Storytime online helps early literacy skills

Ashdon Wilson, library clerk
Pea Ridge Community Library
Ashdon Wilson, library clerk Pea Ridge Community Library

Eighty-five percent of Americans say that libraries should "definitely" offer free literacy programs to help kids prepare for school (Horrigan, 2015). Accordingly, more than half of programming provided by libraries nationwide are designed for pre-school aged children (Campana, et. al, 2016).

Pre-pandemic, we had weekly storytime that met every Wednesday morning, and centralized around a specific theme (i.e. emotions), and had corresponding books, crafts, songs and games that explored the chosen topic and encouraged a wide range of development in socio-emotional skills.

Since March of 2020, one question has plagued us: How can we continue this tradition of teaching early literacy skills to local children during the covid-19 pandemic?

One course of action we have taken is to move storytime online -- in fact, we cleverly named this new format for storytime, "Storytime Online." Each week, our resident-storyteller, Leslie Vest, curates activities that foster critical-thinking, writing skills and diverse learning. Children who have watched her storytimes have learned to draw Humpty Dumpty, learned about the lifecycle of frogs and even learned a song in American Sign Language. Each storytime is around 25 minutes long and can be found on our YouTube page.

Do you have questions about the continuation of library services during the pandemic? Please email us at [email protected].

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Editor's note: Ashdon Wilson is a clerk of the Pea Ridge Community Library. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. She can be reached at the library at 451-8442.

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