Two for the Price of One:Every Child Ready to Read

and 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

Cindy BurchellStefanie Kipfer

Wells County Public Library

Print MotivationPrint AwarenessLetter KnowledgeVocabularyPhonological AwarenessNarrative Skills

Start with one great program

Add a second …for a Great

Combination!

1,000 Books BeforeKINDERGARTENWells County Public Library

Thinking about doing a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

program?

Sit tight and hold on, because this is

the place to be!

What We Knew

1. We were on a budget.2. We wanted a long-lasting and high-quality

product.3. We were going to give out pages for every

100 books read so we had 10 sets of pages to fill.

4. We wanted to promote the Wells County Public Library.

What We Didn’t Know

1. Would patrons sign up for this program?2. How fast would children go through the

program?3. What would our completion rate be?4. Was all the research and organization be

worthwhile?

Brainstorming

• Purpose, Expense report, Goal, Methodology• Follow the money!• Research cost• Revise• Dig In!• Write grants

10 Sections

• Every Child Ready to Read = 6 sections• Our library = 1 section• Where else could we turn?• OnTrack, published by the Indiana

Department of Education• One More

Nitty Gritty

1. Dialogue with our Community Relation person about formatting

2. Broke apart ECRR information and gathering and arranging the tips found within the pages

3. Wrote our grants4. Picked out specific prizes5. After everything was written then proofing

until our pages bled and then bled some more

What parents are saying…

“Ben is the only kindergartener in his class that passed all of the pre-reading skills. I attribute that to the 1,000 books we read.” ~Rachel Maggard“I love the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. It was great to sit with my children and engage their imagination through the books we read. It also provided a record of the books we enjoyed together. We then highlighted our absolute favorites. I hope to pull these books out many more times over the next several years. I know that this program has instilled a love for reading in my children and has given them an incredible vocabulary bank. I highly recommend it for every child.” ~Abby Yardley

Our Stats

• 450 participants • 108,800 books read • 51 Finishers • In the first three months, we registered 171

participants• By the end of 2011, we had registered 280• We have awarded 1088 prizes to 238

individual children

PRIZESMotivational or Not?Parents’ motivation is very different from a child’s.Parents’ motivations to do this program may include: a desire to be good parents, bragging rites, “Look what we did!” helping their children with reading skills, and making their children happy.Children’s motivation is much simpler, they love the interaction between parents or loved ones and themselves. Also, they may enjoy the special attention they receive from the librarians when they bring in their books.For the children, prizes compliment the ECRR skill, Print Motivation—making reading fun!!!

The first prize is really for parents to help them with this endeavor.Prizes 2-4, 6, 7, 9 are for the child to enjoy or to be creative.The prize for completing 500 books is a CD for all to enjoy! At 800 books the child gets to choose a reusable sticker scene.

Books!!!We saved the BEST for last.

Congratulations!

We did it!!!