Scavenger Hunt

• board book and picture book

• work with libraries (families start at their home library)

• one book per child

• businesses put window decals or yard signs

• if families visit 4+ libraries, they will enter to win a cool prize

• uses Books by the Bushel for inexpensive, quality books

This is an editable Busy Book Template

Talking is Teaching

Simple planner for event/project planning and we use a version of these for our meeting agendas. Feel free to make a copy and change the info to fit your needs.

• Held in an indoor space on a Friday evening, 5:30-7 p.m.

• Photos/props

• Music

• Snacks

• Creates Facebook events to help remind families

• 0-5 event - 10-11 a.m.

• Parent-led piece: parent created a bookmark and sticker to share at events highlighting the FC's work - includes a QR code/info - "Reading Is A Great Start To Any Adventure"

• Partnered with bookstore for "Itsy Bitsy Book Club"

• Push to connect community to local businesses

• Dad started a "Tuesdays with Toddlers"

• "Let's Talk About Behaviors" parent event

• ECSE Behavioral Coach

• Positive Solutions for Parents

• Modeling Parent Cafe during GSC meetings; leading to connections with community partners to hold Parent Cafes in their spaces

• 26-35 people at GSC meetings; did 1 round of conversations

• Connects GSC partners with community partners and the work we do

• Guest speaker - 35-40 mins

• Building in a "Social Connection" piece during FC meetings for families

• Stepping away; letting families chat freely

• Event for 2025 babies - August 10

• Piggybacking off a breastfeeding event taking place right beforehand

• Committee working on it; also a collaborative group

• Raffles/workshops

• Held Wednesday, Feb. 5, 6-7:30 p.m.

• 300+ people 145 children

• Held at the ISD

• Provided pizza dinner

• Books as prizes

• 5 rounds of Bingo

• Next time will do a card kids can color

• Put numbers on a big screen as they were called

New habit each month.

Click “Flip Card” to see the reverse side of each Habit card which contains further information and important questions to consider.

3:30-4:30- Resource Forum: Agencies share information about their agency with other agencies. Each agency gets a few minutes to share information out. We have a short break from 4:30 to 5:00 to allow agency staff to enjoy dinner. We have this event catered.

5-7pm families arrive and enjoy dinner. They stop at agency tables to learn more about services they provide. Each agency brings a child activity and swag along with their resources. They also each provide a raffle prize.

We provide a variety of entertainment for families to enjoy, including a Petting Zoo, Live Music with additional musical instruments for children to play, balloon animals, games, popcorn & Face Painting. We have 2 Raffle sessions hosted by an MC for giving out prizes and highlighting agencies. This year we will also have a snow cone machine.

Each year this event gets bigger. Last year we had over 200 people attend, which is huge for a small, rural community! :)

We utilize Talking is Teaching throughout the event using yard signs (Let's Talk About Fall, Books, Music, Farm, Food.) Each family takes home a book. We also purchased Let's Talk About the Community t-shirts for agencies and staff working the event. We provide gift bags as a thank you to each agency staff member who participates.

We love this event because it brings agencies and families together in a fun way to learn about all of the resources and support available in the community for families with young children.