Sunshine, Stories, and Artful Play for Our Youngest Friends

What is Sunshine & Stories?

Sunshine & Stories is a Colorado State Library podcast dedicated to all things summer in public libraries. During our 2024-25 season, keep an eye out for new episodes twice a month from August to May. We’ll explore topics like performers, incentives, outreach, volunteers, capturing impact, and many more ideas related to designing a summer public library program for your whole community (adults included!). Featuring interviews with other Colorado State Library staff and ideas from Colorado library professionals around the state, this podcast aims to provide valuable insight and spark creative ideas in your public library’s own 2025 summer planning. Whether you’re a veteran in the summer library program planning world, a newbie looking to start a summer program for the first time, or someone who’s considering changing up your program a little or a lot this year, we hope this podcast will be a valuable resource for you. Sunshine & Stories is available on most major podcast apps.

Ep. 109 Artful Play for Itty Bitties and Kids

Episode Summary:

Kate Compton, Early Literacy Consultant at the Colorado State Library, chats with all of us about a variety of ideas for art-themed programming for our youngest library friends. Join her for a quick review of major developmental stages for children ages 0 to 8 years old and a discussion of the many benefits of artful play. Also don’t miss our best tips for designing accessible and inclusive art activities, managing mess, and scaling developmentally appropriate activities for multiple age groups in the same program.

00:00 – Introduction
01:13 – Let’s talk ages & stages
05:15 – Why engage in art with littles and kids?
09:47 – A whole heap of program ideas
12:40 – How to make art activities more accessible for all
16:51 – Tips & tricks for set up, facilitation, & clean up
19:48 – Book & resource recommendations
22:33 – Closing

Resources:

Collaborative Summer Library Program
Colorado Youth Services Library Network mailing list
CSL Kits – Tools for Library Staff (cvlsites.org)
Reimagining School Readiness Toolkit for Libraries
Reimagining School Readiness Activity Database
Supporting the A in STEAM with Infants and Toddlers from Head Start
Reach Out and Read’s Milestones of Early Literacy Development
The Growing Child: School-Age (6 to 12 Years) from Stanford Medicine Children’s Health
The color monster: a story about emotions by Anna Llenas
El monstruo de colores by Anna Llenas
La couleur des émotions: l’album by Anna Llenas and Marie Antilogus
Every color soup by Jorey Hurley
Scroll by Hui Li
CLEL Bell Awards
Las Campanitas de Plata
Become a member of Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy

Colorado Collaborative Summer Library Program Manual Access Code:

Colorado folks, if you still need our state’s CSLP 2025 manual access code, please reach out to Kate Brunner at brunner_k@cde.state.co.us or Kate Compton at compton_k@cde.state.co.us.

If you live and work in another US state or territory, please contact your CSLP state/territory representative instead.

Next Drop-in Chat:

Hey Colorado library folks! Join us on December 17, 2024 at 11:00 am to noon Mountain Time for our next online Summer Drop-in Chat. No need to register. Come when you can, stay for as long as you can. See you soon!

If you work in a library and gave us a listen, please let us know what you think by completing a short feedback survey for this episode.