4.4.2: Caregiver Goal- Children Socializing

Socializing is another goal of caregivers that you can integrate into existing storytime goals because social play contributes to both early literacy and school readiness skills. Play is one of the five practices for building early literacy included in the second edition of the Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) initiative (Association for Library Services to Children & Public Library Association, 2011), so many ECRR-trained librarians meaningfully include play in storytime sessions (Celano, Knapczyk, & Neuman, 2018). Both you, as the storytime provider, and the caregivers have an integral role in facilitating children’s play because your conversations with children during play can increase their engagement and language learning (Celano et al., 2018; Terrell & Watson, 2018). Interactive play has also been found to improve children’s social and emotional learning (McClelland et al., 2017).

Here are some ideas for play activities you might try before, during, and/or after a storytime.

• During and After: To facilitate dramatic play, set out toys (such as blocks, puppets, stuffed animals) or props (hats, clothing, household items) that relate to the theme of the storytime. During storytime, tell the caregivers about the toys and how “pretend play” can help children build the early literacy skill of vocabulary as they try out new words while acting out all or parts of the stories and songs they heard (Terrell & Watson, 2018). For example, after William H. Teale (1999) guided preschool-age children in acting out a story with grocery-bag vests, a cardboard mask, and a cape, the children enjoyed repeatedly reenacting the story on their own. Diversity note: when providing materials that represent people (puppets, action figures, etc.), include a range of skin colors, facial features, gender expressions, and abilities. Dramatic play also provides opportunities to explore concepts, images, and experiences from a variety of cultures.

• During and After: Design a play area with a literacy-related theme, imitating a place from the real world in which reading and/or writing are needed to get tasks done. In addition to an opportunity for social play, literacy-themed play areas can also help promote a child’s “disposition to literacy” or “child's fundamental realization that reading and writing are meaningful, purposeful, goal-directed activities that people use to help them get things done in their lives” (Teale, 1999). During storytime, read stories set in the area and model how children can play together with items that will be in the area. Here are some suggestions for literacy-themed play areas and their word-rich contents (Teale, 1999; Terrell and Watson, 2018):
  • Office: calendars, schedules, checklists, inspirational posters, writing materials
  • Post office: stamps, envelopes, boxes with labels, writing materials
  • Restaurant: open/closed sign, menus [with images of culturally diverse food], order pads for wait staff, receipts, credit cards
  • Doctor’s office: eye chart, simple diagram with labeled body parts
  • Grocery store: shopping lists, sales signs, product labels, coupons, receipts, printed circulars [all with culturally diverse products]

• During and After: Diamant-Cohen, Prendergast, Estrovitz, Banks, and van der Veen’s (2012) simple directions for a “literacy cafe” could be adapted to create various scenarios: "Create a literacy café! With a simple set of dishes, a table, and some graphics taped down (burner, grill, etc.), you will soon see dramatic play blossom. Add in a menu of play for caregivers (with suggestions for how to interact at various ages and with a few jokes for good measure), and you’ll have a bustle of play right next to a collection of books selected for the experience. Soon you’ll see a child consult a 'cookbook' in dramatic play, use a book as a serving platter, and even ask a parent to choose from a board book menu of fruit shapes" (p. 10).

• During: Lead children in an activity that requires them to work together toward a common goal. Some examples:
  • Take turns using large blocks to build a given structure such as a tall tower.
  • Stand together in a circle and use their hands to pass around and keep balloons or lightweight balls up in the air for as long as they can.
  • Take turns placing pieces to complete a jigsaw puzzle.
  • Create a piece of art together. An example: lay out a large piece of butcher paper, have an adult spread clear-drying glue on it, and then give children cut pieces of multi-colored tissue paper to sprinkle over the paper, asking children to work together and share paper to spread out the colors.

• During: Direct children in a game of Follow the Leader and then call on volunteer children to lead. Younger children could choose a body part for everyone to point at or to wiggle while older children could choose an animal or emotion for everyone to act out.

• During or After: Ask children to bring a toy from home for Show and tell. Pair up each child and their caregiver with another child and caregiver and have each child show and talk about their toy. (For younger or non-verbal children, the caregivers can talk and encourage physical or tonal interactions or responses.) You might ask a pair of attendees you know well to volunteer by modeling what a Show and Tell conversation might look like at the beginning of this activity.

• Before and/or After: Place musical instruments in a play area for children to use independently. Young children often spontaneously play together to make music, trying to imitate one another or to coordinate sounds, especially with larger instruments such as a xylophone or bongo drum (Young, 2008).

• Before and/or After: Provide building blocks for free play. As your budget allows, provide blocks of varying sizes, shapes, colors, texturess, and materials for children with varying interests and abilities to manipulate. Children can practice social skills while sharing blocks, building something together, or playing with their creations. Building with blocks may also help children develop other school readiness skills such as problem solving, curiosity, creativity, and spatial and procedural skills (Prendergast, 2012).

Creating time and space for social play can also be a way to increase the inclusiveness of your storytime program. Diamant-Cohen, Prendergast, Estrovitz, Banks, and van der Veen (2012) offer this advice for creating playtimes that welcome children with developmental, linguistic, cognitive, and/or physical differences and facilitate their literacy and social development.

• Make sure the play area is physically accessible and has supportive seating such as cube chairs or foam blocks that can assist children in playing on the floor and/or at tables.
• Provide toys and learning materials that appeal to multiple senses as well as the same toy in various formats. Diamant-Cohen and colleagues (2012) provide an example with toy trains: “wooden trains, Lego trains, and remote-control trains will accommodate children with a wide range of physical and intellectual abilities” (p. 8).
• Encourage the use of all kinds of communication, including sign language, communication boards, or electronic devices, by talking with children and caregivers about these various forms that “talking” can take.
• Allow time for both adult-guided and unstructured play. Adult-guided play occurs when the adult suggest to the child or children what to do as they play. In unstructured play, the child chooses what to do. An example of adult-guided play is when you lead children to take turns putting felt pieces on a board in order to re-tell a story you read aloud previously. An example of unstructured play would be to leave out the board and pieces for children to play with on their own after the formal storytime ends. The same can be done with props or puppets.

If you’d like to learn more about creating play areas that promote school readiness skills in children, Saroj Ghoting provides many informational sources with examples in the Environments section of her website: http://www.earlylit.net/environments.