San Mateo County Libraries is launching an exciting new tool available for check out: Discover Skills and Disability Awareness Storytime Backpacks. As part of our inclusion grant, these backpacks contain books, toys, and games for families and caregivers to use together to learn and practice specific life skills and concepts. These backpacks are ready-to-go kits that make it easy to engage your child in fun, multisensory experiences.
Discover Skills Backpacks
The Discover Skills Backpacks focus on two themes: “Feelings” and “Making Friends.”
- The “Feelings” backpack includes books, toys, and games for children ages 0 - 5 years old. These materials are for teaching socio-emotional concepts around identifying and managing emotions and/or feelings.
- The “Making Friends” backpack includes books, games, and activities for children ages 6 - 10 years old. These materials are for teaching socio-emotional concepts around making friends and social skills.
Disability Awareness Storytime Backpacks
The Disability Awareness themed Storytime Backpacks will be used by library staff for outreach to local schools (Preschool to Grade 3) to educate children about disabilities and encourage acceptance, compassion, and inclusion. These highly interactive kits will support both children with disabilities and children of siblings with disabilities. The kit features a set of curated materials teachers/educators can continue to use after library staff leave.
The Disability Awareness Backpacks will include 15 books featuring diverse, positive representations of people with disabilities, as well as figures with physical disabilities, fidget toys, an assistive technology switch, and an empathy game in this backpack, alongside guidance material for the adult.
We hope you take advantage of these great new resources and we look forward to your feedback, comments, and ideas for future backpacks!
