Volunteer Preschool
Story Reader Program

Children’s Services
Oakland Public Library
510-238-7453

Books for Wider Horizons is a program that recruits, trains, and places volunteer story readers in preschool or childcare centers throughout the City of Oakland. Originally a partnership between the Oakland Public Library and the City’s Youth Services, this program began in 1994 and has provided weekly story reading by volunteer readers to all Oakland Head Start Centers.

 

Supporting early literacy development and nurturing the lifelong love of reading for young children has been a major service goal for the Oakland Public Library Children’s Services. The Books for Wider Horizons volunteer readers support this goal by providing weekly reading experience to thousands of young children in Oakland.

Our volunteer readers come from all backgrounds and age groups, from students and seniors to professionals on their lunch breaks. Bilingual readers are able to provide multi-lingual storytime experience and also provide the needed language support at many centers where children speak English as a second language.

Story readers establish a close tie with the children they work with. Children often eagerly await weekly visits from their library volunteers. Story readers also help with other outreach activities from the library to their centers, or provide story reading at some Oakland Public Libraries.

Volunteer Today!

Books for Wider Horizons offers a unique volunteer opportunity: to read aloud to children at partnering preschool centers throughout Oakland. Each week a volunteer performs a 30-minute storytime, which introduces children to the pleasure of stories and creates excitement about books and reading.

Books for Wider Horizons is continuing its commitment to support Oakland’s Head Start Centers by providing our volunteer readers to give weekly stories. As we recruited more volunteers, we were able to schedule weekly readers at additional childcare centers, including OUSD Child Development Centers.

The Books for Wider Horizons Program Coordinator schedules new reader training and places readers at various centers based on location, center profile, and volunteer preferences. In 2007, Books for Wider Horizons served 23 centers with 39 volunteer readers providing 1320 hours of quality book reading each week to 1180 young children.

Volunteer Training

Volunteer training takes place each year in the fall. Participants learn how to create storytime programs that include engaging books and fun activities. The training is facilitated by Gay Ducey, a nationally renowned storyteller who is a Children’s Librarian at the Rockridge Branch Library.

After the volunteers complete the 7 session training by Gay, they will be placed at a preschool or childcare center to read to the children once a week. The Library will provide all the books and storytime kits for the volunteers. Additional storytelling, felt board, puppet or fingerplay workshops take place in the winter and spring to offer the readers additional enrichment and training.

Children’s Librarians at all of our Libraries are happy to work with the volunteer readers to select age appropriate books to read, and share other experience and advice on working with young children.

Please call Books for Wider Horizons at 510-238-7453 for more information or to sign up!

 

 

Program dates:

Preschool storytime runs from October 1-May 31
Training is in fall at the Rockridge Branch
Workshops are held during the winter and spring at various library branches

Volunteer requirements:

Books for Wider Horizons offers volunteers:

Quotes from our Readers:

“This year went great! By the end, I was reading longer stories.”
“This work has enriched my life considerably.”
“Thanks for all your support. I really love doing this.”
“I think the program is wonderful.”
“It’s all about the kids, which is the best part of the experience.”  

How to build a Preschool Storytime:

Preschool Storytime generally begins with an Opening that is repeated each week. This ritual signals the beginning of storytime and can be a song or even the chime of a cymbal. Picture Books are the books used in storytimes. Pictures are the most important feature of a storytime at this young age, especially one that invites participation. Share the longest story first, while their attention span is fresh. Transitional Activities involve participation. They can be songs, stretches, fingerplays, the use of puppets, or felt stories. Finally, the storytime finishes with the Closing which is also repeated each week. You can use a song a rhyme or a special prop. Generally a storytime for preschool children runs around 20 to 30 minutes, or for as long as their attention might hold.

Storytime Sample:
Here we are for storytime (Opening)
We’re going on a bear hunt, by Michael Rosen (picture book)
It’sy bitsy spider (fingerplay)
I like me, by Nancy Carlson (picture book)
Little piggies to the market (fingerplay)
La vaca que decia oink, by Bernard Most (picture book)
Hokey pokey (stretch)
Ten terrible dinosaurs, by Paul Stickland (picture book)
In the rain with baby duck, by Amy Hest (picture book)
Buenos dias (Closing) 

 

Contact:
Books for Wider Horizons
Office of Children’s Services, Room 6
Oakland Public Library
125 14th Street
Oakland , CA 94612
510-238-7453
Coordinator, Kris Waller
kwaller@oaklandlibrary.org

 

Books for Wider Horizons volunteer readers represent a partnership between the community and the Oakland Public Library that commits to supporting the literacy development of our children.