school music teacher, describes how singing nursery rhymes allows all kids—even shy ones—to feel confident about singing, dancing and performing because they are so easy to grasp and fun: "It builds confidence right in front of my eyes," she says. "They really see the connection between movement, rhythm and words." She has also had kids of different ages collaborate on making music videos for their favorite nursery rhymes.
4. Most important is that they are fun to say. Lerer downplays the life lessons that some rhymes contain, arguing that while parents might consider them important, children probably do not register them. He remembers how as a kid he had no idea what "Peas porridge hot/peas porridge cold" meant but that "he just loved the way it sounded." One should not let any supposed deeper meanings or origins to nursery rhymes obscure their true value: the joy of a child’s discovery of an old, shared language. {From PBS Parents- The Surprising Meaning and Benefits of Nursery Rhymes By Michael Sizer.  http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-tips/the-surprising-meaning-and-benefits-of-nursery-rhymes/  Accesses 8/20/14}

Cathy 

Why you should read aloud to your children

On Tuesday, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its first-ever policy statement focused on literacy promotion, calling for pediatricians to advise all parents about the many benefits of reading aloud, which promotes literacy and social-emotional skills.

Read about it here. 

What a great time to check out the Summer Reading program at your library. We have reading programs for babies, kids, tweens, teens and adults. Registration starts Friday, June 27. The link to register will be on the library's homepage Friday morning. 

Cathy

Early Literacy your child's foundation for learning

Learning to read begins at birth. Brain connections are made when babies hear the sound of their parents’ voices and see the black-and-white images of their first board books. Parents, caregivers and librarians can reinforce and grow these connections through five practices that will help a child develop the foundation upon which a reader is built.  These activities, practiced regularly, will help a child develop the six early literacy skills and be prepared to learn to read.

The five basic practices in early literacy are:

1.      Playing

2.      Singing

3.      Talking

4.      Writing

5.      Reading

The six early literacy skills are:

1.      PRINT MOTIVATION: includes being interested in and enjoying books

2.      PRINT AWARENESS: includes noticing print everywhere, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to follow the written word on the page.

3.      LETTER KNOWLEDGE: includes knowing that letters are different from each other, knowing letter names and sounds, and recognizing letters everywhere

4.      VOCABULARY: includes knowing the names of things.

5.      PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: includes hearing and playing with the smaller sounds of words and recognizing that words are made up of a number of different sounds.

6.      NARRATIVE SKILLS: include describing things and events, telling stories, knowing the order of events (sequencing), and making predictions (what might happen next). {Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy accessed 1/28/14.}

 

Marilyn Jager Adams once wrote that "Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read." That's a powerful statement! Read with your kids every day, and watch them blossom. Reading Rockets accessed 6/20/13. 

 

Cathy

 

CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards Announced

The Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy announced the winners of the first-ever CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards. The winners are:

Early Literacy Practice: Read



Open This Little Book, by Jesse Klausmeier.

Readers open the cover to discover five characters, each with their own little book, all within the pages of the first. Open This Little Book celebrates the pleasures of reading, sharing, and having a book of your own.

Early Literacy Practice: Write



The Things I Can Do, by Jeff Mack.

Hand-written text and exuberant collages illustrate this story of a boy who takes great pride in his accomplishments. Reading skills and writing skills develop together, and the format of The Things I Can Do invites children to see themselves as authors as well as readers.

Early Literacy Practice: Sing



Nighty-Night, Cooper, by Laura Numeroff. 

A small kangaroo requests song after song to help him fall asleep, and his mother obliges by making up her own words to familiar tunes. Singing songs together is a powerful way to build phonological awareness skills and vocabulary, and Nighty-Night, Cooper models how a parent can use songs to create a comforting bedtime routine with a child. 

Early Literacy Practice: Talk 



Moo! by David LaRochelle 

A very vocal cow commandeers the farmer's car and sets off on an adventure. The entire story is told with just two words: Moo! and Baa! The speech bubbles and the very limited vocabulary help children make the critical connection between the words we say and the print on the page. 

Early Literacy Practice: Play



Nino Wrestles the World, by Yuyi Morales.  

Nino takes on all the toys in his room with and amazing series of lucha libre wrestling moves. When his sisters wake up from their nap, they challenge him to a match, too! Who will be victorious? Nino Wrestles the World joyfully demonstrates the language-rich, open-ended play that contributes to a child's narrative skills. 


The five winning books consist of one title in each of five categories representing an early literacy practice; Read, Write, Sing, Talk and Play.  The books, in their content, theme, or design support caregivers' interaction with their children through early literacy practices. Research has shown that engaging children in these practices builds language skills and prepares children to become successful readers. 

For more information, visit the CLEL Bell Awards webpage where you can see the 2014 shortlists and see the full nominations lists.   

Cathy