Portland Public Library Presents Ellie Chase with an Interactive Music Class

Saturday, March 14th – 10:30am

Portland, Maine - Ellie Osborn will kick off the Sam L. Cohen Children’s Library spring early literacy initiative, Singing Through Your Day on Saturday, March 14th at 10:30am with an interactive music class.  Parents, caregivers and their young children are invited to attend.

Ellie’s philosophy for music with young children is "E-I-E-I-O"  or  “Early Interactive Experience with Instruments and song Often”! Her classes are entertaining and educational for adults and great for children’s brain development.

Ellie Osborn has been performing since she was four-years-old. She founded the Little Music Maker business in 2004. Ellie was introduced to the violin-cello at age 7 by renowned musicians, Wu Han and David Finkle and studied at the Rennes Conservatory of Music in France. She has a science and teaching degree from Wellesley College and 16 years teaching experience. She serves on the Board of Trustees for The Portland Symphony Orchestra and teaches beginning cello, guitar, ukelele, piano, recorder, and voice. She performs with Singer-songwriters, Elli Lisa, Sorcha, Doug Farrell, and with the Choral Art Society Singers and Camerata. She has performed with the late Pete Seeger, Dar Williams, Rick Charette, Christine Lavin, Paul Winter, Brooks Williams, Joe Walsh, The Portland Symphony Orchestra and appeared at Carnegie Hall as a soloist!

The Singing Through Your Day Initiative is part of PPL”S Every Child Ready to Read @ Your
Library ® project. This parent education initiative stresses that early literacy begins with the primary adult in a child’s life. Developing early literacy skills has a long-term impact on children’s reading achievement and academic success.

Early literacy is what children understand about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. The building blocks of language and literacy form in the first three years of a child’s life. Early childhood experiences impact how a child’s brain will develop. Early literacy skills include:

·         Being interested in and enjoying books

·         Knowing the names of things, noticing letters and words, knowing how to handle a book, knowing how to follow words on a page

·         Being able to describe things and events and tell a story

·         Knowing that letters have names and sound different from each other

·         Hearing and playing with the smaller sounds in words

Reading, playing, talking, singing, and writing are the five practices that stimulate the growth of a child’s brain and make the connections that will become the foundation for reading.