Pierce County Library System
Information & Imagination

Kids & Teens

Early Learning

Every Child Ready to Read is a project of libraries nationwide that supports parents and caregivers in preparing their children for successful reading experiences in school. The Five Practices of Early Literacy are easy and enjoyable guidelines that can help prepare your child to read and succeed at school. Think of them as steps leading up to the open school door.

School Steps Pattern 
Schoolhouse Pattern 

 1. Talking- Talking thoughtfully and often with your child develops their oral language skills which form the basis of all their literacy skills. Talking is the seed from which language and brain development grows. Starting at birth, talk to your child about the world and your life in it. Explore, describe, question, and wonder.

Talking Ideas and Activities

2. Singing– Singing also includes rhyming, and increases children’s ability to hear the smaller parts of words. This is a vital pre-reading skill. Singing helps language seeds grow. The words your child hear are broken into smaller parts when you sing or rhyme together. Language ability and brain connections grow.

Singing Ideas and Activities

3. Reading – Sharing books together remains the most effective way to grow a reader. Reading increases vocabulary, word concepts, emotional understanding, and discovery.

Reading Ideas and Activities

4. Writing – Hand-in-hand with shared reading, experimenting with writing helps children realize the importance of print in our information-filled world. Scribbling and drawing and practicing with markers, crayons, pencils, and keyboards help children understand the important of printing and writing in our everyday life.

Writing Ideas and Activities

5. Playing – Play is children’s work! Through play, they discover the world and their place in it. Playing with others is the most effective way to help children develop healthy social/emotional skills.

Playing Ideas and Activities

For more information, visit the 6 Skills of Early Literacy page.

 Check out these fun and creative videos, in English and Spanish, of songs and rhymes for very young children - www.StoryBlocks.org

Check out the Wiggles, Tickles and Rhymes Booklet: Rhymes and poems, bounces, tickles fingerplays and movement games are a great way to start helping your child develop the 6 Pre-Reading Skills. Besides being fun, they also enrich your child's early learning experience by developing: Memory Skills Vocabulary Imagination Sense of Humor Spatial Awareness Motor Coordination Ability to Relax

Preschooler Play
Read to Your Baby Booklet

Block Play
Oral Health
Ready for Reading
Science To Go

Children are born learning. As parents and caregivers, we can give them a great start by reading, singing, talking and playing with them every day – starting from the day they are born. The Pierce County Library System is dedicated to helping parents and caregivers by providing excellent resources. Here are some of them:

Bedtime Math 
Book deliveries for childcare facilities
Early Learning Newsletters
ELF™ Child-Safe Browser
Getting Ready For School In Washington State Poster 
King County's video fingerplay library
Literacy Adventures
Nancy Stewart's song library
STARS free accredited trainings
Story Blocks
Story times for babies, toddlers and preschoolers

Recursos en español

Oprime aquí para recursos en español sobre el aprendizaje temprano 
Bloques de historias

Effective Reading with Toddlers Videos

This two part video series was created by researchers from the University of Washington.  Parents will learn how to share books with their young children in the “Hear and Say” method which research shows is highly effective in developing the early literacy skills children need before formal reading education begins.

Hear and Say - Part 1 - An overview and explanation of the “Hear and Say” method of sharing books. 

Hear and Say - Part 2 - Meant to be viewed after at least two weeks of practicing the “Hear and Say” method explained in part one.