Amplify Story Time! Animate Books and Inspire Lifelong Readers
“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” by Dr. Seuss
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Children, adolescents, and teens all enjoy storytime. Storytime may include read-alouds with picture books or could be time when students are allowed to read a book of their choice. Storytime inspires young readers who are more successful lifelong learners and helps learners of all ages bond with their teachers, family, friends and community. Daily story time also introduces learners and their parents to incredible books and authors, which they can add to their personal libraries. Below is a slide presentation and bookmarks to help you amplify storytime. Click to view the slide presentation.
Tips
- It’s in your delivery- Change your voice pitch, tone, and volume. Vary your facial expressions. Include pauses, vary the speed of your reading, change your pitch, or emphasize with your hands or body movements.
- Find books- Try these websites to search and find recommended books for various grade levels, ages, events, holidays, subjects and cultures. Get Epic, Multicultural Children’s Book Day website, and 50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know.
- Reading websites for adolescents and teens- ReadWorks
- Setting the Mood and Atmosphere- Music, sound effects, props, and special lighting can be used to set the mood and atmosphere. Use a planetarium projector with constellations, add props, play instruments, or have a flashlight reading day.
- Novel Effect is an app that adds effects to popular books. As you read the book aloud, the app uses voice recognition technology to add sound effects, character voices, and music.
- Invite a Guest Speaker-Invite community leaders, professionals, experts, local authors, family members or celebrities to read to your students. For example, a fireman could read a book about fire safety.
- Use Puppets- Have a puppet or finger puppets read different parts of the story or students can create finger puppets. Enchanted Learning has different templates of animal and famous character finger puppets to print, color, and cut-out.
- Total Physical Response (TPR) or language-body conversations, developed by Dr. James Asher, is a powerful way to teach language learners of any age, including babies. Before story time begins, the teacher identifies key vocabulary or phrases from the book and associates different movements for each word or phrase. As the story is being read aloud, students listen for the key words and perform the movement. The students could also make a sound when doing the movement. For example, if a story features an ocean, then students can mimic ocean waves with their hands and say, “Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.”
- Find Resources on the Website or App- Popular authors, classic books, and book series have websites or apps full of free handouts, crafts, videos, and activities. Google the book title or the author to see what you discover. Julia Donaldson has a wonderful site for her popular children’s book, The Gruffalo, which features a video of her husband playing the guitar and her singing the Gruffalo song.
- Reading Skills Poster , Reading Strategies
- Dress up! Read a book dressed as one of the characters or invite students to dress as a character! Students can also make hats, masks, and other attire to wear during the story. Encourage students to also dress up to build up excitement for the story. For example, students could wear a shirt with a favorite animal for an animal story, wear a certain color or design like stripes or all black, or wear pajamas for a bedtime story.
📕 Themed attire
📕 Make accessories to wear
- Liven it up with music
📕 Play instruments at key times
📕 Create a soundtrack
📕 Chant or sing a repeated line
📕 Make an instrument to play
- Read to Others!
📕 Another class
📕 Animals
📕 Stuff animals
📕 Relatives
📕 Recorded Readings
- Change the Environment!
📕 Flashlight reading
📕 Comfy chairs
📕 Read anywhere
- Encourage Storytime at Home!
📕 Virtual Libraries
📕 Story Online
📕 Storytime Podcasts
📕 Library Partnerships
📕 Free Libraries
📕 Family Literacy Workshops
📕 Share Storytime Events
📕 Virtual Read Alouds
Bookmarks
Find the tools listed above and many more resources in the bookmarks below.