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• Reading Rainbow - "Three by the Sea"
  In the featured book, Lolly, Spider, and Sam lay on the beach and all agree it's the perfect time for each of them to tell their very own story. Then LeVar learns that telling a story or listening to one can unlock the imagination as he watches Chicago City Limits, an improvisational performance group. Plus, kids tell their own stories in the books they make.
• Between the Lions - "Oh, Yes, It Can!"
  The library has a very special guest storyteller. Her name is Karen Kandel and she tells an Ashanti fairytale that seems to come to life. The sound of the day is a short "a" found in words such as "can," "fast" and "trap."

Do in Class

• Arthur: Group Stories - Collaborate on oral or written stories to be housed in a class "big book." (PDF)
• Between the Lions: Family Tales - Create an illustrated accordion book of a favorite memory.
• Between the Lions: Spin a Story - Collaborate on an "add on" story, and then use puppets to act out and repeat the tale.
• Boohbah: Storytelling - Encourage children to make up stories for the Storypeople.
• Dragon Tales: The Jumping Bean Express - Develop problem solving and storytelling skills by creating an alternative scene to go with the story of The Gingerbread Man. Draw a picture of how you would catch him, and then make a real gingerbread man to eat.
• Dragon Tales: Story Tellers - Have children create stories about picture-based story cards.
• Dragon Tales: Storytelling: Flip-Flop - Make up a story about a friend or sibling and a real-life situation.
• Reading Rainbow: Make Your Own Book - Learn how to make your own book.
• Reading Rainbow: Uncle Jed's Barbershop - Make a storytelling glove to help you tell your best stories.

Play Online

• American Experience: Wayback: Family Ties: Hello Cousin! - Discover new ways to share your family's stories. (Advanced Activity)
• The Berenstain Bears: Storytime - Complete a Berenstain Bears story online.
• Boohbah: Storysheet - Choose characters and objects and make your own picture. Adjust the size and direction of each object to keep the picture proportionally accurate.
• Dragon Tales: Sticker Stories - Create a story online by pasting stickers into different backgrounds.
• Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Create a Story with Big Jake - Read an online story with Big Jake or create a story by filling in the blanks. Write and illustrate a story to make your own storybook.
• Maya & Miguel: Miguel's Sketchpad - Develop awareness of story elements and sequencing in this interactive activity. Create settings with drag-and-drop backgrounds, add characters to the scene and change the sentences of the story to create your own comic strip.
• Sagwa: Story Maker - Use an online story maker to create your own pictures and stories about Sagwa.

Read

• Gugu's House
  By Catherine Stock
  Published March 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company
  Kukamba's gugu, or grandmother, is an artist. All around her house are paintings and clay sculptures of African animals. Life is difficult in Zimbabwe when it doesn't rain. Gugu cheers the other villagers by telling stories about Rabbit, until the rain comes, ending the drought and destroying Gugu's art. But endings are beginnings too.
• Lost!: A Story in String
  By Paul Fleischman and C.B. Mordan
  Published May 2000 by Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated
  When the lights go out during a storm, Grandmother tells a story about a mountain girl lost in a blizzard, illustrating her story with string figures. A lengthy appendix outlines the tradition of string figures and provides directions for making a loop and the figures in the story. Mordan's ink on clayboard illustrations resemble etchings in this story for 4-8 year olds.

*As most PBS children's programs offer one year extended taping rights for teachers, please feel free to tape them now and save them for use in your classroom during the school year.