1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a nationwide program that encourages reading aloud to young children and beginning their love of reading early. At the library, we use the Beanstack tracker app for this program. Beanstack is available as an app or online and is used for a variety of library programs. Within Beanstack, readers earn badges for reaching reading milestones during their pursuit of 1,000 books. Readers also earn fun stickers and prizes that can be picked up at the library for reaching milestones.
One thousand sounds like a lot of books, but is only one book a day for less than three years or 3 or 4 books a day for one year! Reading aloud to children creates bonding, memory-making, and a love of reading. Many skills needed for entering kindergarten are learned through simply listening to stories. Document your little one’s reading journey with the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
Firsties
Firsties is a reading initiative for first graders at the public elementary schools in the Hamilton School District. This special program is built for budding readers and their families to help foster a love for reading and make the public library a destination for regular family visits. Firsties consists of fun monthly videos viewed at school (in library class, homeroom, or both!) that provide fun knowledge about our public library children’s department and invite the kids to visit the library with their families. Each video reveals a secret code word that earns a small prize for visiting the library that month. A friendly competition between elementary schools determines which school accumulates the most library visits!
All information about Firsties is available on your child’s school library website:
If you have a Firstie in your family and have further questions, contact the Pauline Haass Public Library Youth Services desk at (262)246-5182.
You can also view our monthly videos and learn the secret code word of the month here!