Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

Series one of our transformed Literacy Littles has been an astounding success! Just like Mother Goose on the Loose, I went to social media to get the word out about our not-so-new but greatly improved preschool storytime. We are filling our storytime room to capacity on most weeks! I'm overjoyed seeing so many new faces each week.

This series we are reading Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming as our focus text. We read this book each week for 5 weeks, reading it differently each time. We have learned vocabulary, sang songs, built our own gardens, and we have acted out the story. Each week I choose a different theme, and follow Muncha! with a book that ties into the chosen theme. So far, this has been a great success! I'm seeing the shyest of Littles come out of their shells and step up to be the first participant.

Mrs. Jamie
CHAOS Coordinator

MGOL Up and Running

When I started my job in 2013, our then-named Cuddle Me Time was having very little success. Five kiddos was the most that I would have an any time. I will be the first to admit that I didn't put a whole lot of time and attention into that program, putting all of my energy into my preschool storytime. When I learned that I could take the Mother Goose on the Loose workshop, that I could transform my baby storytime, I was stoked! SIGN ME UP! During this workshop, I quickly realized that I was doing our youngest patrons a serious disservice.

Mother Goose on the Loose began at 10 a.m. on January 22, 2018. I had built it up on social media, and was so happy when I had 8 goslings and 5 mamas show up to storytime. It was the most I had ever had!

As of today, I'm averaging, 12 little goslings for MGOL. Nursery Rhymes, lap bounces, singing dancing, instruments... the list goes on and on... it has been such a fun time and I am SO excited to be growing a program for the youngest of our children in the community.

Mrs. Jamie
CHAOS Coordinator

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the CHAOS! My name is Jamie Gonzales and I have been the Children's Services Coordinator at the Gaines County Library since August 2013. In that time, I have become more and more interested in early literacy, and have attended workshops to better educate myself on the best way to present these practices to the children of our community. In 2018, I will be revamping our early literacy story times to make them the very best they can be for our youngest patrons.

Following Betsy Diamont-Cohen's award winning method, Mother Goose on the Loose, and her most recent book, Transforming Preschool Storytime, we will follow the five early literacy practices: talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. In short, it may seem like a bunch of CHAOS, but it's really Children Having Awesome and Outstanding Storytimes!

Mother Goose on the Loose® is a thirty-minute nursery rhyme program for children from birth to age 3. MGOL follows the following format:

• 80% repetition of material week-to-week
• one to two developmental tips for parents and caregivers in each program
• following a 10 step structure that includes one story, rhymes, songs, puppets, musical instruments and more to stimulate the learning process of babies and toddlers.

Literacy Littles is our preschool age story time. This is a 45 minute story time that is designed to help children build a positive connection with books and illustrations. It promotes personal and social development, and each week modeled with the school readiness domains as a guide (language and literacy, mathematical and scientific thinking, approach to learning, cognition and general knowledge, physical development and health, and the arts).

Both of these programs are held at the Gaines County Library in Seminole, Texas.

Mother Goose on the Loose: Mondays, September through May, at 10 a.m.
Literacy Littles: Wednesdays, September through May, 10 a.m.

We would love for you to join us on this journey into CHAOS! If you can't join us in person, please follow along on this blog!

-Mrs. Jamie
CHAOS Coordinator