Tandem staff members love the libraries. You can find a safe space, so many great resources, and a plethora of high quality books that transport you to many magical places. On many occasions, Tandem has been able to host our family/educator workshops, read alouds, and literacy events at libraries. You can frequently find Tandem staff there, checking out their books and finding great new titles to add to our StoryCycles collection.

This month, Tandem’s Alameda County team had the opportunity to partner with the Oakland Public Library staff and virtually bring to life our 90 minute “Math in StoryBooks” workshop via Zoom, thanks to funding support from the Institute for STEM Education and Malavalli Foundation. This was a great opportunity to learn from each other and find more ways to use books to cover the kindergarten readiness skills. 

Just like in our in-person workshop, these virtual workshops were interactive and Tandem staff shared simple techniques for finding the opportunities to practice early math concepts in all kinds of children’s storybooks. We discussed counting, addition/subtraction, shapes, patterns and measurement, and how these specific topics develop and strengthen children’s reasoning skills, critical thinking, mathematical reasoning, and vocabulary. 

We are all book experts, and just as Tandem and OPL staff easily found math in non-math storybooks, families can do this too while they share books with their children! Check out Tandem’s Count with Little Fishes Activity Guide for more examples, and find even more early math resources on the DREME family math website.

As many families continue to work and learn from home, Zoom presentations are growing in popularity. Zoom tools, including the chat and annotate features, allow Tandem to continue to provide our signature interactive learning opportunities. Some of OPL staff’s feedback was that they enjoyed the workshop, and that it was helpful, clear, and offered many opportunities to participate. As we continue to develop our virtual workshop curriculum, we are excited for future collaboration projects with public libraries and partner organizations in our three counties.

If you are interested in learning more about Tandem’s virtual workshops, please contact us.

Additional Storytime resources:

Learn more about Oakland Public Library’s Summer Reading 2020 program

OPL staff, like Tandem, also host Virtual Read Alouds! Check them out here.

View all of Tandem’s Virtual Storytime videos on our YouTube channel, or visit our Learning at Home page for video links, activity guides, and more.