The Reading Rover, a cooperative project with Smart Start
/ Region A
Partnership for Children, is a mobile unit serving preschoolers
and child care providers throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain counties
and the Qualla Boundary with story times, teacher workshops, teaching
aids and parenting and family resources.
Find out where the Reading Rover is this month by clicking here Reading Rover Schedule.
Funded by Smart Start and the Steele-Reese Foundation, the Reading Rover makes monthly visits to childcare centers and family childcare homes in our region.
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| Storyteller Peggy Gibby |
While storyteller Margaret "Peggy" Gibby reads stories to preschoolers and leads them in learning songs/rhymes, the Rover driver, Joan Lackey, assists teachers in selecting library materials for their classrooms. At some centers the children select their own library books from the Rover. Books, puzzles, music, puppets, and storytelling kits from the Rover help teachers of young children make learning fun.
In addition, Outreach Services Librarian, Carol Grise, offers training classes to childcare teachers, giving tips on selecting age-appropriate books for the classroom and offering assistance in using the variety of Rover puppets, storytelling kits and books for teaching pre-reading skills.
2007 Summer Reading Program
Children from 15 classes in child care centers visited by the Reading Rover read a total of 1396 books as part of the Summer Reading Program, an increase of 38% from 2006.
Top prizes went to Ms. Dinah's class at Southwestern Community College Child Development Center; Ms. Anna's class at Small Wonders; and Ms. Tyna's class at Little Hands Playskool #2.
What do teachers and children think about the Reading Rover?
"Kids love story time! They look forward to having stories read to them by someone new."
"Story time promotes the love of reading, increases vocabulary, and improves language skills."
The Reading Rover "supplies materials to go along with weekly themes."
We like the "convenience of getting all books and materials needed on topics that we are covering that month."
Can
you visit the Reading Rover? Yes! The Rover's monthly schedule can
be found by clicking here Reading
Rover Schedule. Anyone with a FRL library card can check out materials
from the Reading Rover. Items from the Rover can be returned to the Rover
or to any FRL location.
We need your support! Even though we do have funding organizations, we can always use additional individual donations. Use the Reading Rover Pledge Form (pdf) to make your contribution.
For additional information or to arrange for outreach services, please call the Outreach Services Librarian at (828) 488-2382, ext. 21, or write...
Joan Lackey
Technical & Outreach Services
33 Fryemont Street
Bryson City, NC 28713
The application form is a PDF document,
viewable with Adobe's Acrobat Reader.
Download the latest version of Reader.