Four Miami-Dade County playgrounds now have signs that invite children and caregivers to make literacy part of a park visit. The Pages in the Park installations are at Oak Grove, Ruben Dario, Westwind Lakes, and J.L. and Enid W. Demps parks. The organizers describe the activities as a way for families to practice early language and reading skills outside the home.
The Children's Trust held a public ribbon-cutting at Ruben Dario Park Playground on Wednesday, with read-alouds and family activities, according to the Trust. The initiative is a partnership among the Trust, Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces, and Uplift Literacy, Community Newspapers reported.
Each site has five or six signs, according to the report. Their prompts use play and the surrounding environment to get children noticing letters, moving, and talking about what they see and hear. Organizers say the installations are intended to make literacy practice accessible in places families already visit; the announcement did not include an evaluation of their effect on children’s reading.
A park-based addition to local literacy efforts
Pages in the Park sits alongside other early-literacy services in the county. The Children’s Trust Book Club, which the report says serves children from birth through age four and a half, mails a free book each month in English, Spanish, or Haitian Creole. The Miami-Dade Public Library System separately offers Storytime Express, a free early-literacy service with kits available to groups that include child care centers, licensed preschools, and parents, the library system says.
Literacy activities outdoors
Pages in the Park brings literacy activities into outdoor public spaces through signs at playgrounds.
The Children’s Trust, Uplift Literacy, and Miami-Dade County Parks plan to expand Pages in the Park to additional county parks over the coming years, according to Community Newspapers.
