Increasing Access to Literacy and Libraries
for
Crow Children and Families
Reading Nation Waterfall is a three year federally funded project working with five Native American tribes across the country. The Crow Tribe of Montana is one of those partners and we are working with the Crow Agency Elementary School Library, Kindergarten Readiness Center, and Big Horn Public Library with three primary goals to: 1) Increase access to books and libraries to children and families, 2) Increase the number of books and reading with parents/adults at home, and 3) Increase relevance and use of libraries for Native American communities. Two primary outcomes are to increase kindergarten entrance and 4th grade reading scores for each partnering tribe. One of our main activities is to provide an unlimited number of free books to children from 0-10 at preschool, elementary school, and their public libraries through strategically placed little free libraries that will be restocked with brand new/gently used librarian curated books every week.
Total Books Disseminated
| Organization | BOOKS DISSEMINATED |
| Crow Agency Elementary School | 1019 |
| Kindergarten Readiness Center | 528 |
| Big Horn Public Library | — |
| TOTAL TO DATE (as of March 8, 2023) | 1547 |
Little Free Libraries
Crow Tribe of Montana Partners
| Crow Agency Elementary School Library Dr. Jason Cummins, Principal Karla Clark, School Librarian Regina Yarlott, Teacher | Kindergarten Readiness Center Tiffany Schroeder, Teacher | Big Horn County Public Library Raymond Dale, Director Angie LittleLight, Children’s Librarian |
Family/Child Literacy Program
At home is where readers are made. Reading Nation Waterfall will provide the books for free but it is essential adults read with their children at home EVERYDAY.
Read
- Spend 15 minutes every day reading – anything! You can read to yourself or read aloud with the family.
- The most powerful ways to encourage young readers are also the simplest: talk with, listen to, read to, and write with your kids.
- Gather a variety of print materials and read them aloud to your child: a recipe, a grocery bill, a calendar, labels, mail, phone messages, signs, magazines, newspapers, games, posters. Even if children do not understand all the words, if they can see the connection between text and your words, and you can both pay attention to the text.
Write
- Provide writing materials: crayons, pencils, charcoal, paper, even backs of mailed paper; have children copy letters or do “pretend” writing.
- Write a new ending for a story you read or heard. Attach a photo to the middle of a paper. To the left of the phone, draw a picture and write what happened before the scene in the picture; then to the right of the photo, draw a picture and write what happened afterwards.
- Collect or draw pictures about a topic such as seasons, animals, colors. Paste them on paper, and caption them.
Talk
- Talk through activities you do. How do you cook, fix a car, do laundry, pull weeds, dress a child?
- Tell stories. Tell a story about your pet or toy; use a stuffed animal to tell a story.
Sing
- Sing songs to a child, and sing songs together.
- Clap or dance to the rhythm of a song.
- Make up new words to a song.
- Make up actions to a song.
Play
- Play nursery rhyme games such as Peek-a-Boo, This Little Piggy, Itsy Bitsy Spider.
- Draw the picture of a character or a place in a story you read or heard.
- Act out a scene or a plot in a book you read or a story you heard.
Visit Your Local Library
| Little Big Horn Tribal Library 8645 South Weaver Drive, Crow Agency, MT 59022 406-638-3123 | Big Horn County Public Library 419 N Custer Ave, Hardin, MT 59034 406-665-1808 |
