International Library Month 1st October - 31st October 2022

This month it is International School Library Month. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate your library and reading areas within your early years setting and homes! In doing so, you can encourage children of all ages to take out books and enjoy reading.

If you haven’t yet created a library within your early years setting maybe this is something you could consider as this will help children to:

· Develop an interest in books and love of reading at a young age.

· ·Develop listening and attention skills.

· Develop children’s independence as they have their own book, special book bag and maybe even a library ticket.

If you are thinking about setting up your own loaning library, this could be created using a simple bookshelf and placed in the entrance area so its accessible to parent and children when they arrive:

Here are 5 top tips to consider when setting up your library:

1) The types of books: Ensure that types of books you offer are developmentally appropriate so that they engage children and their parents, Include books that have a lot of pictures and photographs, tactile books, those with pop-up features, flaps to lift, buttons to press with sounds and hand puppet books which draw young children’s attention.

2) The variety of books: Include both fiction and non-fiction books which cover a range of themes including traditional stories, rhyming texts and books with repetitive language to help to encourage the children’s speech and language development.

3 The Organisation of books Keep the library area or library shelf as simple as possible, but ensure books are organised into categories so they are easy to find. Categories you could include are: pop-up, animals books, people and children, numbers and rhymes.

4) Additional resources You may consider adding puppets to your library or reading buddy teddies which children can take home with their chosen book. You may also decide to give each child a book bag to take their book home in. This will keep the books safe and dry.

5) Engaging parents Build relationships with parents, recommend books their children may like to borrow and guide them informally in how to share the books with children at home.