Raising Readers
Why is Peek-A-Boo so important? What’s so educational about four Teletubbies running in circles? How should reading activities change with age? We’ll answer these questions and more in this interactive workshop designed to help attendees promote the child's literacy and language development from birth through elementary school. Attendees will learn how to choose books, how to turn one book into more than one reading activity, and why the early stages are so important to creating a foundation for success. How will we do it? By watching popular children’s shows, playing games, and sharing “best practices” from the home or childcare.

Raising Writers
Why do children need paper and crayons at such a young age? Being literate is not only reading, but writing just as much. Developmentally children progress through different stages of ‘writing.’ This workshop will provide helpful tips and tools to aid children with their writing skills. With a combination of great PBS Kids programming and the Learning Triangle, workshop participants will be equipped to help a child’s literacy development.

View, Do, Read: Playing to Learn
Get in your child’s shoes! In this workshop, attendees learn to pair television with reading and playtime to jumpstart the learning process at home. It’s easier than you think! Workshop participants will take part in a “learning triangle,” then create their own learning triangles for the home. This simple model helps attendees realize and practice their role as the child’s first teacher – assuring that the child enters school “ready to learn.”

Words, Words, Words
Why are shows like Arthur and Between the Lions helping children? These shows help feature the four types of Vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This workshop will show attendees what the importance of each type is and what can be done to drastically improve a child’s vocabulary, through great PBS Kids programming and fun activities.

Between the Lions in the Classroom (for Kindergarten and 1st Grade Teachers)
Between the Lions, uses television to address reading in a way that other media cannot - highlighting text on the screen as its read, making vowel sounds sing, adding humor, animation, music and world-class production values to classroom lessons.

Find out why recent studies show that kindergartners who watched Between the Lions improved their scores by 64% on a test measuring letter-sound correspondence, and kindergarten children who watched the program improved their scores by 26% on a standardized reading test. First graders who watched the program had significantly faster rates of growth in phonemic awareness than those who did not watch the program.

In this two-hour workshop, kindergarten and first grade teachers will:
• Explore media literacy and PBS' approach to television as an educational medium.
• Screen episodes of Between the Lions.
• Create or revise an existing lesson plan to include a Between the Lions episode.
• Learn how to use Between the Lions' content-rich web site to enhance their lessons.

All participants will receive a Between the Lions Classroom guide, free books for children in their classroom, and other PBS giveaways. Teachers should bring their reading lesson plans to the workshop.

Roar Into Reading: Between the Lions (for Parents of 4 – 7 year olds)
Winner of the Parents Choice Gold Award for kids ages 4 - 7, Between the Lions is helping families raise little readers everywhere. In this hour and a half workshop, parents will learn how to use this research-based, award-winning PBS Kids program to raise their little reader – even the reluctant reader.