Matamata-Piako Libraries' Toddler Time offers a half hour session of fun aimed at 2 - 5 year olds. We base each week on a simple theme which we showcase in our songs, stories and activities. All or our sessions have elements of early literacy development, with ideas that you can use at home to help your toddlers develop the skills they need for literacy development.  Toddler Time is a great way for children and caregivers to socialise, get excited about books and have lots of fun!

Our sessions run during school terms only and times are as follows:  

Te Aroha Library - Tuesday 10.00am - 10.30am

Morrinsville Library - Monday 10.30am - 11.00am

Matamata Library - Friday 10.30am - 11.00am

 

The best way to keep up to date with what we are currently offering, whether online or in the library, is to look at our events calendar.

 

What do we focus on in Toddler Time?

We plan our sessions with several different skills so that we can help your child's skills develop and contribute to them becoming a reader.

 

Skill:	What is it?	Why do we do it?
Story Prompts	We will encourage children to interact with the story/songs.	This teaches stories have a structure (e.g. beginning, middle, end) and helps them to have fun reading.
The world   around us	We will read stories that show the world around us.	This allows the children to identify with the book through the things they do e.g. brushing their teeth and gives them vocabularly    for the things in their world.
Reading	Read with children to help them identify characters and settings.	This shows children how they fit in to the world around them and helps give them a framework for new learning.
Sound   recognition	We will model that words are made up of sounds and may have  patterns.	This can be fun (e.g. Rhyming and silly sounds) but also teach them the sounds that go into the words which they can then use to learn new words.
Words	We will use stories with different words so that children learn new  words that help them describe their world.	Using books with words that repeart on multiple pages helps to promote recognition of words.
The written   word	We will model that books contain information and that is filled with  sentences which contain ideas.	By matching pictures to text, following the text with fingers and using text with non-traditional alignment, children will learn that  about books and that the text inside is used for education and entertainment purposes.