Family Literacy Day 2010
Family Literacy Day was January 27th but the celebrations lasted a whole week in the City of Ottawa. On Sunday the 24th over 60 children and adults, from babies to grandparents, enjoyed an afternoon of songs to "Sing for Literacy" at the Main Branch of Ottawa Public Library. Debbie Carroll, singer and music educator, entertained the crowd with songs and rhymes that had them dancing from the first notes on her keyboard to the last bars of the guitar and mandolin played by musician Jeff Morrison.
At also (Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks) they celebrated with stories, songs and sign language! Carol Michon, Vanier Community Service Centre told a funny story about a pesky germ. Heartwood House’s Maureen Moloughney brought her guitar and had everyone doing the hokey pokey! And Kathy Holmes, a teacher in the Deaf Literacy program, told stories through sign. Minister Diane Finley of Human Resources Development Canada and Scott Murray from ABC Canada celebrated along with many of the families and students in the program.
Read on to learn about all the fun activities that took place as part of the Family Literacy Day Challenge and take a peek at our photo gallery.
Click on the picture to view the slideshow
The Family Literacy Day (FLD) Planning Committee would like to thank the following groups for their contributions:
- Ottawa Community Coalition for Literacy
- Association of Early Childhood Educators
- Child Care Council of Ottawa
- Regroupement des services éducatifs à l’enfance d’Ottawa
- Ottawa Child Care Association
Their donations made it possible to purchase gift certificates from Kaleidoscope Kids Books. Several participants in the Family Literacy Day Challenge received prizes of $50 book certificates. We are grateful to Kaleidoscope for offering a 10% discount on purchases made with the certificates and for providing 10% discount coupons for all the other Challenge participants.
As well, the FLD Planning Committee is delighted to announce that the ALSO (Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks) Program and to the Centretown Community Health Centre, Prenatal and Buns in the Oven Program are the recipients of the 2010 Suzanne Pinel Book Award. Each program received a $500 book certificate from Kaleidoscope.
The members of the 2010 Family Literacy Day Planning Committee deserve a vote of thanks for all of their hard work:
| Nicole Baker | Success by 6 (media advisor) |
| Julie Chayer | Early Literacy Specialist |
| Lindsay Kane | First Words |
| Elaine Kicknosway | Minwaashin Lodge |
| Louise Lalonde | Moi, j’apprends |
| Maureen McGovern | Ottawa Community Coalition for Literacy |
| Carole Michon | Ottawa Vanier Early Years Centre |
| Charlyn Monahan | Ottawa-Carleton District School Board |
| Monique Mintenko | Ottawa-Carleton District School Board |
| Kim Oastler | ALSO (Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks) |
| Jane Venus | Ottawa Public Library |
Aladin Child Care Services put together a description of their kindergarten program (A day in the life…) and shared it with three other kindergarten programs – one in Malaysia, one in Israel and one in Montreal. On Family Literacy Day, a speaker visited with her dog to talk about mushing (dog sledding) to the children and their parents and siblings.
Algonquin College LINC Child Care had a used book exchange with the parents and children in the program.
At Andrew Fleck-Stittsville Kindergarten and School Age Program, the children made books, custom crosswords and poem jumbles. They also participated in a spelling bee and enjoyed a visit from a librarian. Andrew Fleck Child Care-George Street encouraged the children to write and draw pictures about their interests and personality. The preschool children created cards and artwork to mail to the Riverview and Stittsville kindergarten programs. The Toddler Room made a book called What Do You See? that included pictures made by each child.
Children at Bayshore LINC/ESL childcare created invitations asking their parents to join them during language activities. Each child introduced their personalized picture, song and fingerplay book to their parent(s) and took them home to share with other family members.
At Canadian Mothercraft children had a pajama day along with a book exchange. Everyone enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate.
Family Literacy Day was celebrated all month at the Charlemagne Nursery School. They invited local children’s authors to read to the children aged two-and-a-half to four years. The authors were Franco Picciano and Sylvia Wieser creators of the Bella Book series, Sandi Harmer who wrote Grumblies and Rainbows and Kita Szpak, whose book is called You’re Special Wherever You Are. The children enjoyed the authors and books very much. The nursery school received a signed copy of each book for their library! It was such a wonderful experience that they plan to make it an annual event.
Child Care Providers Resource Network of Ottawa-Carleton used Russell Levia’s CD, Jungle Mania, to create an active musical circle with a jungle theme. Each parent/caregiver took home a “Jungle Book” to complete with their children. They also held a Literacy Day Book Competition which involved having each daycare prepare a book and come and show it off.
The Children’s Centre on Hilson Avenue built a ‘Reading Winter Wonderland’. For every book read, the children made a snowflake to add to a mural. Families were invited to create snowflakes in snowman valley - a special place for families to read stories and create magical snowflakes of their own. The snowflakes included the title of the book read, the author’s name, and the name of participant/group.
The Children’s Welcome Centre on Innes Road held a bedtime story marathon. Children, parents and caregivers came to playgroup in their comfy pajamas with their special furry friends and a favourite story to share. The purpose was to promote the sharing of stories in a relaxed atmosphere as part of a bedtime ritual.
City Councillor Jan Harder read her favourite books to the children at City View Centre for Child & Family Services and the kindergarten teaching team acted out the story of Stone Soup. Teachers and children also made a picture book with the children providing the text and illustrations.
At the Emerald Meadows School Age Program, a book exchange was held for all families in the program.
First Words promotes early childhood speech and language and offers a range of free services to families with children 0-5 years of age (www.firstwords.ca). During the week of Family Literacy Day, they visited many agencies to promote early book reading which plays an important role in childhood language development and made books with many families throughout Ottawa. There were great turn-outs for these activities, especially at Centretown Community Health Centre, Lowertown Community Resource Centre and Odawa Native Friendship Centre.
Foster Farm Daycare celebrated with a highly-anticipated visit from a Librarian. Volunteer reader, Bill, also made a special visit and read with the children. Each age group completed a special activity, which they took home at the end of the week. The oldest group enjoyed making books about airplanes. The youngest group made snow books, celebrating winter. The two middle groups had fun making special bookmarks. The parents were encouraged to read and celebrate the week with their children.
Parents, caregivers and children attending the drop-ins offered by Global Child Care Services – Community Outreach enjoyed crafts, activities and circle time all based on the story The Snowy Day. In the infant room, staff made story albums with pictures and related personal anecdotes for the children at Global Child Care – Elizabeth Park. The toddlers read with the kindergarten children and they also had a book exchange. Parents were also welcomed to help their kindergarten children to create a story.
At Global Child Care – Forest Valley School Age Program, the Kids’ Corner – Grades 2-4 – hosted a coffee house. Milk and cookies were served as each child read a short story or poem that they had written to the group. The Kindergarten group participated in activities based on the book The Mitten by Jan Brett and acted out the story. The Kids’ Corner - Grades 4 and 5 made a poster highlighting Canadian authors. Kids’ Club – Grades 1 and 2 worked on activities such as matching snowflakes, memory paw print card games and an activity chart about what children like to do in the snow all based on the book The Snowy Day.
The preschool children at Global Child Care – Rideau Valley Child Care Centre worked on their letters and numbers based on the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom while the school age program had a book exchange. A librarian visited and read special stories to the infants and toddlers and the kindergarten group made their own ABC work books. The children at Global Child Care Services -Trillium School Age Program wrote letters and drew pictures for the soldiers in Afghanistan which will be hand-delivered by one of the soldiers who will be deployed there very soon. The children were so happy to be part of this event.
Greenboro Day Care Centre held a used book exchange which allowed the children to choose a book to take home and keep.
Children read a total of 200 books at Heron Gate School Age Program! The names of the authors and the titles of the books were posted on their bulletin board. On January 29, they all had a pizza party.
Immigrant Women Services Ottawa (IWSO) Occasional Child Care program organized a family literacy event with songs and books in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Children between 18 months and 5 years of age and their parents shared a wonderful storytelling time.
To celebrate the rich diversity of language experience in our culture, parents read stories highlighting many languages including English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Mandarin, Malayalan, Lugandan and Hindi to the children in the Junior and Senior Kindergarten programs at the Kanata Research Park Family Centre.
Children in the Keyworth School Age Program designed bookmarks and made a collage using recycled Scholastic catalogues. They also wrote Dear Me Letters to their adult selves about what they hope to remember about being a kid. They had a Comedian Showcase for the children to work on comic strips, funny stories or a written series of jokes for a stand-up routine. Children picked two letters of the alphabet and were asked to think of a favourite item that began with that letter and write a sentence. From these words, they created a Dictionary of Favourite Things. Some of the children participated in a pen pal exchange with letters to an international school in Norway.
In honor of Family Literacy Day, the children of Lynwood School Age Program organized a book exchange. Children brought in a gently-used book in exchange for another one; the remaining books were donated.
At the Metcalfe Home Daycare Agency, Marlene Shepheard visited the homes of their childcare providers and read The Very Busy Spider. She made a spider web with the children and stick puppets to go with the story.
At Municipal Home Child Centre, children enjoyed the story of The Big Turnip.
Nanny Goat Hill Nursery School toddlers enjoyed Go Dog Go all week. The kindergarten-aged children practised reading three-letter words.
Ontario Early Years Centre Ottawa South celebrated all week by reading the book Red is Best by Kathy Stinson and using it as the central theme for their programming at all six playgroup sites. There was painting, winter clothing dress-up in the dramatic play area and shovels and mittens with snow in the sensory bin. At the end of the week, all the names of the children were entered into a grand prize draw for a Red is Best literacy kit (book, felt pieces and activities to do at home) in both French and English.
At Orleans YMCA-YWCA Child Care program the kinder friends explored the Arctic and created their own arctic-themed story. They chose their title, The 3 Penguins. Each child added to the story. They drew their own pictures and created supporting story lines. They did a super job of maintaining the story line from one friend’s picture to another. The story was presented to the toddler and preschool friends of the centre. A teacher read the story aloud and each child was invited to talk about their picture.
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) LINC Child Care Programs – The OCDSB Adult High School program featured stories on Family Literacy Day plus the creation of a book lending program which will run throughout the year. The children at the OCDSB Confederation Education Centre Child Care helped the teachers to create a book similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear called Children, Children Who Do You See? Each child in the program has their own page and at the end is a picture of all the teachers. All year long the program promotes reading with their parents by encouraging the children to borrow books to take home.
At OCDSB 440 Albert Child Care, the children joined in the Good Morning Song, participated in fingerplays, action games and a Good Bye Song. Each child made a book at OCDSB Main Street Child Care and at OCDSB Rideau High School Child Care each family received a book to take home and read with their children. Children and parents at the OCDSB LINC Child Care, Fielding Drive Public School, enjoyed a circle and/or story time with a visiting Librarian. The children also made a fun "Me-&-My Heart" poster. The story Brown Bear, Brown Bear was read at OCDSB York St. Public School Child Care and the children and staff participated in art activities, singalongs and nursery rhymes.
At Ottawa Community Immigration Services Organization (OCISO) author Lena Robinson helped school-age children write a short story by teaching them how to create characters and plots.
The Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre Family Literacy Program hosted many events throughout the week. There was a field trip to see a puppet show at the Parent Resource Centre, a storytime with a librarian, a Youth Scrabble Evening and a very popular Scrabble Night. To learn more about the centre go to www.ottawainuitchildrens.com.
Ottawa Vanier Early Years Centre staff invited the community to join an early literacy specialist and participate in different activities that promote attachment, bonding and learning to celebrate Family Literacy Day.
Parents’ Home Child Care had a special story time for children and their caregivers featuring There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen by Canadian author Sheree Fitch. They used musical instruments and physical movement to reinforce the fun with words.
All the staff at the Parent Resource Centre – Goulbourn performed a play based on the story The Mitten by Jan Brett with animal hats, printed words, props and a narrator.
Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre Child Care invited storyteller, Eric Pichette and puppeteer, Donna Bourgeault to perform on Family Literacy Day. After the show there was a gently-used book exchange.
Each child at the Queen of the Angels Child Care was invited to present a book they made in the program.
The children of Riverside Park Nursery School spent a special morning with Anne Macdonald, author of Wickiup Walkingstick. She read her book to the children and they made stick pictures. The literate hum of children, adults, babies and grandparents, reading, telling, looking, and listening to stories, book and magazines was heard for 15 golden moments during the first Community Read-In at the Rural Family Connections/Live and Learn Resource Centre in Metcalfe.
At St. Luke's Child Care Centre a librarian and two parents came to read stories. The children made postcards and sent them to a teacher in Australia. The highlight of the day was a trip to the mailroom to mail their postcards.
The Shoreline School Age Program held a full week of events that included parents reading to the children, a visit from librarian, Rosemary Wilkins and Book and Blanket Day. Children brought their favourite books and a blanket to snuggle in while they read. They also had an Alphabet Hunt! Letters of the alphabet were hidden around the Centre and all letters had to be found to complete the alphabet.
Stonehaven School Age Program had a special story time of The Mitten followed by the children doing a puppet show of the story. Preschoolers at the Tumiralaat Inuit Child Care Centre spent a week of reading and conducting text-to-text comparisons between Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. The week ended with the children performing The Three Snow Bears for the toddler children.
A special guest was invited to Variety Child Care Centre to read stories, sing songs and do a fingerplay with the children.
Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre launched the Kitchen ABCs Literacy Kits created with the financial support of the Ottawa Citizen Literacy Foundation. Staff introduced the kits and demonstrated how easily they can be integrated into the home to promote early literacy development. Following the launch families were welcome to borrow the kits and talk to staff about how to create their own kits. The goal was to demonstrate how easy it can be to create and integrate literacy activities at home to support children’s readiness to learn.
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Dans le cadre de la journée d’alphabétisation familiale, Le Centre de la petite enfance Ottawa-Vanier a organisé une activité spéciale favorisant la découverte des sens et le rapprochement.
Les parents et enfants qui fréquentent les services à l’enfant Grandir ensemble ont :
- étampé les lettres l’alphabet avec des éponges
- fait des lettres avec de la pâte à modeler
- fabriqué un livre d’alphabet
- chanté et bougé aux sons des lettres
Au Service de garde CLIC – la Cité collégiale, tous se sont amusés. Les enfants ont réalisé un montage d’un livre avec l’aide d’un adulte et ont fabriqué une marionnette avec des matériaux variés. Parents et enfants ont bien apprécié la présentation de l’histoire Le petit chaperon rouge. Lors d’une visite à une bibliothèque, une éducatrice leur a lu une histoire. À la fin des activités, chaque enfant est retourné à la maison avec un livre de lecture.
