Show Me a Sign! (as in a Street Sign)

Over the past few weeks I've been summarizing the National Research Council's six key skills recommended for preparing children to become readers when they enter school.  Today's topic: Print Awareness: Noticing that the printed word is around us everywhere and becoming familiar with how to hold a book and follow the words from left to right. 

As literate grown-ups, we tend to take for granted that the written word surrounds us.  We get the information we need from road signs and building marquees, we pick up the newspaper (or our handheld device) to check a sports score, we look at a menu, we sort through the mail, we read the credits as they scroll up the screen after a movie, we page through magazines, and we read books.  

A thoughtful thank you note from a Class Participant

Building the skill of Print Awareness involves helping our children "notice" all of the distinct printed materials in everyday experiences all around us.  What are some of the ways you can do this?  Involve your child when you check the weather report or when you go through the weekly grocery ads and make your grocery list.  Post reminder notes for yourself, and interact with your child about those notes (i.e. "I'm going to stick this note on the dashboard to help me remember to stop by the post office on our way home from the park today.") Point out building signs that indicate you've arrived at your intended destination (or better yet, engage your child in keeping an eye out for the signage of familiar places, i.e. "Help me look for a gas station"). Invite your child to look for and count stop signs when you drive.  Write love notes and thank you notes to your child and share notes you've received from others. Write postcards when you go on family vacations (and encourage other relatives to do the same!) and show your child how each post card is addressed differently for each person.  (It's also fun to send one post card to your own address so your child can (re)discover the post card in the mail box once you've returned home and then reflect on writing and addressing it during your travels). 

Another important aspect of print awareness is helping a child gain familiarity with handling books.  Books are meant to be handled.  Yes, even by babies.  True, board books will get nibbled (Offer a teething toy as a alternative!). Yes, pages will get torn (Get out the tape and fix the book together. When my daughter was little I would sign hurt when a page ripped.  Once we fixed it, I would sign fine.) If books become objects of worry or fear, reading will not be fun.  Anticipate that some books will get bedraggled in the process. Trust that as children have more opportunities to handle books, they will gain experience and learn how to handle them gently and lovingly. (Case in point:  I am one of those people who sometimes leaves a book open face down to mark the page I left off.  My kids routinely call me out on this and suggest that I mark my book in another way so that the book won't get damaged.  They love it when they can catch me doing something not quite right and can offer a better option!)

Shape Detective

Building Print Awareness also involves helping kids gain an awareness that English print reads from left to right.  When your child sits on your lap to read, make a point to read the title of the book and the name of the author and illustrator on the cover and/or title page of the book. Move your index finger along the words as you read these elements.  Notice I'm encouraging you to not skip this step. Why? Because I want you to learn how to pronounce my last name (Pro Hauv' Nik) and repeat it over and over again.  That's not the real reason of course!  It's because reading the author/illustrator name helps children come to realize that real live people write and illustrate books.  It helps them gain familiarity with an author's body of work ("Hey, this is another book by Dawn Prochovnic!  Cool, I wonder if this one will be as fun to read as The Big Blue Bowl?  Let's find out!"), and this helps children recognize patterns, which ties into building their own Narrative Skills.   

Another way to help children gain familiarity with handling books and decoding the words from left to right is to invite your child to read to a doll (or dog).  Prop a younger sibling and a board book on your lap and prop a doll and a really familiar picture book on your older child's lap.  Read the board book, and model some skills like reading the title and author name and following your finger from left to right under the words.  Now sign your turn and have your older child read to the "baby" on his or her lap.  Often what you'll see happen is your child (who has likely memorized the name and even some passages from the book) will "read' the title by moving their fingers along the printed word from left to right.  As they progress through the book, they may recite familiar passages and/or invent their own re-telling of the story (which is fine!), but they will often move their hands along the words from left to right, modeling what they've seen you do when you read. Some kids will ask you to read the words, and they will move their fingers along the printed areas to model this practice while you read.  Try it out and let me know how it goes!

Okay, so here are a few of specific ideas for how to incorporate Print Awareness when you're reading books from the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series: 

A to Z Sign with Me.  This story is unique alphabet story, in that it doesn’t just have different words and pictures for each letter of the alphabet. Instead, it is a story told in rhyme about going to a carnival.  The story is told so that the words beginning with the letters A to Z are featured in sequential order (i.e. "Talk like the animals. Oink! Peep! Quack.  Cheer when the roller coaster speeds down the track.").  After I've read this story directly from the book, I like to write the story "vertically" on a sheet of paper or easel, so children can see how the alphabet is structured in the story.  For example: 

Lip grows a
Moustache
Nose blows a sneeze.  

I encourage children to sign each letter of the alphabet in order as the story progresses.  It's really fun!

The Big Blue Bowl:  After you read this book, sit down with your child and make a list of all of the different things that you'd like to put in YOUR big blue bowl.  Now get out the art supplies and draw a picture of your bowl and all of the things that you'll put into your bowl.  I like to get out the grocery ads and have children cut out the items they want in their Big Blue Bowl.  This piece of art can go on the wall, and be used later to play an I Spy sort of game to practice the signs for the different items in the bowl, (i.e. "Where is the Milk?" There is the Milk!" ).  A teacher who invited me for a classroom visit sent this beautiful artwork as a thank you note from the children! I love these types of gifts so much.  I post them on my office walls. 

The Nest Where I Like to Rest: I like to wear my crazy chicken hat when I read this story.  After reading, I set the hat on a basket of plastic eggs and post a sign on the basket/nest that reads, "Quiet! This is the Nest Where I Like to Rest." The kids get a kick out of it.

So Many Feelings:  After reading this story, I like to show kids an easel with a list of feeling words with picture clues noted next to each word.  I point to different feeling words and then ask the children to act out that emotion and/or sign that emotion.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! It's Family Day!: After I read this story, I invite children to make a their own book or even just a picture called "My Family" and then read it to someone else or to a doll.  To add enrichment, I encourage children to sign the handshape that goes along with each family members' picture or page.

Okay, it's your turn.  I would really love to hear some of your ideas for building Print Awareness with your children and/or your experiences using some of the ideas I've suggested in this post.  I look forward to your contributions!     

Pusillanimous

I love words.  I especially love how some words sound when you say them out loud. I think that's why I like to write books that incorporate word play and rhymes and that are meant to be read aloud.

My parents encouraged my  interest in words and books when I was a child. Here is a picture of some of the books I routinely keep by my side when I write, several of which I received when I was a kid:

The big blue dictionary and the thesaurus were gifts from my parents when I was 12 or so.  The red dictionary was a gift when I was younger.  I used to open the blue dictionary to a random page once each day and choose a new word to learn.  When I was in the 6th grade, my school library had a dictionary about this size on a big stand so it could be left open to whatever page someone last looked at.  I used to get a kick out of going into the library during recess and opening the dictionary to the page that had a "humorously naughty" word on it, like buttocks or fart.  I thought I was extremely clever to get away with this outrageous violation of character and never get caught!  (A total book nerd, huh?)

I was just introduced to the word pusillanimous because an amazing writer friend and poet, Susan Blackaby, was challenged to use it in a poetry contest in which she is competing.  (At the time of this writing there are less than 6 hours left for the voting in the current round, the final four, so get out there and vote for your favorite poems!).

The overall approach to the competition is that poets are each given a word that they must use in a poem that they must craft in 36 hours.  Voting happens, poets advance or get eliminated, voters get to experience a wide range of poetry, and new words get into our brains.  Fun huh?

My own kids have really enjoyed reading the poems from the contest.  We've gotten out the dictionary several times and have learned some fun new words along the way. In fact, my middle schooler planned to impress her teacher by working pusillanimous into something she said at school today (thanks poets and Think Kid Think).

This all ties in nicely with the theme I've been writing about for the past several posts: Summarizing the National Research Council's six key skills recommended for preparing children to become readers when they enter school.  Today's topic: Enriched Vocabulary: Knowing the words or names for many different things.

So how do you build a child's vocabulary?  Talk, sing, read, sign.  Use "real" words (and real sign language) with your children.  Label the things you see when you are out and about and the things you put into your cart when you are shopping. Give them a diet rich in vocabulary and watch their brains grow!  Don't use baby talk.  Don't try to simplify your language just because you are talking with a child.  Speak and read big words, and kids will rise to the occasion.  They will ask questions.  Their vocabularies will grow.

I'll never forget when  I was pregnant with my son and doing the "older sibling hospital tour" with my daughter.  My husband and I used real words when we talked about the pregnancy, so my 2 1/2 year old daughter knew that her baby brother was growing in "mommy's uterus."  When the hospital representative that was touring us around the hospital showed us the nursery with all the new babies, she said, "these are some of the babies that recently came out of their mommies' tummies." My daughter wasted no time letting it be known that her baby brother was growing in a uterus, not a tummy.  You tell 'em girl!

When my kids were still lap-sitters, one of my favorite authors to read was William Steig.  He always wove a complicated word or two into his books, and I could never make it through a book without one of the kids asking what a particular word meant.  Typically, I would situate our reading area with a dictionary nearby so that I could look up the word(s) in question when I wasn't sure of the definition.  I liked that my children and I were growing our vocabularies together, and I liked that they saw me referring to a dictionary for guidance. Now that they're older (actually, I'm older, too!), we play games like Apples to Apples and Pictionary, and still keep a dictionary nearby (though I must confess, often that dictionary is accessed online via one of our smart phones).

My books in the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series are written at a third grade reading level, so I had to limit my use of complex vocabulary.  I did get to keep a few tricky, less ordinary words in my stories, like ruckus, in "The Nest Where I Like to Rest," stew in "The Big Blue Bowl," and geometric sleuth in "Shape Detective."

When I read "The Nest Where I Like to Rest" with kids, I act out the part of the story that uses the word ruckus ("But what was that ruckus inside of my nest?") and invite kids to  make educated guesses about the meaning of the word.  Newsflash:  they always figure it out, even the younger ones!

When I read "See the Colors," I use a variety of colorful props (usually hats) to go along with the story.  Each page is beautifully illustrated to match with the color word featured on each spread, so it's easy for children to begin to "see" the colors themselves.  In fact, as I proceed through the book, children begin to say the color word for each new page even before I've started reading the new page.

For "So Many Feelings," it's really fun to emotively model each feeling word covered on each page. Sign language enriches this experience because many of the signs for feeling words look and feel like the emotion they are describing.  Proud involves a strong, confident body stance.  Sad involves some frowning.  Angry incorporates some scowling.  Words like lonely provide additional opportunity to describe meaning, because the sign for lonely involves just the index finger, (which resembles one) and when you are alone (just one), you might be lonely.

Sign language also enriches a reading of "Hip, Hip Hooray! It's Family Day!"  Most children are familiar with the words brother and sister, but they are fascinated to discover that the signs for brother and sister come from the combination of the signs "boy" (or girl) and "same" (because brothers are boys from the same family and sisters are girls from the same family).


If you're interested in more of this sort of thing, one of my heroes, Nellie Edge, puts out a great monthly newsletter, and this month's version just happens to be on the subject of poetry AND what she calls voracious vocabulary.  Read Nellie's newsletter here.

Okay, now it's your turn.  I'd love to hear some of your favorite "big words." I'd also enjoy hearing how your children have incorporated some of the sophisticated words you've taught them! Don't be pusillanimous.  It's fun to share.  Really.  I know you can do it!

There's a Story in My Head

There's a Story in My Head

I've been sharing some of the content from my "Read to Me: Hands on Tips for Enriching Your Story Time" workshop that I recently delivered at the PCPO Conference and discussing the National Research Council's six key skills recommended to prepare children to become readers when they enter school. Today's topic is Narrative Skills: Being able to tell stories and describe things and sequences of events.

Now I have to confess something to you:  There was a time (not too long ago, actually), when I didn't understand "why" kids "needed" to learn how to tell their own stories.  I mean seriously, it's not like they are all going to grow up to be writers (or are they?...I think that will be a topic for another post).  Don't get me wrong.  I think writing is super important, and it makes sense to me that everyone should learn to "write," but why does everyone need to learn to "tell stories?"

My epiphany on that topic came to me a few years ago (I know, embarrassing that it was such a recent epiphany!), when I attended an early literacy conference hosted by several library friends (thanks Kendra for inviting me!). One of the speakers really brought home the idea that communication (written and spoken) "is" story.  To be heard and understood, to get our needs met, to participate in this world, we need to be able to tell our stories, describe the things around us, and sequence the events in our lives.  Ponder this for a bit.  It's kind of mind blowing, actually (or at least it was for me, because I hadn't really thought about "story" in this way before--a dead giveaway that I wasn't an English major, huh?).

And...according to the great minds at the National Research Council, building Narrative Skills is also a key element in building a readiness to read.  So how do you build Narrative Skills?   Encourage children to chant along with repeating phrases in stories; Read cumulative stories that children tend to naturally join along with; Invite children to make predictions about what is going to happen next; Read the story by reading the pictures; Invite children to retell the story with props, or make up their own endings to stories or tell a new story with the same characters. Need more ideas?  Nellie Edge has great tips on her website and via her "Writing to Read" workshops, and one of my library angels, Kendra has great ideas on her own blog and links to other great literacy-related blogs.

Here are some of the ways I incorporate building Narrative Skills when I read books from the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series with children:

Hip, Hip, Hooray! It's Family Day!:  I encourage children to predict what family member(s) might appear next after I've read several verses in this story. After the story is over, I invite children to act out one or more of the scenes in the story, or I ask them to share a time when they have done something that's similar to one of the scenes in the book (like gone swimming, played soccer, painted a picture) with one of their own family members (they can either share with the full group or share with the friend they are sitting next to).  Another option is to provide art supplies and have the children draw a picture that tells the story of when they have done something similar with one of their family members.  I also like to play a cumulative memory game (i.e. (Player One) I had a party and I invited my mom.  (Player Two) I had a party and I invited my mom and my sister.  (Player Three) I had a party and I invited my mom, my sister and my uncle).  This game is enriched even more if each player makes the sign(s) for the family members in their story, as they say each family member word out loud).         

There's a Story in My Head.  Although the signs covered in this story relate to parts of the body, the book itself is about the story ideas that surround us: in a shared giggle with a friend, in a sloppy kiss from a puppy, in the aftermath of a disappointment, and even in a dream.  The book ends with an invitation for young writers to get busy writing their own stories.  When I facilitate young writers’ workshops, I read the story, teach the signs for body parts, and then have kids look for a scar or scab on their own body (if they don’t have a current wound, most kids have a stockpile of memories about past scrapes and stumbles!).  I ask the children to write their “How I got Hurt” story, and then invite them to share their story with a friend. Another option is to let children put a bandage on a doll and then tell the story of how their doll got hurt.


So Many Feelings:  After reading this story, I give children a paper plate some crayons and some pieces of yarn.  I invite them to use the yarn and/or crayons to make faces that show how they are feeling right now.

Four Seasons! Five Senses!: For this story I bring out the dress up clothes and we get bundled up for winter or we put on sunglasses and visors for summertime.  My favorite activity for this story is to "make rain."  This is a fun trick I learned (way!) back when I was a high school cheerleader. Start by slowly rubbing your hands together and gradually getting faster.  Next, snap your fingers together, gradually getting faster and faster.  Now pat your thighs with one hand then the other, first slowly, then faster.  Now stomp your feet until they are stomping like crazy.  The rainstorm is full on now! I like to end by doing all of the hand motions in reverse to return the storm to a soft sprinkling of rain, and then quiet.  This is most fun with a big group, but it's something you can do all by yourself...go ahead, try it!  Fun, huh?

The Nest Where I Like to Rest:  After reading this story I invite children to write a story about what the Mama hen does next (after all of the eggs have hatched), or I ask them to draw a picture that shows what the Mama hen might dream about if she ever gets some rest.  Another option is to invite the children to draw and name all six of the chicks, or re-enact the hatching of the chicks, which can be a fun wiggle buster!

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing.  I'd love to hear some of your ideas for how you build Narrative Skills into your own story times.  Go ahead, tell me the story that's in YOUR head!

      

Yee Ha Hee Ha Ho!

Yee Ha Hee Ha Ho! is a repeating phrase in my book, Famous Fenton Has a Farm, and a great example of a way to promote phonological awareness (a scary word to look at or try to say out loud in front of a group, but a fun word to bring to life when you're reading to young children!).  In my last post, I talked about print motivation, one of the National Research Council's six key skills recommended for preparing children to become readers when they enter school.  This week I'll talk about phonological awareness, which is being aware of the smaller sounds that make up words.

But before I do, I wanted to share a couple of other really good articles about the tremendous value of simply cuddling up with a young child and sharing a book together.  You don't have to incorporate all of the "fancy tricks" I'm discussing to experience the value of reading with your child.  Just find a good book. Hold your child close. Enjoy the pictures.  Read the words. Share the time.  The following articles get to the heart of the simplicity of it:  1) Walter Dean Myers is this year's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  A recent interview with him on this topic can be found here.  2) Judy Cox is a reading specialist and beloved author of many books for young children.  A January 25, 2012 blog post by Judy on this topic can be found here. 

That said, if you're interested in enriching the story time experience even more, reading with an ear for phonological awareness is a a great place to start.  How do you incorporate phonological awareness? Read Rhyming Stories; Let Children Fill in the Missing Rhyme Word; Find the Rhythm in Stories; Sing Stories; Play with the Sounds in Words; Make Up Silly Rhymes; Extend Favorite Rhyming Stories with Additional Made Up Verses; Play Word Games that Involve Word Sounds and Rhymes.  Want more ideas?  Here is a great website to explore.

One of the things I found myself thinking about when I was preparing for a workshop on this topic for the recent PCPO Conference, is what it's like to listen to an unfamiliar language. When you listen to a conversation in an unfamiliar language, you don't hear any of the word sounds--you just hear sounds.  The word sounds that are unique to a particular language seem to be fairly random until you get to know the language. When you listen to a somewhat familiar language (but one in which you're not fluent), you might catch a few familiar words/sounds here and there, which might give you the ability to decipher some of what is being said.  When we incorporate phonological awareness into our reading time with children, we are making a point to provide plenty of repetition for the sounds that make up the English language so that these sounds become less "random" and more familiar to the child's ear (and speech).

Here are some examples for how I incorporate phonological awareness when I read books from the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series with children:

The Nest Where I Like to Rest:  This is a cumulative story, so I invite children to chant along with the story as it builds page after page.  I also encourage kids to make the "honking" sound along with the goose and the "sniffing" sound along with the rat.  

The Big Blue Bowl:  This is also a cumulative story, and kids love chanting along each time a new ingredient gets added to the Big Blue Bowl. This story also has a repeating phrase:  "Fill it up, fill it up, fill it up, I say, and my friend (duck/dog/goat, etc) fills it up with me."  I show children the sign for "your turn," and ask them to chant along with the "Fill it up" part of the story each time I show them that sign.  Additionally, the words, Big Blue Bowl provide alliteration, another element in phonological awareness.  

See the Colors:  I sing this story to children to the tune of "Oh My Darlin' Clementine."  I also point out that "brown" starts with "B" and "blue" starts with "B," and the signs for both "brown" and "blue" are made with the "B" handshape. Incidentally, the sign for "black" (which also starts with "B") is not made with the "B" handshape, and I point out this contrast as well. 

A to Z Sign with Me:   This is a unique rhyming alphabet story in that it is told with words that are sequenced from A to Z (i.e. "Talk like the animals. Oink! Peep! Quack.  Cheer when the roller coaster speeds down the track.").  After I've read this story directly from the book, I like to write the story "vertically" on a sheet of paper or easel, so children can see how the alphabet is structured in the story.  For example: 

Lip grows a
Moustache
Nose blows a sneeze.     

I encourage children to sign each letter of the alphabet in order as the story progresses.  It's really fun!

Famous Fenton Has a Farm:    This story is a wild tongue twister with all kinds of silly language.  It fits to the tune of "Old MacDonald Has a Farm," and it is has a repeating phrase: "Yee Ha Hee Ya Ho!" (that shows up in place of the traditional E-I-E-I-O).  All I need to do with this one is invite children to Yee Ha along with me and they in!  

If you want more ideas for incorporating phonological awareness into your story time, this website has great information and lots of ideas for other books to read.  And, as I've mentioned before (and will likely mention again), hang out in your local library.  Attend their story time programs and soak it all in!  Yee Ha Hee Ha Ho! 

Print Motivation: Make Reading FUN!

Now Available!

This past weekend I taught a workshop called “Read to Me: Hands on Tips for Enriching Your Story Times” at the PCPO Conference. During the program I summarized the six key skills recommended by the National Research Council for preparing children to become readers when they enter school, and I shared practical examples for incorporating these elements when reading the books in my Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series with children.  These six skills are routinely emphasized by the American Library Association and their member libraries. 

The parents and teachers of preschool and early elementary school-aged children that participated seemed to get a lot out of the session (thanks for the positive feedback, folks!), so I thought I’d share some of the key learning points here.  Today I will discuss one of the Six Key Skills for preparing children to become readers when they enter school, Print Motivation, and provide some examples of how to incorporate this element when you read the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes books with your children. 

Print Motivation is Being Excited About and Interested in BOOKS!

How do you develop Print Motivation? First and foremost, model enjoyment!  Read for your own pleasure.  Make books and reading fun when you read with children.  Read in character and find ways to make story time special. Add “extras” when you read, such as songs, sign language, and props.  Read books you especially love, and indulge your child’s interest in repetition (it’s easier to read a book over and over again and STILL have fun if you’re reading a book you personally enjoy!).  One of my favorite websites for more ideas is here.

During the workshop, one participant pointed out that most of their family reading time takes place at bedtime.  This participant realized that as a result, they were less likely to “make reading fun” with silly antics and add-ons. This parent made a personal plan to start adding mid-day reading time for her family so she could let loose and yak it up.  Great idea!! 

In my experience, Print Motivation is one area that needs ongoing attention, even as children get older and have already started reading independently.  During the workshop I discussed some cautionary “Fun Grabbers” to be aware of:

*Requiring students to track and log their reading time as part of their homework.  Lots of schools do this.  On the surface, it seems like a fine idea, because it’s aimed at making sure each child reads at home for a minimum number of minutes each day (i.e. 20 minutes per day).  The downside is that the chore of timing and logging reading time runs the risk of turning this pleasurable activity into a perceived task.  That’s how both of my kids felt when they were asked to log their reading time starting in kindergarten.  This was a bummer, because up until then, they were both highly motivated readers.  To avoid the negative associations with reading, I offered to complete the reading logs for both of my kids (it’s the ONLY homework I’ve ever offered to do for them). The only hitch was that they needed to continue to feed their strong appetite for books. Happily, they are both still motivated readers (and gradually, they both took on the task of logging their own reading…but they still find it annoying!)

*Putting reading homework on the family chore list.  Again, this runs the risk (a BIG risk, in my opinion) of positioning reading as an unappealing chore.  If you have a reluctant reader in your family, I recognize it might be tempting to put reading time on the chore list so it’s more likely to get done, but I would encourage you to dig deeper into the situation to figure out why reading is not enjoyable for your child.  For example, if it's because reading is hard, sadly, making it a required event will not make it any easier. I encourage you to invest in finding ways to make reading more fun so your child WANTS to read more often.  The more they read (and the more you read to them), the easier reading will become. 

*Pushing kids to read more advanced books than they are ready for and/or interested in.  I’ve observed parents categorizing picture books as "baby books" once their child gets to a certain age (that “certain age” varies by parent).  I know we’re excited to see our children advance and mature, but picture books are magical, and "reading the pictures" is one of the first literacies in which our children develop fluency.  Children are using their reading (or pre-reading) skills when they read the pictures in a book. If a child wants to bring home a stack of picture books (even though they might be capable of reading an early chapter book), I encourage you to celebrate their interest in books.  

*Discouraging kids from re-reading favorite books.  We, as grown-ups, don’t typically have time or interest in “repeating” things.  For children, repetition is an important and developmentally appropriate experience.  If YOU are bored with the repetition of the same material over and over again, I encourage you to find ways to enrich the experience, to make it new, fresh and more interesting for YOU. In the process, you will enrich the experience for your child! If your child is re-reading a book, it’s likely because they enjoyed it enough to spend more time with it.  That’s Print Motivation!  Yay!

Here are some examples of how I incorporate Print Motivation when I read books from the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series with children:

The Big Blue Bowl:  I open by singing and signing, “If You’re Hungry and You Know It Ask for ____” to introduce the signs for several of the food items that go into The Big Blue Bowl during the story; I teach children a silly, over-exaggerated way to sign for "corn" and "eat/slurp," and I encourage them to sign the silly way every time they hear those words repeated in the story; I encourage children to sign and chant along to a repeating phrase in the story: "'Fill it up, fill it up, fill it up, I say' and my friends fill it up with me.”

The Nest Where I Like to Rest: I wear my Crazy Chicken Hat when I read this story (even though my mother is slightly horrified that I persist in wearing that hat out in public!); I read in the voice of the Mama Hen character; I invite kids to sign and chant along with the story, which is especially fun with cumulative tales (this story follows a format similar to “This is the House that Jack Built.”)

So Many Feelings: I demonstrate the “feelings” signs and very theatrically act out the feelings before reading the story (kids seem to especially love my impressions of “scary,” “excited,” “grumpy,” and “sad”).  I “sing” this story to the tune of “On Top of Spaghetti” and ask kids to make the signs for the emotions they know when they hear them in the story.

See the Colors: I sing this story to the tune of “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.” See a video of me demonstrating this here.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas to run with to incorporate the element of FUN into your own story time. If you want more ideas, visit your local public library with your child and make note of what the youth librarian does to bring FUN into each story he or she reads. Librarians are experts when it comes to incorporating the National Research Council’s Six Key Skills for preparing children to become readers when they enter school. And...I’d love to hear YOUR ideas for building Print Motivation and bringing FUN into your own story time.

Amazing Babies!

One of my favorite parts about signing with preverbal babies is that we get to learn what’s on our child’s mind.  I love how this can illuminate our awareness of the advanced level of thinking that is going on in a young child's actively growing brain. 

Let me share some recent examples: 

Earlier this week I received this Facebook update from a past class participant:

“At the aquarium the other day, our 15 month old signed "horse" "fish" when he saw a seahorse. Without him pointing it out, I would have missed it. Amazing!”

Okay, how cool is that?  I mean, it’s fabulous that the child (that’s not even a year and a half old!) was able to get his parents’ attention to point out that he saw the seahorse, but just think about the complex brain activity involved in putting together two signs (horse and fish) to convey seahorse?! I just love that story!

One of the songs I typically sing during my Infant/Toddler Sign Language workshops fits to the tune of “Shoo Fly.”  We sing: “Shoo tiger (monkey/lion/bug), don’t bother me. Shoo tiger, don’t bother me.  Shoo tiger, don’t bother me, for I belong to my mommy (daddy),” and add the signs for the different animals with each verse.  One time I was singing this song with a group of young families and one of the babies (about 18 months old) started adding the sign for “shoe” to the song.  We had learned the sign for shoe the week prior and it was something the child’s mom had been signing throughout the week. Now I realize that shoo and shoe are different, but without the signing, we wouldn’t have even known that the child was making the connection between the two word sounds.  Again, I say, how cool is that?!

One of my favorite memories from when my own kids were tee tiny was when they would take words that we regularly signed in one context and apply them to another context.  For example, it was not unusual for me to playfully call my daughter a little turkey when she would do something ornery, or tell my son he was being a silly monkey when he would climb or swing on things not necessarily meant for that purpose. (Yes, I do realize that name-calling might not have been setting a very good example, but it was done in a very playful manner!). I did not use the signs for turkey or monkey when I delivered these messages.  I typically signed turkey and monkey when we visited the zoo or sang songs, or read books with these animals. I remember distinctly the first time my daughter looked at me and devilishly signed turkey when I discovered her doing something mischievous.  Way to diffuse the tension and get a laugh out of your mama, smart baby!  Likewise, my son would giggle and sign monkey as he scaled the sofa.  And I would respond with a tickle and say, “Yes, you are my silly little monkey!”

I find babies truly amazing.  Don’t you?  Do you have an example to share about your amazing baby? I never get tired of hearing these types of stories, so bring ‘em on! 

My Path to Publication

One of the most common questions I’m asked by other writers is, “How did you get published?” With the recent release of 8 new picture books in the Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series, it seems like a good time to answer that question.  This is an updated version of a blog post I shared when I was a guest at Wordstock back in 2009.

About twelve years ago I started SmallTalk Learning, a company that specializes in teaching sign language workshops for parents and caregivers of hearing infants and toddlers, aimed at helping babies communicate before they can talk.  I discovered early on that the most effective way to help people learn and remember particular signs was to teach them catchy songs they could sing and sign while they interacted with their babies.  I wrote all kinds of ditties for this purpose, modeled after familiar children’s songs and rhymes like “Old MacDonald Has a Farm” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”    

After awhile I discovered that preschoolers and elementary school children were also interested in learning sign language, and I developed an interest in expanding my reach beyond that which I could manage in my own classes.  I wanted to share the joyful experience of signing with children and their grown-ups across the miles and decided the best way to do that would be to publish a handful of my songs in the form of picture book stories.  So, I put out word to my network of friends and professional associates that I was looking for an illustrator and a publisher to help me get my books out into the world.  And then I discovered that’s simply not how it’s done.

The good news is that through this networking process I heard about the annual Pacific Northwest Children’s Writing and Illustrating Conference facilitated by the amazing Linda Zuckerman.  I attended that conference in the summer of 2004, full of enthusiasm and eager anticipation to get on with the business of getting my books published.  Back then I was completely naïve about how the publishing industry works, and I boldly asked every ignorant question I could think of.  Thank heavens I was completely unaware that the guest editor at the conference (Arthur A. Levine, Mr. Harry Potter himself) was famous in publishing circles, or I might have died of embarrassment.  And, thank heavens that Arthur Levine was so kind and encouraging, or I might not have continued to pursue my goal of getting my books published (because truth be told, my stories were not ready for publication back then). 

I learned so much about the publishing industry in that amazing conference, but most importantly, I learned that I was not just an enthusiastic instructor who wanted to publish some books.  I rediscovered that I was a passionate creative writer.  I remembered that I loved writing short stories when I was a young child.  I remembered that I authored a poetry book when I was in a middle school that I gave to my mom for Mother’s Day.  I remembered that I used to journal diligently, and I remembered how much I loved the stories of my childhood, in particular the rhythmic stories of Dr. Suess. I reflected on how high school essays, college term papers and corporate white papers had slowly replaced my creative writing time.  And so it was, at this conference, that I rediscovered the creative writer lurking within me, and I shifted my attention from getting books published to learning how to craft stories for children.

After that conference I formed a critique group and I joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  With the support of these groups I worked diligently on one of my stories, SEE THE COLORS, and when I felt it was ready, I submitted my first manuscript to Arthur A. Levine Books.  Arthur was again, kind and encouraging and I will always treasure the personal letter he sent to me, gently declining my story.  Over the next several years I continued to do the work of a writer, inventing new stories (many of them unrelated to my original signing idea), revising, and asking for critique over and over again.  I was helped and encouraged along the way by the other writers in my critique group and by the many talented authors and editors I met at writing conferences. 

As I developed an inventory of manuscripts that were ready for submission, I studied publishing houses and began the task of submitting my work.  Some day I need to count how many times I’ve submitted my stories for consideration over the years.  That might be inspiring.  Or not.  What I can tell you is that I have several huge file boxes filled with manuscripts in various stages of revision and correspondence from editors across the country.  Over time, the editorial correspondence I received shifted from form letters to personalized notes with suggestions for revision and/or ideas for other publishers that might be a better fit for my work.  The message was coming through: Several of my stories were publishable; I just needed to find the right publisher.

And then I went to Book Blast at Cedar Park Middle School.  That was my moment of serendipity.  It was a dark and stormy night in October 2007.  I almost didn’t go.  My kids were squabbling.  It would have been easier to stay home.  Thank goodness my daughter desperately wanted to meet Bart King, the author of “The Big Book of Girl Stuff.”  So I piled the kids into the mini van and we went to Book Blast.  And then I met David.  David Michael Slater.  His picture books had an educational element in them.  I could see my signing stories being a good fit for his publisher.  I told him about that aspect of my writing, and he was kind enough to put me in touch with his editor at Abdo Publishing Group.  And the rest is history, as they say. 

Abdo was a good fit for my signing stories.  My work was ready for consideration.  And on January 22, 2008, at 12:02 PM, I received an email from the Magic Wagon division of Abdo Publishing Group indicating that they would like to publish not one, but eight of my stories.  And then the real work began: the editing, the revision, more research, development of the back matter, input about design elements, marketing. And finally, the wonderful opportunity to share my stories with children.  And that is what makes it all worth it.

In January, 2012, eight more books in the Story Time with Signs and Rhymes series were released.  I'm so happy to meet these new books, and I hope you will enjoy meeting them, too!