If you are a teacher of primary school age children then it will not be long before you find yourself enlisting the help of a considerable number of story books. You will need a decent collection of additional resources to use alongside the story books so you will probably save a considerable amount of time if you use well designed key stage 1 teaching resources. It is entirely possible to find complete story sacks but you can put together your own relatively easily using story sack teaching resources.
The vital component of a quality story sack is the main book that the story sack is based upon. A good quality story that captures young children’s imagination and fosters their enjoyment of books and reading is a must. Authors of children’s books have produced prize winning stories that have become favourites for many generations of children. The actual storage of the resources that support the story are often stored in a sack made of a soft fabric. They can be stored and hung with a drawstring and are easy for young children to handle. The contents of story sacks vary but the main resources that should be included are soft toys, puppets, games, a story tape, DVD, photographs, books closely associated with the main title and perhaps a CD of resource materials that can be used for teaching. Factual books associated with the main book should also be included.
Settings that cater for young children will often have a library or reading area and within that area story sacks will often be found. Young children become familiar from a very young age with particular nursery rhymes and stories. As young children become more confident with a text they will begin to become more creative and confident in developing their language skills. Story sacks are a great way to foster this development as the children use the contents and bring meaning to the story.
Story sacks are not readily available in book shops and in the High Street. You will need to do some research and find story sacks for sale on-line. The research that you carry out is important because there are a vast selection available and they vary widely in the quality.
The best story sacks have interactive materials for children to use and also come with a guide and activities for the adults.The activities give many more ideas as to how the story can be used and link the story with other areas of learning. A good story can be used creatively not just in learning to enjoy books and literacy skills but also with art and craft ideas, learning about the world, cooking, early number concepts and in using technology.
Story sacks can help towards producing some of the most lively creative teaching and learning in early years settings. They are fun and make positive learning links for young children. Neil Griffiths, a Head Teacher from Swindon, first started developing the idea of story sacks for young children. He recognised that story sacks could help the story teller, whether this was a parent, grand parent, teaching assistant or teacher. Story sacks can be shared in a lively, positive,creative and non-threatening manner to help young children foster an interest in books.
Story sacks are now increasingly being used by other groups such as libraries, health visitors, speech therapists, social workers, children’s hospitals and family centres. Story sacks are also a great resource to use when working with children with autism and other learning difficulties.
One of the most positive sides to story sacks are the opportunities that they give to young children to use them independently and in small groups. Once the child is familiar with the story and the contents of the sack they are able to explore the story and re-tell it using the supporting props. This helps to develop their independence, sharing, taking turns, and will help develop their confidence and language skills.
Some of the best suppliers of story sacks also provide a CD of materials, activities,colouring sheets,tracing, writing scaffolds and early maths activities and resources that can be printed out and used whenever the need arises. You should look out for suppliers that also provide materials on their CD’s that can save hours and hours of preparation for display purposes.