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Children move toward literacy at library
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Neighbors | Natalie Scott.Dominic (left), Jennifer, and Matthew Tomaino (right) listened to librarian Nikki Pahulla read "We've All Got Belly Buttons" at the Austintown library Feb. 21.
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Neighbors | Natalie Scott.Nikki Pahulla, a librarian at the Austintown library, taught children a counting song at the story time Feb. 21.
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Neighbors | Natalie Scott.Austintown librarian Nikki Pahulla danced with her bean bag during the Gotta Move story time at the library Feb. 21.
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Neighbors | Natalie Scott.Sharon Fox and Adam Abuqaduorah sang "Old McDonald" at the Gotta Move story time at the Austintown library Feb. 21.
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Neighbors | Natalie Scott.Rileigh Italiano fluttered like a butterfly during an activity at the Gotta Move story time at the Austintown library Feb. 21.
By NATALIE SCOTT
Austintown librarian Nikki Pahulla put on an active story time for children who can’t sit still at the library Feb. 21. The Gotta Move story time is directed toward children who love to wiggle around and gives them a chance to improve their literacy skills.
For this story time, Just Kiddin’ Around Day Care joined regular participants in the event.
Pahulla began the event with an activity-based warm-up rhyme. The rhyme allowed children to get up and wiggle like a worm, flutter or fly like a butterfly, crawl like a beetle, flip, flop, and slither, and buzz like a bee before singing “Old McDonald” using pictures of real animals so that children could better associate words with their meanings.
Children also participated in a bean bag dance that, using the bean bag to point out different body parts like the head, shoulder, and knee, encouraged body recognition.
Children also learned some counting songs before reading “We’ve All Got Bellybuttons” by David Martine, which demonstrated differences and similarities between animals and between humans. The story time ended with singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”