For Children

Children's Programming

Weekly Storytime: 

  • Preschool Story Hour: Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:30am! Our Preschool Story Hour includes reading stories and a small craft! This program is designed for preschool-aged children, but all ages are welcome!
  • Tot Time Story Hour: Tuesdays at 9:30am! Our Tot Time program features stories, songs, rhymes, and dance, all of which encourage young children to develop listening and socialization skills, a love of books and reading, early development skills like small-motor development, as well as early literacy skills. This is also a great time for children and caregivers to spend quality time together.
  • Baby Story Hour: Fridays at 10:30am! Baby Story Hour is full of bounces, singing, and play! This program is designed for infants to 18 months, but all ages are welcome! Baby Story Time is a great way for caregivers to develop a love of reading and learning with their little one!
  • Family Story Hour: On most Saturdays, at 10:00am, we host storytime in the children's area of the library.  All ages welcome! 
  • Family Yoga: One Saturday each month, at 9:30am, we host family yoga in the children's area of the library.  All ages welcome! 

Grab 'N Go Craft Bags: Pickup a new craft to do as a family every other week at the library! Craft bags are available by the front door. First-come, first-serve, while supplies last.

Movie Mornings: Join on Saturdays (check the calendar!) at 10:00am for Movie Morning! We screen child appropriate (G or PG) movies on the big screen while you enjoy free a free movie and small snack with the family. 

Throwback Thursday Film Series: Join us on Thursdays (check the calendar!) at 4:00pm for this fun movie series! We screen child appropriate (G or PG) movies on the big screen while you enjoy free a free movie! CCA Students can access the activity bus after school! 

Family Yoga: Join us on Saturdays (check the calendar!) at 9:30am for a fun morning of stretches! Each yoga session will be paired with a story! 

Check our calendar and social media pages for special programs!

Early Literacy Practice:

Five components of Early Literacy are..

Read, Write, Talk, Sing, Play!

READ

Shared reading is the best way to help children get ready to read. Reading together and talking about what you read helps children increase their vocabulary and background knowledge, learn how books work, but also helps children develop a love of reading.

Reading aloud to children helps with:

  • The more fun a child has reading books, the more likely he will become an independent reader. Read all types of books that a child might enjoy, including pop-ups, wordless books, fiction, and non-fiction. Children are more likely to engage with reading if they are able to see themselves, including their race and culture, reflected in books.
  • Learning letter names, shapes, and sounds is a building block to being able to sound out words on a page. Reading books and looking at letters throughout is a great way to help children make the connection between letters and words.
  • Language games such as rhyming, tongue twisters, and playing with syllables help children begin to learn phonological awareness. Rhyming books, books that incorporate songs, and nursery rhymes all help build these skills.

WRITE

Both reading and writing are ways to represent spoken words and to tell stories or communicate. When children are given a chance to explore making marks, scribbling, drawing pictures, and telling stories, they are practicing reading skills.

Scribbling, drawing, and telling stories helps with:

  • When children have a chance to do their own writing, they have a chance to feel connected to print in a different way than when they are listening to a story. 
  • Allowing children to practice making lines, curves, and circles will later inspire them to write letters on purpose. Children sometimes will make marks or a scribble, look at it, and then identify letters that they see. “Look, I made a T!”
  • Preschool aged children often begin to make intentional marks on paper and write “messages” using “inventive spelling.” They are thinking very carefully about the sounds that they hear and the letters that they know and putting them into their writing.
  • Some of the first stages of writing involve drawing pictures and then telling stories about what the pictures represent. Encourage a child’s narrative skills by saying, “Tell me about this picture!” or “What’s happening in this picture?”

TALK

Children learn language and other early literacy skills by listening to adults talk. As children listen to spoken language, they learn new words and what they mean while gaining important general knowledge about the world around them. This knowledge will help children understand the meaning of what they read.

Talking to children helps with:

  • When someone asks a child questions about the stories they read together, the more easily that child can make connections between the books and his/her own life. This gets children excited to read more books.
  • Children need to know three things about letters: the names, the shape, and the sounds they make. Naming letters on signs, pointing out letter shapes in sidewalk cracks or buildings, and voicing letter sounds while interacting are all ways to make these connections.
  • The more words children hear in conversations during their early childhoods, the larger their vocabulary will be when they go to school.
  • When children listen to stories, they learn how to tell their own stories. Listening to adults talk about their lives also helps children build background knowledge, which they can use later to help them comprehend new ideas.

SING

Songs help children develop listening skills and pay attention to rhymes and rhythms. Singing also slows down language so children can hear the different sounds that make up words. This helps children when they begin to read.

It is important to be aware that some popular folk songs have a racist past. Even when we change the lyrics, the tune is recognizable and cannot be “unheard” by those who know the original, problematic lyrics. Much has been written on the topic lately, and The American Kodaly Institute keeps an updated list of questionable songs here.

Singing with children helps with:

  • Children love singing. A great option to encourage not only reading, but also singing, is to read books that can be sung. These can include nursery rhymes, books that promote singing, or books that can be sung to a specific tune.
  • Just like books, songs have great vocabulary words, such as “tuffet” or “In a cavern, in a canyon.” Hearing new words in context helps children build their vocabularies.

PLAY

Through play, especially pretend and dramatic play, children learn about language. When children pretend, they’re thinking symbolically, which helps them to understand that spoken and written words can stand for real objects and experiences. Play also helps children to express themselves and put thoughts into words and practice narrative skills like sequencing.

Playing with children helps with:

  • Children learn through all of their senses, so exploration of shapes and letter forms via puzzles, play dough, sensory tables, and body movements all help children build their letter knowledge. Sorting games and matching activities directly involve shape recognition and prepare children to recognize small differences in letters.
  • As children play, they often discuss their scenarios, actions and props. “This stick is the magic wand and I’m going to turn you into a butterfly.” This gives them a chance to practice new vocabulary. They also learn new words when an adult introduces new ideas. “What would you like for dessert? Would you like cake or a sundae? A sundae is ice cream in a bowl with chocolate sauce and sprinkles on top.”
  • When children act out stories they know, either as a play or with props or puppets, they practice sequencing events. They also are exploring and investigating story structure and the world around them.