Intergenerational learning

Children best develop a sense of the value of reading from seeing significant others, including parents, siblings and friends engaged in activities involving early literacy skills. This could be reading, but might also be looking at the labels on food whilst grocery shopping, catching public transport and buying tickets and navigating bus routes or even playing games together. While I agree that picture books are one incredible way of building literacy confidence and skills in children, new technologies like the iPad are also highly valued support mechanisms for developing literacy skills. as an added bonus, they often introduce an element of intergenerational learning by allowing children and adults to work together across digital media. If you are anything like me you might even find that the child takes the lead in the learning taking place.

Favourite apps at the moment include:

Nighty Night
The Wonky Donkey - complete with sing along
The Very Cranky Bear - just in time for National Simultaneous Story Time on 23 May 2012
http://www.alia.org.au/nss/
The Cat in the Hat
...and of course, for slightly older children, Alice for iPad with wonderful ways of connecting to all things Alice.

Why we do the things we do....

We do things because we love them, they bring us pleasure and we seek joy in sharing experiences with others in our world. For me, the best combination of the ability to achieve this is with children. Through introducing them to the worlds available as they become literate and engage with their world. Through picture books, learning and creativity. Beyond that, give me a dog and I am happy.

Thrill seekers

Another new classic whereby a child's sense of what is normal, rapidly deteriorates to requiring some inventive thinking to come through a challenge, The boy and his toy has some similarities to The incredible book eating book. Other than the obvious, in that both picture books feature a male progragonist, both also feature events where over zealous actions almost cause permanent damage. Why is it that children's imaginations are so taken with the idea of the extreme, with all its inherent dangers, yet they return to face another day. Both of these wonderful books survive multiple readings without becoming boring, and each sparks a myriad of related discussions, activities, connection points and encourage young minds to race away with new and exciting concepts.

The boy and his toy by Sonya Hartnett
Illustrated by Lucia Masciullo
Penguin, Australia 2010.

If you like this picture book see Somebody for me. (See separate blog post).

Indigenous inclusion

August 9 2012 is International day of the world's indigenous people. Library activities readily linking common themes between indigenous children and their sense of place can be easily developed.

Settle down for some story time with Jamela, Olive and Rose in Where's Jamela? and Collecting colour.

Consider online resources such as Children's Picture Diaries from Cherbourg, Poruma and Ipswich http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/find/virtualbooks/children

and check out resources on the UN Cyber School Bus site http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/indigenous/index.asp

Collecting colour to create a sense of kinship

How do children understand the concept of family. Who they are, how they connect. The strength in belonging, of family and of having a base to come home to. Many picture books deal with these concepts, some more successfully than others.

Collecting colour by Kylie Dunstan introduces us to Rose, her friend Olive and their community in the Top End. Sharing traditional ways of collecting and colouring Rose and Olive work with Olive's mother Karrang, and Aunty to create original pandanus baskets. Elders sharing their knowledge with the children who offer hope for the future that the old ways will remain.

Family and kinship is important to Torres Strait Islander culture. This picture book presents the concept in a way that is truly unique and culturally appropriate, in a way that is able to be shared by all.

Activities relating to the picture book have been prepared by artsworkers from the State Library of Queensland. Included as resources within The Corner Toolkit they are available for use at http://ck.slq.qld.gov.au/theme/explore/family

Other online resources available include Children's Picture Diaries, available at http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/find/virtualbooks/children

Collecting colour by Kylie Dunstan
Illustrated by the author.
A Lothian Children's Book,Sydney 2008.

If you like this picture book see Special Kev, Sunday Chutney and Marshall Armstrong is new to our school for other stories about children finding their sense of self. (See separate blog posts).

Walt got it right!

On a visit to the recently refurbished Bundaberg Library I came across this quote from Walt Disney. I am happy to say, that for once I think he got it right.

A sense of relevance.

For children, literacy is a form of communication, a means of having a vocabulary and a way for them to determine a sense of relevance. Literacy in everyday life builds skills for children to determine what something looks like, what it feels like and what it sounds like. Picture books combine all of these literacies through text, visual clues and through the emotional responses gained by sharing a story together. Literacy for children is as essential as food, sunshine and time to play.

The Queensland Ready Readers Program aims to develop literacy levels in our children. Designed to develop a love of reading, rather than being a program that teaches children how to read, details about the program can be found online.

http://deta.qld.gov.au/initiatives/flyingstart/parents-carers/learning-early-years/qld-ready-readers.html