A story bag (also known as a story sack) is a large cloth bag which typically contains a children's story book, plus various items that are associated with the story (like soft toys or puppets). These items help the children take part in telling the story, and use visual, tactile, auditory and other stimuli to make the experience memorable and enjoyable.
The standard contents of a story bag include:
- a copy of the story book
- models of characters and objects from the story
- activities or games relating to the story
- a CD or DVD of the story
- an activity card (listing ideas for how to use the bag)
I found a great website (the National Literacy Trust in the UK) which goes a step further by also including related non fiction books. They suggest activity cards include the following ideas:
- Talk about the story and the children's favourite bits
- Ask the children questions about the characters and the plot
- Retell the story using the models
- Find out more about the people and places in the story by looking at the non-fiction books
- Draw one of the characters or model one out of play dough
I don't plan to include non fiction books in my bags, because we can always read the story in the Bible. I think I'll also try to get a good quality Bible encyclopaedia with illustrations that would be suitable for the children.
I made our first story bag last week, and it was quite a hit. I'll share it with you in my next post.
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