Play & Learn Continues!

Last Friday was our final Play & Learn program at the Molly Pruitt Library at Roosevelt. We were sad to leave the wonderful Pruitt Library staff, families and facilities behind for the summer. But, a few of our new friends were able to join us this morning at Central Library for more Play & Learn fun. Below are some photos from the fun times we had a Pruitt.

Play & Learn is a great time to test career options.

Perhaps civil engineering is in the future for this participant!



This game of bowling was as much about print awareness and matching colors as it was about knocking the bottles down with the ball.





Here was another experience in parallel play,

this time with bird seed, funnels and construction vehicles.



We can all benefit from some basic carpentry skills.
These carpenters' dedication to safety was admirable!



 Did you notice? None of the children in these pictures were using books. But they were getting ready to learn how to read by building skills such as vocabulary, narrative skills and print awareness.

Play & Learn: Molly Pruitt at Roosevelt Library

Last Friday we had our first Play & Learn sesssion at the Pruitt Library, on the campus of Roosevelt High School. We were a bit apprehensive about how large the crowd might be, but thankfully had lots of support from the library manager as well as some very helpful parents. As usual, we had a few favorite activities and some new things to explore.


Alphabet fishing is a constant at all Play & Learn events!





How does your garden grow?


A new activity this summer is the portable herb garden. We see it as an opportunity for the development of a lush vocabulary and narrative skills. It also requires some cooperation as multiple parties navigate the garden together (or more often side-by-side). A few small dolls and nursery rhyme characters stand ready to fulfill whichever roles the children care to assign them.

We will be at Pruitt again tomorrow with vocabulary as the featured pre-reading skill.

In Balance

This past Saturday Little Read Wagon staff participated in one of KLRN's many community events. As part of the festivities, children had the opportunity to decorate their own balancing butterfly. This was one of our most enjoyable activities for a number of reasons:

1. Both children and adults were fascinated by the way the butterfly balanced on the tip of a finger. This fascination, the joy of discovery, the sense of "wow, I really didn't think it would work, but it does!" made the hours spent at the die cut machine and hot-gluing pennies to the undersides of the cut-outs worthwhile. But there's more!
2. While the cut-out was perched on a fingertip there was an opportunity to introduce vocabulary such as: balance, center of gravity, symmetry, weight, lighter, heavier... The name of our activity also just happened to have an alliterative quality, so we made sure to point out the sounds at the beginning of balancing and butterfly.
3. When there was finally room at the table (the crowd was so big we brought an extra table from our van to provide more space for decorating the butterflies), children had an opportunity to express themselves through the colors they chose, the patterns they designed, how fast or slow and meticulously they went about their embellishment. A simple collection of markers, crayons and a plain white butterfly cut-out generated an astounding variety of finished products.

4. The children also had a chance to indulge their scientific curiosity as they experimented with the balance scale. Some were satisfied with a quick demonstration while others expanded the range of possibilities by adding crayons, markers, and other objects to the scale.

Would you like to make your own balancing butterfly? Instructions for many variations can be found on the Internet. The key points are to use card stock or lightweight cardboard (like from a cereal box) to make a symmetrical shape with wings that extend forward of head of the butterfly (or bird, or other symmetrical creature), and attach weights such as coins or metal washers to the front tips of the wings. A toothpick taped to the underside of the cut-out helped us support the body of the butterfly.

Finally, the library has many books about butterflies, symmetry and equilibrium. Surely there are a few that you and your child would enjoy! You can find them by visiting mysapl.org.