Drum roll please! The winners of the 2015 SPA Book of the Year awards have been announced! Let’s Read and Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) collaborated to choose the winner of the Let’s Read 0-3 years category – and the winner is Snail and Turtle are Friends by Stephen Michael King. Congratulations Stephen Michael King and Scholastic Australia!
Snail and Turtle are Friends is an endearing story with an important message – although we all have our differences, we can still be friends. It is an engaging and age-appropriate story, with a simple narrative and good story structure. The language used throughout is appropriate for young children, with a variety of nouns, verbs and adjectives to stimulate oral language development.
Read about all the 2015 SPA Book of the Year Award winners.
Want more winning books? Check out the past winners and browse the Let’s Read books suggestion lists.
In 2014, a review of the Let’s Read Community Program was held to revise and align the program with current research and practice-based evidence. Communities have now begun transitioning to the revised model.
If you are in an existing Let’s Read Community, Let’s Read is most likely to be delivered in a similar way – many of the essential aspects you were already doing have been formalised in the revised model.
For Let’s Read Communities, steps to transition include:
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Familiarise yourself with the revised tools on the website. For example:
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Tool 1 – Let’s Read Community Program Overview is a useful tool for gaining an understanding of the Let’s Read Community Program, and
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Tool 19 – A Let's Read Experience gives you an idea of what the Community Program model might look like in practice. This tool can be accessed by existing Let's Read services.^
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Embed the five elements of delivery in Let’s Read interactions with families. Find out more about the five elements in Tool 1 – Let’s Read Community Program Overview.
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Engage new Partner Services (where relevant) following discussions with your steering group. A strong network of partner services will collectively enable the delivery of Let’s Read to families 10 times during their child’s first five years.
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Distribute and encourage completion of the Family Survey to families involved in Let’s Read. Getting as many completed surveys as possible enables us to measure outcomes. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) support you with alternative ways to deliver the survey. There is also an option for families to complete an online survey. These documents can accessed by existing Let's Read communities.*
Please contact letsread@thesmithfamily.com.au, or your local Smith Family Program Coordinator, if you have any questions. If you are in a Queensland community, your local Project Officer will be in contact regarding transitions in the coming months.
^ If you are in an existing Let's Read Community, but don’t have access to the full range of tools, please email letsread@thesmithfamily.com.au to request a username and password.
Let’s Read has four new books on our book suggestion pages. These have been reviewed and selected by our panel of experts and are now available for Let's Read Communities to order. You can also borrow copies from your local library.
The new books are:
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Crinkly Book Of Aussie Animals: From The Bush by Jill Brailsford (Suitable for children from 4 months old)
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Chooky-doodle-do by Jan Whiten & Sinead Hanley (Suitable for children from 12 months old)
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A Swim in the Sea by Sue Whiting & Meredith Thomas (Suitable for children from 3 ½ years old)
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Little Meerkat by Aleesah Dalinson & Shannon Melville (Suitable for children from 3 ½ years old)
Read our tips for sharing these books. These can be used alongside our existing Reading Tips and Tools and Book Suggestion sheets.
If you are in an existing Let’s Read Community, order these books for your community.
Photo courtesy of Ipswich and Toowoomba Let's Read Communities
Read the latest stories from Let’s Read Community Programs:
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Bundaberg, QLD
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Ipswich and Toowoomba, QLD
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Sunshine Coast, QLD
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Dubbo, NSW
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Wellington, NSW
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Elizabeth Vale, SA
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Salisbury North, SA
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Broadmeadows, VIC
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Campaspe, VIC
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Central Goldfields, VIC
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Horsham, VIC
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Sunshine West, VIC
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West Wimmera, VIC
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Yarriambiack, VIC
About the Let’s Read Community Program
The Let’s Read Community Program is designed to support and empower families to read with their children from birth to 5 years. The Let’s Read Community Program draws on the knowledge, skills, resources and connections of local families, services and community groups to provide coordinated, locally relevant approaches to emergent literacy development. The Let’s Read Community Program looks for opportunities to support existing strengths and capacities and compliment the way communities already work with vulnerable families. By using a strengths-based approach to working with families, the Let’s Read Community Program seeks to build a positive partnership with families to foster children’s emergent literacy development.
Get your community involved in Let’s Read.
Our sale price on Let’s Read DVDs in April was so popular, we are putting three Let’s Read resources on sale for a very limited time!
Grab a bargain on:
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Let’s Read DVDs* – buy one, get one free! (For orders of up to 10 DVDs). Hosted by Leah Vandenberg and Alex Papps, the Let’s Read DVD is designed to encourage and support parents to share rhymes, songs and stories with their children from birth.
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Let’s Read poster series* – free additional set with any poster order! These seven colourful posters feature key messages to encourage sharing stories with children from birth.
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….and the Let’s Read eLearning – now just $35 per person.** Let’s Read eLearning helps early childhood professionals to create environments and experiences that support language and literacy growth and encourage families to share books.
For a limited time only! Sale ends midnight Sunday 13 December.
* Those working within a Let’s Read Community Program should continue to purchase their DVDs and posters through The Smith Family and will not be disadvantaged.
**To claim your discount, please input the code LR35 into the cart when making a purchase.
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