Santo Domingo Pueblo

Increasing access to literacy and libraries for native american 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
Santo Domingo Pueblo Community Center	—
Santo Domingo Pueblo Public School	—
Santo Domingo Pueblo Head Start	—
TOTAL TO DATE	—

Parent/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.

1. Talk through processes you do: doing laundry, fixing a car, cooking, pulling weeds, driving a car, paying a bill, giving a bath, getting a child dressed
2. Tell stories
3. Spend 15 minutes every day reading – anything!
4. Read aloud: a recipe, a grocery bill, a food label, signs, mail, magazines, newspapers, posters, phone messages
5. Read together and talk with your child: guess what will happen on the next page, have the child talk about the pictures
6. Read a wordless book together and make up a story that fits the picture sequence
7. Reread favorite stories and books
8. Sing songs and rhymes (e.g., Peek-a-Boo, This Little Piggy), clap to the rhythm
9. Use the close-captioned feature of videos, TV, YouTube
10. Introduce new words and explain what they mean.
11. Expand on a child’s language: “Milk.” “You would like a glass of milk?” Child nods. “Yes, you can have some milk. Milk is healthy. It is good for your teeth.”
12. Label things in the house (e.g., stove, desk, chair, window, door, clock, floor, rug, bed, toilet, mirror)
13. Cut out or draw pictures and caption them
14. Provide writing material: crayons, pencils, paper (even backs of mailed paper); have children do “pretend” writing
15. Make an ABC book from cut out pictures – or draw the pictures; that becomes the child’s book
16. Create a child’s home library (it can be a cardboard box)
17. Buy a book or give a magazine subscription to a child
18. Make every trip a reading trip: read signs, read maps, read labels in stores, read menus, introduce vocabulary words (e.g., groceries, aisle, shelf, freezer, scale, produce, dairy, check-out stand, cashier)

SANTO DOMINGO PUEBLO PARTNERS

Santo Domingo Pueblo Public Library	Santo Domingo Pueblo Public School	Santo Domingo Pueblo Head Start
Cynthia Aguilar, Director Ph: 505-465-2214	Ada Sanchez, Librarian Ph: 505-867-4441	Genevieve Jaramaillo-Padilla, Director Ph: 505-465-2728

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