Show Me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling by Emily K. Neuburger (2012) is one of those books that you will check out from the library and when you have a few bucks in fines, you will realize you probably should have just bought it in the first place.

What I think is pretty fun is that I’ve actually pinned a few of her amazing activities.  Let’s talk about this book is broken into four sections: story starters, story evolution, story activities and story play.  Initially I was drawn to this book as a resource for my daughter who loves to tell stories and recently has been working very diligently on her Field Journal. (look for future posts on the Petites Field Journal).

I thought it would be really fun to make story rocks.  Have you seen these?  They are awesome.  Basically, they are just what they sound like.  Rocks that have different elements of a story on them and then you use these rocks to create different stories.  You can get the images onto the rocks in a few different ways, you can use acrylic paint to paint them on, or you can use Mod Podge with fabric, stickers or paper, etc.  Another way you could do this with older petites is with sharpie pens.

Then when you have chosen your stones and the story you want to tell you would use the stones much as you would use a doll in a doll house, or any other dramatic play item.  Another wonderful suggestion in the book is for ELL students, preschoolers the stones could be used to teach vocabulary as well.  Essentially, these stones are just really fun tactile ways to get petites talking about stories and using their imaginations.

Some of the other projects that are in this book that have now become items on our project to do list are the following:

Story Disks these are adorable and maybe a little more feasible for the classroom.  I was thinking this would be a great writers workshop/art lesson where partners could come up with a plan and make these story disks and then share them with their classmates during writers workshop.

Another piece to this that I love, is that Emily gives you an idea of how best to use these items.  It’s really fun to make them but sometimes putting them to their intended use can be challenging; but she takes the guess work right out of it and gives you ideas for how to use each project.

There are so many fantastic projects that would be hours of fun and entertainment for petites with minimal set up and cost.  I love that.  Not to mention, finding the perfect rocks for the story rocks is entertainment in itself.  This is a really great book with 40 craft projects and activities that build story telling habits in kids.

I intend to use this book for some up coming projects, as well as this summer to make sure that my petite doesn’t forget any of her learnings from this school year.  I strongly encourage you to check out this book.  If you like what you’ve seen here in this post you will love the book.  In the meantime while you’re waiting to get your hands on Emily’s book you can check out her website where there are tons of fun activities.

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