Early Learners

What are Early Learners?

Babies: Birth-2

Teen nanny and cute little baby playing with toys at home

Babies, each sitting on their caregivers’ lap, are introduced to the rhythm and beauty of language. Bond with your baby with songs and stories then introduce them to toys and activities.

Toddlers: 2-3

Young beautiful teacher and toddlers playing around lots of toys at kindergarten

Toddlers wiggle with delight for stories, songs, and fingerplays, then explore concepts of math, science, and literacy.

Preschool: 3-5

Father and his little children reading bedtime story at home

Preschoolers love learning through stories, songs, and fingerplays followed by engaging activities that explore preschool-level concepts of math, art, science, and literacy with song and rhythm.

Words

A child learns words through two-way conversations. Getting your child ready to speak words and sentences requires a lot of conversation on your part. Television and computer games do not provide this. They need a lot of child-to-adult and child-to-child conversation. Meeting your child’s needs in this area requires a child to hear instructions, exchange ideas, and hear about thoughts and feelings. A good goal is exchanging 30 words per hour. Even if there is not an exchange, it’s good to describe what you are doing. “Mommy is taking the pan out of the oven.” Having a child around is the best excuse for talking to yourself because your kids are hearing you even when you think they are not.

Is your child ready for Kindergarten?

They are if they…

• Understand 4,000 words and use complete sentences

• Can recite 10 rhymes and songs

• Know groups of letters on the page make words

• Recognize the meaning of labels on 10 objects in my home

• Know the beginning sounds and letters in words

• Can clap syllables out in a word independently

We Have STEAM Kits!

STEAM Kits for Early Learners

Activity: Cut, Peek, and Tell a Story

Yes, a child needs to understand 4,000 words and use
complete sentences before kindergarten! This activity
promotes picture identification and making sentences
through storytelling. Kids make picture squares from
old magazines and use them to tell a story.
Build
1. Lay all your magazine pages so that the sides with
the most fun pictures are facing down. That’s right,
you can’t see the pictures. Some squares may end up
with no or half of an image, so recycle those.
2. Adults: on the backside (the side without fun pictures), use a ruler and marker to draw
squares about 5” on a side.
3. Kids need to use scissors in kindergarten, so have them cut out the squares without
peeking at the pictures.

Launch into Learning

Is your child entering Kindergarten this fall?

Stop by any Community Library Network location to pick up your free Launch into Learning backpack. This free backpack is yours to keep and includes an activity guide, free book, and cool swag to help prepare your child to be successful in school.

Be sure to take our program survey for a chance to win a $100 gift card.

Developed in partnership with:

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

The most important predictor of school success is being read to at home during early childhood. Keep track of the books you’ve read. (In a notebook, on our reading log sheets, on the Beanstack app, or however you choose!)

For every 100 books read, stop by the library to have your photo taken and a high five from your favorite Super Librarian.

At 500 and 1,000 books stop by for a special prize.