1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

Giving Young Children the Tools to Become Successful Readers

1000 Books Before Kindergarten is a new program that encourages all families and caregivers to read 1,000 books with their young children before they enter kindergarten.

Why Read 1,000 Books?

When a caregiver reads to a child, it helps the child learn five essential pre-reading skills needed to learn to read:

• Phonological Awareness – being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words
• Vocabulary – knowing the name of things and concepts
• Print Convention – noticing print, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to follow the words on a page 
• Background Knowledge – prior knowledge, things the child has learned about how their environment works
• Letter Knowledge – knowing letters are different from each other, knowing their names and sounds, and recognizing letters everywhere

How Does The Program Work?

• Register – On our Beanstack website, or at the St. Croix Falls Library. Beanstack is also available via an iOS app and an Android app, and you can pick up a paper logbook at the library.
• Track Your Reading – Each time you read a book with your child, log it on Beanstack. (The mobile app makes this very convenient.) Each repetition counts — if your child requests the same book five times in a row, that counts as five books read.
• Use your reading logs to record 100 books at a time. However, when you reach your FIRST 25 books, come in to receive a copy of Blinky: A Special Gray Tree Frog by local author Randy Korb!
• Come back every time you have completed 100 books to receive a new prize!
• Read More Books! When you and your child get all the way to 1000, your child will be able to select a new picture book to add to the library’s collection. The book will include a bookplate with the child’s name on it. Your child will be the first one to check out his/her honor book and his/her photo will be added to our website “hall of fame.”

Who Can Participate?

• Any child from birth to the day they enter Kindergarten is eligible.
• Sign up for the program online or by visiting the St. Croix Falls Library.
• Make sure to stop by the library to pick up your logbook, with its stickers and activities.