Welcome to the best Monday in March!
Yes, we said the
same thing last year, but truth is truth! We are excited to kick off the Share a Story - Shape a Future Literacy Blog Tour.
To celebrate our fifth year, we are going to celebrate the early years of literacy. More specifically, the first five years. Each day this week moms, librarians, and educators - all of us literacy passionistas - will share ideas and tips for engaging young children in literacy-related activities.
To start us off,
+Maria Burel is hosting
Oh, Baby: Literacy the First Year on her blog
Once Upon a Story. Maria and her guests are sharing personal stories and recommendations for early literacy love and bonding over books with baby.
The trademark of
Share a Story - Shape a Future is that
everyone can participate. There are no "set number" of participants ... our goal is to share ideas for raising readers as far and wide as possible.
So if you blogged about literacy with infants five years ago, write a comment and include the link! We'd be honored to have you join the conversation.
One last note as we get started ... We're continuing the tradition of our
Writing @ Reading contest. Look for those daily writing prompts at noon each day.
March is here!
On Monday we open
Share a Story - Shape a Future 2013. Today, though it is
+Dr. Seuss birthday and +Read Across America Day!
To celebrate reading and build some excitement for next week, we wanted to unveil the prizes we'll be giving away as part of our Writing @ Reading series.
Our Grand Prize is a complete set of the
STEAM Multicultural Book Collection for their favorite school or public library. Our thanks to
Reading is Fundamental for this incredibly generous donation!
STEAM means Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math. and is an expansion of the STEM framework used in education today.
Each title in this 40-book collection was "carefully reviewed and selected by RIF's Literary Services team with guidelines provided by RIF's Literature Advisory Committee, national panels of educators, and exports in books for children.
A round of applause for RIF, please!
Thank you again Reading is Fundamental! Please show your love to RIF on your favorite social media platform and in the comments below, too!
We also have five (!) smaller collections that are built around this year's Share a Story Theme:
Literacy in the First Five Years. The prize packages include a cloth or vinyl book suitable for infants, board books for toddlers and preschoolers, easy reader books for developing readers, and picture books for Mom and Dad to read, too.
Package 1:
Happy Baby cloth book;
I'm a Little Teapot and
This Little Piggy board books;
Animals Talk board book;
Elmo's Bedtime Stories (6-book set),
Usborne's Stephen Cartwright 1-2-3 picture book;
Usborne's Stephen Cartwright ABC picture book;
Sid the Science Kid: Everybody Move Your Feet (Stage 1 easy reader);
The Crayon Box that Talked paperback
Package 2:
My Happy Baby cloth book;
Little Critter Bedtime Stories paperback set;
The Dancing Clock paperback,
The Fox in the Dark paperback,
How to Drive Your Sister Crazy (I Can Read);
Batman (I Can Read); and a set of six
Little Critter Phonics Fun (I Can Read) books
Package 3:
Busy Bath vinyl book;
Elmo's ABCs, 3 storybook set;
Snappy Little Pets board book;
Pinkalicious Tickled Pink paperback;
Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink paperback;
Mia The Sweetest Valentine paperback;
Mia The Easter Egg Chase paperback;
Mia and the Tiny Toe Shoes (I Can Read)
Package 4:
Goodnight Moon cloth book;
Welcome Song for Baby board book;
The Best Pet Ever paperback;
Animal Jamboree;
Mia the Sweetest Valentine paperback;
The Wonderful World of Fancy Nancy, 4 picture book set;
Fancy Nancy: Too Many Tutus (I Can Read);
Alice in Wonderland (All Aboard Reading)
Package 5: Splat the Cat, Funny Valentine paperback;
Sporty Puppy: Lacing board book;
Splish Splash Splosh: 4 3-D board books;
Baby's Day board book;
Usborne Things that Move board book;
Every Thing Goes: Opposites and 1-2-3 board books;
Funny Bone Readers Set 1, with CD
Here are the rules:
Winners will be selected in a random drawing. Each post written as part of our Writing @ Reading series will count as one entry for the contest.
Each set of Writing @ Reading prompts will be published at Noon each day, March 4 to 8, 2013. We accept entries all week long, so if you decide to write to Monday's post on Wednesday, that's cool!
All entries must be submitted by Saturday, 9 March 2013 at Noon Eastern time. The drawing will be held on Monday March 11, 2013, and winners contacted by email by Tuesday, March 12, 2013.
Here's a page I wrote for HubPages titled Babies Love Books. You can take a poll, see my top five reasons to read to babies, and see a few recommended books for babies. The picture I used is of my mom reading to my oldest son when he was a baby. http://pacrapacma.hubpages.com/hub/babies-love-books