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Language Rich Library Environments add value to your customer’s library experience but they also add more “stuff” to your children’s section. I often get questions about how to keep centers in a library clean.  The answer is three fold; encourage clean up, staff cleaning schedule and sanitization.

1. Offer a stamp or sticker for kids who clean up their mess.  We post signs around some of our more messy centers that encourage kids to clean up. After they clean up what they played with they can show the Librarian and get a stamp.  Most children will do anything for a stamp or sticker. They are low cost and will save you and your staff a lot of cleaning.
2. Clean up the area several times a day.  All of our staff takes responsibility to clean up from the pages, to the circulation and reference staff to the security guard, everyone picks up toys when they walk by a mess.  The Children’s department staff cleans and straightens the whole room morning, midday, late afternoon and at closing. When your centers are clean, kids are more likely to treat your materials well and clean up their own mess. If they come into a mess, parents and children are likely to leave a mess.
3. Blocks, manipulatives , hats, clothes and any other items that might carry germs should be sanitized nightly.  All you need to sanitize these items is water, bleach and a spray bottle. Mix 1 teaspoon of bleach with 1 gallon of water and fill the spray bottle.  This mixture is good enough to kill germs but will not damage items, clothes, carpet or furniture.  Spay your items liberally, including clothes and hats at night and leave them to dry overnight.  As you are spraying, you can feel free to stay chairs, tables and anything else you might want to sanitize.

As we starting incorporating Active Learning Centers in our Library, I noticed that most of them were geared toward Early Literacy. We began to brainstorm ways to engage toddlers, preschoolers, school agers and tweens. Actual Size was one of our first ideas.

We took a page from the Steve Jenkins book, “Actual Size.” On a column in the Children’s Department, we measured increments in feet and labeled them with animals that were each size. In addition, we added facts about each animal and their sizes.

Now as kids of all ages and even some adults walk through the room they can measure themselves and each other to discover that they are as tall as a sea turtle, a bear or a flamingo.

This addition does not take up a lot of space and did not cost any money except for the paper and ink to print the pieces. There is very little up keep. The column we selected to put this activity on is right next to the 590 section so that after finding out what animal they share the height of they can check out a book to learn more!

I am almost as tall as a pink flamingo!

The library is a place to discover, what a great place for a scavenger hunt! It is a fun and easy activity to add to you library that is low cost, low maintenance and language rich!

First, select a topic. Some examples are Pirates, Snow Animals, Around the World, Under the Sea and Mythology.

Next, find 8-10 items for each topic. For example: Pirate Hat, Eye Patch, Peg Leg, Treasure Map, Ship, Booty, Parrot, Accordion and Jolly Roger Flag for the Pirate theme.  Number each item for the hunt. See example here: Pirate Hunt Pictures

Then, find pictures and trivia for each item. This way the scavenger hunt works for readers and non readers alike. The non readers can look for the pictures while the readers can look for the work and read the trivia to go along with each item. Make a sign for each item with the name of the item, picture of the item, trivia fact about the item and the number you assigned the item and then hide them around your library.

Finally, make a Hunt List. Put your directions on the top and the list of items and their pictures.  Directions could be something like this “Hidden in the library is  all the swag you need to be a fearsome pirate!  Find pictures and pirate trivia from the seven seas, and write down the number that’s on the picture on this sheet. Find all the pictures to win a prize!” See example here: Pirate scavengerhunt

You can choose to give a prize for those who finish the hunt.  You don’t have to do this; most kids enjoy the challenge without a prize. If you do, make it something small and inexpensive like a bookmark, pencil or left over Summer Reading prize.

Leave the scavenger hunt up as long as your circulation period. This way those families who come to the library to return books when they are due and get new books will have a new hunt each visit!

What ideas do you have for hunts at your library?

Don’t have a lot of space in your branch for elaborate
language rich activities? Don’t fret… use the floor! Many libraries have
created simple language rich spaces on the floor that provide ways for kids to
learn and practice the alphabet, counting and more!

At the branch where I work, there is a hallway that connects
the Children’s section to the meeting room that is used for Storytime. This
hallway is used each week by hundreds of kids so we transformed that functional
space into a learning spot by adding frog decals with the numbers 1-10 on them.
Now when kids walk the hallway to Storytime, they count the frogs as they hop
from one to the next.

Be careful to pick places that are low traffic so that kids can
be engaged in the activity without holding up or causing a disruption to other
customers.

Other Ideas to use the floor for meaningful activities:

• If you have stairs put the alphabet on the steps
  for kids to recite as they climb.
• Hopscotch on the sidewalk outside the library or
  in the lobby.
• Themed interactive rugs with the alphabet or
  colors and matching rug squares.
• Right and left footprints on the floor leading
  to the Children’s section.

Be creative and remember you don’t have to take up much
space or spend a lot of money to have great language rich library environments!

The new ECRR 2 introduces five simple practices kids can engage in that will help them acquire the skills to be ready to read; singing, talking, reading, playing, writing. Most of these skills can be practiced easily at the library with Language Rich Environments. However, when you say write in the library most Librarians will cringe! Keep in mind that you can practice writing without a crayon, pen or pencil or paper. The practice of writing involves the recognition of shapes and letters as well as small motor coordination and then the combination of the two. When trying to incorporate writing in your children’s
space, think of activities that will develop small motor coordination and shape and letter recognition. I am listing a few that I have included in the children’s room at the Lexington Park Library, where I work as well as some I have seen in other spaces.

Magnetic Letters- like those for a refrigerator

Toddler Keyboards on AWE computers- for letter recognition

Bead Mazes- small motor coordination

Touch and See- scribbling and writing shapes and letters

Alphabet Bags- letter recognition

Magna doodles- scribbling and writing shapes and letters

How do you “write” at your library?

Can you make a happy face? How about a sad face or a scary face? Kids at the Lexington Park Library are making faces when they visit the library, all thanks to our new activity!

The Circulation desk is a place where I noticed some problems with children. Children would throw temper tantrums; run out into the lobby and even try to climb the desk all while the parents were distracted with the process of checking out. I added “Mirror Mirror” to give children an interactive experience at the Circulation desk. For this activity I put three peel and stick mirrors (safe, sticker mirrors that are removable and easy to clean) on the front of the desk each with an emotion and an example of a face next to it. The object is that the children will mimic what they see and make a face for that emotion in the mirror. The emotions are changed out every 3-4 weeks.

The children have really enjoyed mirroring the pictures and making up new faces too. They are engrossed with the mirrors and often don’t want to leave! I have even seen parents stoop down and make the faces too and talk with their child about the emotion and faces they make.

This activity is simple, doesn’t require a lot of space and is interactive!

The newest addition to my library’s active learning centers is a “Set the Table” activity. We made four “placemats”, a red, blue, yellow and green one and laminated them. Next, we bought a set of colored dishes from Lakeshore Learning. The day I put this activity out on a round table in our library it was a hit immediately. Right away a little boy put the placemats out around the table and began matching the colored plates, cups, spoons, forks, knives and spoons. The interactions we have seen between kids and their parents/caregivers as well as between kids and their peers have been more than we had hoped!

This activity was intended to be a simple color matching game but has spurred dramatic play, sharing experiences, talk about food and lots of laughter.  One evening I was sitting at the Children’s Information desk and saw a little girl playing alone at the table. She had the placemats out and was matching the dishes to them when a little boy whom she did not know walked over to the table and sat down and said “Get me a cup of coffee!” A Children’s Librarian at another Library in the county was working her Children’s Information desk and heard a little voice say, “what would you like to drink?” Then the same voice answered itself, “Juice, please.” She peeked around the shelves and a little boy had set himself a blue place setting and was pouring invisible juice from the green cup into the blue cup. 

Summer is a great time to add some temporary Language Rich Activities in your library. This summer we are raising butterflies! We bought five caterpillars and a butterfly house and then set up a great experience for our youngest customers.   The Butterfly Center includes caterpillars, a butterfly house, magnifying glasses, observation forms, some butterfly decorations, signage with butterfly facts and books from the collection about butterflies.  When kids come into the library they can observe the caterpillars, chrysalis, or butterflies – depending on the stage of metamorphosis. Then a natural opportunity arises for parents/caregivers to talk to kids about the process so that they understand what is happening.  After they have made their observations and talked about facts and process they can draw or write about what they see and post their observations on the wall for others to read. This center is different each time the kid comes in since the butterflies are progressing through their metamorphosis.  Once all of our caterpillars have become Butterflies we will invite customers to their release into the wild. The Butterfly Center creates a sense of wonder and discovery in children. It offers kids and caregivers the chance to talk and learn new words like chrysalis and metamorphosis, write or draw what they see and read to learn more about butterflies.