Bulletin: June 19th

BayView Story Book Productions Coming Soon
The ELI team has been working with five of Jumpstart’s program partner preschools to create wonderful performances around each schools favorite story book. On July 19th preschool children and their families will come to the BayView Opera House to celebrate the joy of stories and early literacy with Jumpstart. Great Job ELI team, and keep up the work!!!

New ELI BLOG
A big chip to Elizabeth Wilkinson, our Early Literacy Associate, for the great work she has done on the new ELI Blog!! Please use the address below and check out pictures from past events: http://jumpstartsfeli.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Event Summaries

VVCC: Family Workshop Series; June 14th
This was our second workshop of our 4 part series at the Visitacion Valley Community Center. Our discussion focused on phonological awareness, as we worked with the families to learn songs, talk about the importance of singing as part of language acquisition and developing vocabulary. The families even made their own puppets to use as props when reading their new copies of the book The Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. Their children were thrilled that their parents were reading to them with props they had made themselves.

Family Ambassadors End of the Year Celebration; June 9th
The event was a wonderful conclusion to all of the great work Family Ambassadors have done with many families around San Francisco. For the past 5 months the Early Literacy Team and Family Ambassadors have volunteered and worked at similar if not each others events. The family ambassadors requested that the Early Literacy Initiative team come and provide activities for the children of all of the families they have served. Additionally, the ELI team connected Family Ambassadors with Tree Frog Treks who specialize in connecting young children with reptiles. The event boasted 30 to 40 families who had a wonderful time.

VVCC: Family Workshop Series; June 14th
This was our second workshop of our 4 part series at the Visitacion Valley Community Center. Our discussion focused on phonological awareness, as we worked with the families to learn songs, talk about the importance of singing as part of language acquisition and developing vocabulary. The families even made their own puppets to use as props when reading their new copies of the book The Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. Their children were thrilled that their parents were reading to them with props they had made themselves.

Meeting Recaps

Last Family Child Care Providers Meeting; June 7th
Family Childcare Providers are a group of mostly women and some men who come together to discuss the many different issues facing providers in the home. In the near future the ELI team will collaborate with family childcare providers to enhance early literacy and language resources for the families they serve.

Headstart Health Fair Planning Meeting; June 12th
Liz attended a meeting at the San Francisco Zoo with the Headstart Health Fair planning committee to view the site and continue to plan for the Health Fair event, which will happen Saturday, September 29th 9am-3pm. The event will be catered to Headstart families around San Francisco and geared toward health readiness. At the event hearing and vision will be tested for the 3-5 year olds. Additionally, health booths and medical professionals will be available for families to ask questions and have their concerns addressed. We will be providing learning stations geared toward health for families to participate and replicate at home.

We've entered the WWW!

Welcome to the blog site for Jumpstart SF's Early Literacy Initiative. We've decided to create this blog page as a way to further communicate with all our wonderful supporters through stories and NOW pictures! Also, we felt this blog was an excellent portal to keep everyone in the greater San Francisco community involved in all our activities, events, workshops, and the numerous other elements that make the ELI into such a dynamic force in the BayView Hunter's Point and Visitaction Valley neighborhoods. Finally, we hope you will continue to advocate for the initiative by continuing to read our semimonthly bulletins, which will now appear on our new blog and through your thoughtful words of encouragement.
We, at Jumpstart and the ELI, are passionate within the ECE community and we hope to maintain and build collaborations with the many other organizations, schools, and leaders for ECE.

Enjoy the site!

April 13th: Drop Everything and Read with Portola Family Connections and the ELI

The Early Literacy Initiative provided families with literacy based activities to help celebrate their accomplishments of the evening. Families enjoyed making Puppets and All About me Books!

March 3rd: The Wild Thing brings Families out to the Library

In collaboration with the Anna E. Waden branch library the Early Literacy Initiative hosted a Family Day on Saturday March 3rd with the Wild Thing present. Families made their own masks or "Wild Thing" masks and heard the story Where the Wild Things Are read by Darcel Jones, Children Librarian.

Early Literacy Bulletin

June 5th, 2007

Event Summaries

Last Portola Family Connections Next Steps Session; May 10th
On May 10th, Michael and Liz held their final Next Steps and Early Literacy Initiative/ Jumpstart for Young Children. With eight families in attendance, the group made playdough as part of the celebration. Children also received a bag with construction paper, crayons, playdough, and a free book so they can continue to work with their children Next Steps has ended for the summer, but Michael and Liz will be continuing their work with families at Portola Family Connections with PFC's “Mamas Latinas” support group. Lookout for updates on this collaboration throughout the summer!

VVCC: Family Workshop Series; May 10th
The Early Literacy Initiative/Jumpstart brought ABC Bookmaking to John McLaren where 15 families participated in the construction of their books. With the addition of Shelley Sorenson, Children’s Librarian of the Visitacion Valley public branch library families and children enjoyed songs and story time. Also, Shelley provided parents with library applications that when returned will give children a FREE copy of “The Little Engine that Could” and their library card. All in all, the event was a smashing success for everyone.

Hunters View Headstart Mini JFAD; May 18th
To celebrate Hunter’s View Head Start and Jumpstart for Young Children’s first year together the team held a Family Literacy Day with ABC books, free books from Children’s Book Project, Cookie Production, and a variety of learning stations. Children had the opportunity to measure, count, and mix ingredients to make sugar cookies. Families were available to participate in the ABC books. Jumpstart team members interacted with families, teachers, and children in the different activities present. All in all, 15 ABC books were made and the celebration was a hit with everyone. One parent said, “I wish we had these when I was a kid!”

Gilman Park “Rec Connect” Family Resource Fair; June 2nd
The ELI team attended the Family Resource Fair at BayViews own Gilman Park. The focus of the event was to kick of the summer off by connecting community members with upcoming programs for young children in the BayView and through out San Francisco. The ELI team provided early literacy activities and information to children and their families as well as sharing information with other CBO’s who attended the event. The event was a great success because it gave families access to summer resources they might not have otherwise known about talk and play with the children. The teachers there were thrilled with the event and asked the kids to bring their books in so they could use them in class.

Meeting Recaps

BayView Kindergarten Council Meeting; May 22nd
The final Kindergarten Council Meeting happened on Tuesday, May 22nd at Charles Drew. The theme for this meeting was “Community Collaboration”. In attendance, were different community agencies, school social workers, parent liaisons, school administrators, librarians, and family members. Each participant discussed the importance and barriers in collaborating with schools and with different community partners. Additionally, brainstorming on what tangible resources the schools and community could provide to each other. Representatives addressed possible solutions to the different concerns and issues addressed. In the end, members filled out an evaluation and were interested in maintaining the meetings even though this meeting was the last.