Library

Canterbury Community Nursery School 2025-2026

Library Program

The Library Program at Canterbury Community Nursery School began in 2005 as an effort to enhance the early literacy curriculum already in place.

The library is a place for children to explore literature and language in a developmentally appropriate way, facilitated by supportive adults, in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Stop by some time and see what is going on in the Rainbow Room library!

Donate to the Library!

The Yellow Room – Our Open Time Library

Every day during Open Time, the Yellow Room becomes the Canterbury Community Nursery School Library. Here, children are invited to enjoy a wide range of language activities that center around the weekly theme. They can listen to stories selected to coordinate with the theme. During the telling of the story, the children learn about the mechanics of books – authors, illustrators, covers, how the words flow, what we can learn from the pictures. They also get the chance to discuss the book, predict the next event, interpret the characters’ emotions, and wonder what the author wanted us to learn.

Children also get the chance to enjoy “reading” books themselves, even if they are not yet readers. They read the pictures, or retell stories they have heard before. Stuffed animals and real friends make great companions for this activity.

At our Author Table, our budding writers have been busy writing books, postcards, and letters using a variety of materials. There are fancy pens and markers, stickers, pictures from magazines, rubber stamps, rubbing plates, crayons, stencils – the selection changes from week to week.

At the ABC Table, they can visit Bernard the Book Bear and learn the letter for that week. There are games and manipulative materials there to support letter recognition and phonemic awareness – the understanding that words are made up of individual sounds.

At the Game Table, there are literacy games. Children can look for a letter in a Big Book using a special tool, such as a fly swatter with a window cut in it. They can make letters out of modeling clay and play rhyming games. And, on the floor there are big puzzles or felt board activities.

Here are some great links to support reading!

HENRICO COUNTY LIBRARY

Here it is – the key to the castle. Your public library is just waiting for you to explore its treasures. Old favorites like Curious George and Where the Wild Things Are sit there on the shelf with new friends you have yet to meet. And, they are all FREE! Really, it would be rude not to take the county up on its generous offer to share all of these books with you.

READING ROCKETS

Reading Rockets is the result of a partnership between WETA, the public television and radio station in Washington DC, and the U.S. Department of Education. It offers information on how children learn to read and how adults can help. It is filled with scholarly research on literacy, as well as practical tips for families.

MADAME ESME

Esme Raji Codell is the author of several terrific books for older children, including a favorite of mine titled Sahara Special. She also wrote a book for parents called How To Get Your Child To Love Reading. It is a huge, thick book full of terrific book suggestions, written in Esme’s own humor-filled style. Check out her website for a taste of Madame Esme, and then splurge and get a copy of her book.

JIM TRELEASE

Jim Trelease has launched a one man crusade to teach adults the value of reading aloud to children, and he is passionate on the subject. His book, The Read Aloud Handbook, is now in its eighth edition, and is the definitive source for information on reading aloud. It also contains a comprehensive bibliography of suggested read-alouds for children from infancy through adolescence.