Internship, Week 5

On Saturday I turned in my second report, which was a series of booklists based on the activities in this Family Science and Math handout.

• Exploring Science with Kids
• Explore Shadows with Your Child
• Explore Water with Your Child
• Explore Plants with Your Child
• Explore Color with Your Child
• Explore Sound with Your Child
• Explore Ramps with Your Child
• Explore Patterns with Your Child
• Explore Measuring with Your Child

I finished up early (11 hours) and did a little background research into the next topic; however, because of the long weekend I didn't get the details of that assignment until this morning. So I'm still behind on total hours.



I like making booklists! In this case, I was to assemble 3 sets of titles for multiple age ranges (Infant, Toddler, and Pre-K) for each of the 9 activities. Sometimes choosing age-appropriate books for babies under a year old was difficult. I read up on concepts that are good for infant development, like high-contrast black and white illustrations and images of baby faces. I also looked at other booklists (including CPL's own) for infants and toddlers. I browsed the shelves at the local public library and found that I often chose narrative stories that related to the theme of the activity in addition to nonfiction; however, I was impressed with the nonfiction available for very young readers. Amazon.com reviews were helpful in discovering how different ages of kids responded to individual books, although occasionally the reports conflicted (for example, one parent's 2-year-old really enjoyed a book on sound, while a kindergarten teacher reported that its concepts were beyond her students' abilities). I also appreciated the previews of titles that weren't locally available.

Sometimes it seemed like the activities were a bit too advanced for infants and toddlers. For example, what concept do babies have of measurement? Pre-K kids might enjoy measuring how many blocks high an object is, or discussing large numbers once they can count, but those don't work without a rudimentary grasp of math. So for the younger ages I looked for books that compared size: big/small or big, bigger, biggest. Those titles encourage dramatic reading that will emphasize the concept of size to babies.

I was surprised, however, that I couldn't find any books about slides for toddlers, for the topic of ramps. Toddlers love slides! Also difficult to find were stories about rolling balls or sledding downhill, which might have fit the bill. Those activities might have to be done hands-on without books for the youngest readers. An interesting lesson for a library-minded person. :)

The upcoming topic is about how libraries use Tumblr. Although I've seen Tumblr sites, I don't have one myself and had to refresh myself on the mechanics of microblogging in order to start the research. I don't think it will take as long as the last assignment, so I hope I'll be able to get an extra assignment or two after that gets turned in.