Growing Readers Together is proud to announce our video-based, caregiver workshop is ready to share with families and caregivers in your community! Created to support early literacy and learning for anyone caring for young children, these videos are adaptable to your library’s needs. Post the links on your library website or social media page, view as part of a discussion group, or include our Activity Sheets with links to video in your next Take and Make kit.
Filled with brain building tips and simple activities, the Play, Learn, and Grow video can be viewed as one, 20 minute video, or divided into 4 segments:
- Babies Are Brain Builders
- Read and Grow Together
- Move and Learn Together
- Explore and Play Together
The videos can also be found on the Colorado State Library’s new Early Literacy website, www.coloradoearlylearninglibraries.org
Growing Readers Together collaborated with Pixel Media to produce a video that aligns with our mission to ensure Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers in Colorado have the skills, confidence and resources to make early literacy a part of every day. In these videos we present the latest research on child development while building on the strengths of what caregivers already do best. We model simple strategies and activities that build early literacy, fine motor skills, and scientific thinking in young children.
The Play, Learn, and Grow video is free for your library to use and we are counting on our networks of committed public libraries to connect FFN caregivers in their area with this resource. The video version of our early learning strategies was created to meet the challenges of this past year in the hopes that it would be adaptable and accessible through a variety of platforms.
The video is available digitally and through a limited supply of DVDs to support communities with barriers to online access. Buena Vista Library District has already piloted a successful virtual workshop for caregivers featuring the Play, Learn, and Grow videos! The early literacy librarians at Growing Readers Together are happy to help Colorado libraries plan and present Play, Learn, and Grow Workshops for your community, and librarians everywhere are able to share the digital resources.
Resources to help your library promote and share the Play, Learn, and Grow video are available in the Play, Learn, and Grow Shared Resources folder. These resources include:
- Printable activity sheets for each of the 3 main segments
- Take & Make Kit supply list to extend the learning and crafts modeled in the videos
- Social Media Posts for Facebook and Twitter
- Facilitators Guide to support staff leading virtual or in-person workshops
- Printable and digital surveys to collect participant feedback
Colorado library staff may request a facilitated workshop, a DVD copy of the video, or a set of pre-made activity kits (while supplies last) through this Interest Form.
All of us at Growing Readers Together applaud the amazing work being done in libraries to support children and caregivers. We hope that this video supports and enhances the important work you are doing.
