Play, Learn, and Grow Video Launch

Growing Readers Together is proud to announce our video-based, caregiver workshop is ready to share with families and caregivers in your community! Intended for anyone caring for young children, the Play, Learn, and Grow video can be viewed as one, 20 minute video, or divided into 4 segments:

Intro- Babies Are Brain Builders

1. Read and Grow Together
2. Move and Learn Together
3. Explore and Play Together

Growing Readers Together collaborated with Pixel Media to produce a video that aligns with our mission to ensure Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers in Colorado have the skills, confidence and resources to make early literacy a part of every day. In these videos we present the latest research on child development while building on the strengths of what caregivers already do best. We model simple strategies and activities that build early literacy, fine motor skills, and scientific thinking in young children.

The video version of our early learning strategies was created to meet the challenges of this past year in the hopes that it would be adaptable and accessible through a variety of platforms. It is available digitally and through a limited supply of DVDs to support communities with barriers to online access. We have also partnered with Rocky Mountain PBS and one minute interstitials from the video will be appearing during their broadcast, increasing the reach and accessibility of our early learning message.

The Play, Learn, and Grow video is free for your library to use and we are counting on our networks of committed public libraries to connect FFN caregivers in their area with this resource. The video may be viewed independently, linked to your library’s website or social media page, paired with a Take & Make Kits, or presented in a facilitated workshop. Buena Vista Library District has already piloted a successful virtual workshop for caregivers featuring the Play, Learn, and Grow videos. The early literacy librarians at Growing Readers Together are happy to help you plan and present Play, Learn, and Grow Workshops for your community.

Resources to help your library promote and share the Play, Learn, and Grow video are available in the Play, Learn, and Grow Shared Resources folder. These resources include:

• Printable activity sheets for each of the 3 main segments
• Take & Make Kit supply list to extend the learning and crafts modeled in the videos
• Social Media Posts you can copy and paste to Facebook and Twitter
• Facilitators Guide to support staff leading virtual or in-person workshops
• Printable and digital surveys to collect participant feedback

If you would like to request a DVD copy of the video, a set of pre-made activity kits, or facilitator training for library staff please complete an Interest Form.

All of us at Growing Readers Together applaud the amazing work being done in Colorado libraries to support children and caregivers. We hope that this video supports and enhances the important work you are doing.