The Ellensburg Public Library is offering a new program, The Primetime Family Reading Program, to the community this fall.
The six-week program is a collaboration between the Humanities Washington, Valley View Elementary School and the Ellensburg Public Library.
The program meets at 5:30 p.m on Wednesday in the library and started on Oct. 16. For the first meeting, the poetry was read to the children and then everyone played a game of “Would You Rather” to encourage the kids to participate in the events.
There is also a preschool area for young children, where they can play and read books together. This allows the older and their parents are participating in the reading and taking part in group conversations, the younger children will be enjoying themselves just as much. The target age range for the program are first through fifth graders, but all ages are accepted, which includes younger and older siblings.“It was sort of an introduction of the program,” said Sue Hart, Youth Services Librarian.
While light poems were read in the first week, the program will be moving on to stronger literature by week two. Each week will have its own theme in the reading material, week two is fairness, then greed, courage, dreams and cleverness. Each week will consist of three books, examples of which include, “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” and “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.” Hart said that there will also be folktales from other cultures.
Families who have registered for the program will be given a book bag to take home and read with their children. These are the same books that are being read as a group at the next meeting. This allows families to become familiar with the stories which allows for better group conversation.
The program can only accept 25 families each year, and they currently have six openings. There is no cost to register for the program, which families can do by contacting Hart at 509-962-7218.
Hart said that the library offers multiple different programs to encourage reading for children and teens.
Source: Ellensburg Public Library offering new reading program | News | dailyrecordnews.com