1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
If you do a search online a number of libraries around the country have created their own version of 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. My boss came to me sometime in early January, I believe, and thought that this would be a great program for our library to offer. After a lot of research about how other libraries organized their programs, some pleas on some great listservs directed to children’s librarians, I came up with a plan and began creating the log for 1,000 books. In the end, the Wells County Public Library had such an amazing organization to their log that I borrowed heavily from their log, threw in some other ideas, and added some things that were all our own. The log turned out to be 52 pages filled with the actual places to write the titles of the books as well as helpful early literacy tips for parents and information about our specific library. I’m happy to say that we launched this program on Monday night, and already have almost 30 registered kids!
The hardest part about creating this program was to think BIG! I had a difficult time remembering that if even just our story time patrons enrolled in the program there would be more than 200 kids. Figuring out prize levels was a back and forth issue – finding things that were age-appropriate, inexpensive, and still fun became a huge challenge, but we ended up with a lot of stickers, a rubber ducky, a sticker scene from Oriental Trading, some coupons for free rentals of DVDs and Playaway Views from our collection, and Ellison cut-outs of the numbers and the alphabet. For the 1,000 book prize, the kids will receive a certificate and each year we will provide a party with a story time, craft, and snack. The kids will also get the chance to choose a new picture book to be added to our collection with a book plate in honor of their achievement. They will also be allowed to check the book out for the first time.
I hope that people will be interested in this program and stay interested enough to see it to the end. Early literacy is such an important foundation for children as they enter kindergarten and it is our job as librarians to help in any way we can! I’ll be updating everyone on the status of this new program as the time passes.