Cooke County Library holds weekly children's class built on stories, songs and a craft

Cooke County Library holds a children's class each week that pairs storytelling and singing with a craft project, according to the City of Gainesville's calendar listing for Aug. 19, 2026.

The format matches guidance from the American Library Association. Its Every Child Ready to Read toolkit counts singing and reading among five everyday practices parents and other caregivers can use to build language and prereading skills in children from birth to age 5. The other three are talking, writing and playing.

Weekly sessions for young children have a long record at the library. When it drew up a community outreach plan on April 23, 2012, a weekly story hour was already on its list of existing programs, as were outreach story hours for local daycares and some schools. The city's archived calendar shows a weekly children's class at the library at 10:30 a.m. on July 27, 2021.

In summer 2015, a Texoma Council of Governments guide advertised the library's children's classes on Tuesday mornings from June into late August at no cost. One set of activities served toddlers through age 4, and another served children 5 to 10.

Library staff have led the program. A University of North Texas biography prepared for a Jan. 24, 2023, event identified Kimberly Reiter as the library's associate director and children's class coordinator and said she taught a preschool class each week.

The 2012 plan also recorded what the community asked for. Surveys of residents, library staff and elected officials found demand for more programs for children, teens and adults, according to the plan, and the library listed needs for more space along with technology and infrastructure upgrades. The Census Bureau estimated Cooke County's population at roughly 44,500 in July 2025, up about 7% from its April 2020 base.

Beyond the weekly class, the library offers a Spanish and bilingual storytime once a month. The city's August listing named Ms. Og and Ms. Itzel as its leaders and described stories, songs and a craft. About 15% of county residents age 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home, according to Census Bureau estimates for 2020 through 2024.

Other area libraries run similar programs. Sanger Public Library advertises storytime every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and monthly music programs for toddlers and preschoolers, and it says all its programs are free, though many require registration. Sherman Public Library's StoryTots sessions in October 2026 offered stories and songs for children up to age 5 and their caregivers on Mondays, repeated on Thursdays, with no registration or tickets required.

Texas began sponsoring summer library programming in 1958, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The state joined the Collaborative Summer Library Program in 2013 and supplies qualifying public libraries that take part with programming materials and limited funding for approved materials.