Ø Buy a metal cookie sheet. (Take magnets to store to test that they stick before buying!)
Ø To use as metal storyboard, glue magnets onto the back of the story pieces & apply them to board as you tell story.
Ø To use as flannel board, glue felt onto sheet and then put felt (or Velcro) on back of story pieces.
This is also a way to create an inexpensive storyboard that you might leave out in your children’s room, along with the story pieces, for families to work with on their own. Having children and parents interact with the story is a wonderful language enrichment opportunity—along the lines of the emergent literacy activities we have been encouraging through our Raising a Reader grant this year. Expect to hear much more from me about emergent literacy, as it is the hottest topic in library youth services today.
This idea came from a workshop at 2004 PLA Conference called Prop Shop II put on by Gail Benton and Trish Waichulaitis, authors of a new MHLS Professional Collection book titled Ready-to-go storytimes: fingerplays, scripts, patterns, music, and more. We also will lend out to member libraries the Prop Shop II handout which contains lots of great story prop ideas (flannel and others), plus the bibliography of all the books they used with the props. Great resource.