Six Skills By Age Six

This one-stop guide to nurturing six core early literacy skills at your library also offers practical tips for sharing these skills with parents, teachers, and other caregivers so they can institute them in playgroups, in school, or at home. Though libraries have been presenting early literacy activities for decades, library staff may lack an in-depth understanding of early literacy skills and their place in preparing children for a lifetime of learning. Based on the program "6 by 6: Ready to Read," this book is chock full of practical, everyday ideas on how you can foster the six core early literacy skills children should ideally acquire by age six. The volume begins by introducing the importance of early literacy and explaining how to start or expand an early literacy program in your library, regardless of its size. Subsequent chapters explore the six core skills and offer suggestions on how to showcase them in library programs and services. The book also includes activities that relate to each skill, suggests books that are especially useful in exploring each skill, and tells you how to create early literacy spaces. Three sets of storytime plans—one each for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers—are presented as well. Written primarily for public librarians and library staff, this guide will also be informative for parents and for educators who work with young girls and boys.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Developmental milestones mark the significant progress children make throughout their early years. This Redleaf Quick Guide includes descriptions of the typical physical, social, emotional, language, and cognitive milestones that infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary-age children reach. It also includes strategies for observing, recording, and communicating milestones to families.

Introducing children to numbers from 1–10, these activities help children recognize numbers and numerical concepts, write numerals, and count. Children apply what they have learned as they color, trace, write, copy, and paste. Supports NCTM standards.