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Ohio's Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) describe key concepts and skills that young children develop during the birth-to-five-year period. They are used by early childhood educators to promote the understanding of early learning and development; provide a comprehensive set of early childhood educational expectations; and guide curriculum, assessment and instructional practices with young children.

See how your storytimes support the standards!  An Ohio Early Literacy Crosswalk (PDF) compares the ELDS standards directly to Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) concepts in the Language and Literacy Development domain.

Washington County (OR) Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) and OregonASK has announced the free availability of Fostering Readers resources, designed to help you plan and implement fun research-based literacy programs for children in Kindergarten through third grade who are learning to read.

It's that time again - summer is winding down and school is starting up. Check out Kindergarten Readiness and Student Learning, a guide from Ohio Ready to Read for public librarians to learn about concepts in PreK-12 education and to assess, enhance, and promote library programs, collections, and relationships to support student learning.

The Lunch at the Library coalition has created a 14-page how-to guide, Linking Early Learning and Nutrition for Young Children, which helps libraries connect summer feeding programs with services and support for young children and their families. In partnership with Tandem Early Learning, Lunch at the Library also makes available a set of Conversation Starter tabletop tent cards to encourage serve-and-return interactions between caring adults and their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

A variety of high-quality recorded webinars are available to help library staff learn about storytime techniques, early literacy, and other topics in library service to young children and their caring adults. All the webinars gathered here are free and available for on-demand viewing:
https://www.ohreadytoread.org/recorded-webinars

The Schoenbaum Family Center at the Ohio State University will host a Summer Institute on the theme "Achieving Quality: Best Practices in Early Childhood." This one-day conference offers high-quality professional development for early childhood educators, practitioners and administrators who work with young children, specifically those from birth to age five. The Schoenbaum Family Center is reaching out to children's librarians as part of this audience.

Groundwork Ohio presents Laying the Groundwork: Early Childhood Awareness and Education Summit, Wednesday, May 8 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm at the Athletic Club of Columbus. Early childhood stakeholders from across the state of Ohio will convene in Columbus to bring awareness to the importance of investments in early childhood education and to communicate this information to legislators. Registration is free but space is limited. Register today: www.groundworkohio.org/summit

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County presents a new Kindergarten Readiness Workshop with Saroj Ghoting:
“Strengthening School Readiness Support to Families and the Community through the Public Library”

The workshop is funded by an LSTA grant and is open to any Ohio librarian, with attendance at each session limited to 30.

The State Library of Ohio and the Choose to Read Ohio Advisory Council are pleased to announce that The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López, has been selected as the fourth annual Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) “Floyd’s Pick” title, in memory of children’s literature expert, advocate, and librarian Floyd Dickman.

Ohio Ready to Read presents its FREE hands-on early literacy training workshop!  Open to all Ohio public library workers, the next Early Literacy 101 workshops are scheduled:

• Friday, November 22 at the Auglaize County District Public Library in Wapakoneta
• Monday, December 9 at the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma