Librarian brings storytime to Creative Corners

Courtney Schade, preschool liaison for the Des Plaines Public Library, recently visited the Des Plaines Park District Creative Corners Preschool for an hour of story time, songs, and rhymes.

Shade’s program was “All About Fall.” She read “Leaf Trouble,” “The Busy Little Squirrel,” and “Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze;” played a simple game of concentration using a felt board and the rhyme, “Peek-a-boo Leaves;” and got everybody up on their feet shaking their bushy tails and looking for nuts while they sang, “Gray Squirrel.”

Shade’s mission is to visit every preschool in Des Plaines three times a year. The goal of the visits is to foster a love of reading and to introduce the children to the many resources available to them at the library.

“Many of our children visit the library on a regular basis,” said Sue Poklop, Terrific 3s Preschool director. “With our increasingly diverse community, the library is a great place to pick up books in many languages and to take advantage of their bilingual drop-in storytime activities.”

Shade’s program uses a variety of literacy skills, such as predicting, questions and answers, and relating previous knowledge and experiences to events in the stories.

“When children successfully interact with a book in this way, they form attachments to reading which will help them be successful later in school,” she said.

Poklop agrees. “We read to our preschool children every day. Then we use the vocabulary and information from the stories in our math and counting activities.”

“Reading success begins with children enjoying story time,” said Karyn Roth, recreation supervisor. “We are committed to literacy not only in our Early Education classes, but also in our day camps where we have mini libraries and quiet reading time. We are thrilled to form this community partnership with the public library and work together helping children learn to love to read.”

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