Early Learning & Story Time
Enjoy stories, songs, and fun learning activities in multiple languages with your kids! Whether your child is a baby, toddler or preschooler, free story time and early learning programs are a great way to develop learning, literacy, and language skills as well as build community with other families
Story Time
Our story times are interactive learning opportunities where kids of all ages enjoy stories, rhymes, songs and fun with our children's librarian and community storytellers.
Join us for baby story time for kids under eighteen months, toddler story time for kids age one to three, preschool story time for kids age three to five, or family story time for young kids of all ages. We also offer special story times like Firefighter Story Times for preschoolers, where we partner with the Seattle Fire Department to teach fire safety and show firefighting equipment and trucks.
Available in English, اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ (Arabic) and español (Spanish).
Toddler Play Group
Bring your toddler to play with toys, share books, socialize, and join in engaging, educational activities that help kids and their caregivers grow together.
Families of all ages are welcome, though this early learning program is intended for kids ages one to three, their caregivers and families.
Kaleidoscope Play & Learn
Kaleidoscope play and learn offers a chance for children and their families to come play and have a good time. Children listen to multilingual stories, sing songs and do simple crafts with their caregivers during the group time. Families learn about their child's development and community resources available to them.
Available in English, አማርኛ (Amharic), 普通话 - 國語 (Mandarin), af Soomaali (Somali) and español (Spanish).
We host this program in partnership with Denise Louie Education Center.
Begin with Books
Begin with Books kits feature reading activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Reserve kits using the online catalog, for pickup at any branch. Kits include board books, music, resource books and activity cards. Topics range from potty training to dinosaurs, and ABCs to Mother Goose.
Look, Listen and Learn
Look, Listen and Learn is an award-winning early learning television show that supports the emotional wellbeing of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) families by offering fun, in-home learning tools for 3-8 years olds. Look, Listen and Learn exists at the intersection of arts, media, education and racial justice by providing culturally relevant storytelling, fundamental social-emotional skills, and critical messages of love and hope.
Five Activities to Raise a Reader
We help early learners and their caregivers, providing ideas and help for adults and children. We have identified some activities that caregivers can use to help young children develop language skills:
- Sing to or with a child in any language to help them learn word sounds.
- Read (and reread) to a child to help them learn to love stories.
- Write with a child to help them create and see words and symbols on a page.
- Talk with a child to help them learn to communicate and be ready to read.
- Play with a child to help them use words to express themselves.
Download the Five Activities to Raise a Reader Guide in Your Language
English አማርኛ (Amharic) اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ (Arabic) 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese) Oromiffa (Oromo) Af Soomaali (Somali) Español (Spanish) ትግርኛ (Tigrinya) Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Recorded Programs
If you can’t join us in person, find recordings of virtual story times, play and learn groups, and other early learning programs in multiple languages. Available in English, español (Spanish), 普通话 - 國語 (Mandarin), 广东话 - 廣東話 (Cantonese) and tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).