Stories and storytelling can be an important motivator for children. "Storytelling can ignite the imagination of children, giving them a taste for where books can take them. The excitement of storytelling can make reading and learning fun and can instill in children a sense of wonder about life and learning."

Stories can interest children in literature but they are also a vehicle to communicate concepts such as working together. Literature can also be a springboard for children's creative endeavors. Storytelling teaches listening. It models the fine use of oral language. It models plot, sequencing, and characterization.

Stories can take children to other cultures and help them deal with life issues and it can also entertain. To bring literature alive for children, let them "play" with the stories, acting, drawing, dancing and singing them out. There is great value in fantasy and through imagination children make connections to people, to ideas and to feelings.

There is a real difference between reading a story and telling a story. When you read a story you are tied to the print on the page, but when you tell a story you are free to let your imagination take over. Some suggestions for promoting a good response to stories:

1. Create a good listening atmosphere. Establish a ritual of story time such as ringing a bell, dimming the lights and allowing a hushed expectant silence to develop before you begin.
2. Minimize the interruptions to keep the flow of the story.
3. Encourage active involvement in the story.
4. Concentrate fully on the story during telling. Take your time and do your best to bring the story alive.
5. Choose and tell excellent stories. The better the material, the better the response will be.

READING TO CHILDREN

Reading aloud is probably the single most important activity that a child care worker can do to enhance a child's success in reading. Reading aloud introduces language in new ways, it can serve as a springboard for creative activities and it extends a child's ideas, concepts and values. Child care providers have the opportunity to awaken children to the delights of literature by involving children in activities that "bring literature alive".

TRY THE FOLLOWING

• Involve the children in a Reader's Theater that includes choral reading. Stories such as Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus or Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out by Shel Silverstein can be easily adapted into solo and group parts.
• Have the children script a play related to their interests or adapt a play from a favorite book or story.
• As a story is read, certain characters are given a sound or a phrase that the audience recites. For example, in a story about a circus, each time clowns are mentioned the audience would say "Honk, honk", and when the food vendors are mentioned, the audience would say "Peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy". Let the children develop the story and create a sound or phrase for the main characters.
• Create and present a puppet show.
• Record a story with sound effects or record predictions of what you think will happen next in a story that has several chapters. Conduct interviews with characters in the story.
• Write a new ending for the story or reconstruct the story and place it in a future setting. Create a tall tale.
• Read cultural variations of stories such as Lon Po Po vs. Little Red Riding Hood vs. the rap version in Yo, Hungry Wolf.
• Choreograph and preform an interpretive dance from a scene in a story.
• Have the children recreate the artist style of a stories illustrations. Example: Foreground decorations from the story Brother Eagle/Sister Sky.

ESTABLISH DEAR

At one school age care center they have established a DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time. During this time children can select from a variety of available books and spend 15 minutes independently reading or reading to a younger child. As children complete books, they place their name and the book read on a poster and children periodically share information on their favorite books. The staff also incorporates creative learning activities around these books.

SUGGESTED READING

Child care staff can influence a child's interest and love of reading by "bringing literature alive". Some excellent reference books include The New Read-Aloud Handbook and Hey! Listen to This by Jim Trelease and Story Stretchers by Shirley C. Raines and Robert J. Canady.

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