This is NOT Reality TV:

Bringing Back “Pretend” To Story Time On a Budget

The StoryCottage

The Reading Incentive Program At The Benjamin Lower School Library/Media Center North Palm Beach, Florida

Our reading program….

…..started in one room that was the original school house at North Palm Beach Private School. On many nice days, Mrs. Benjamin would read to her students under the Banyan tree in the “quad”. Today, we have THE STORY COTTAGE.

The Story Cottage

Our “Story Cottage” is an anteroom next to the main library that once served as a computer lab. When the lab moved to another location, we commandeered the room for our story telling area for Pre-k through third grades .

Before the “Cottage”

There was a “Story Corner” in the back of the main library

Computer lab to Story Cottage in one summer

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Let the fun begin…..

The Story Cottage takes on a new look every month. It might be a pumpkin patch, an African savanna, a pirate ship or an Everglades swamp. Decorations are kept in plastic tubs labeled for each month or theme.

Props are “found” items from garage sales, fabric shop remnants, donated toys and roadside throw-aways.

Story Cottage in the “rough” Digging for props

“Sir Reads A Lot” was a sale item at Home Goods, windows created from wrapping paper and plastic garden trellis

Books are ALWAYS the centerpiece of the theme.

The librarians enjoy playing the part.

Yes, it really IS Mrs. Hornaday

The walls are covered with rolls of decorative paper or remnant fabrics.

Each year the Reading Incentive Program has a special theme.

Since 2010 is the 50 th anniversary of The Benjamin School, we decided to have “Pirates of the Caribbean” as our Story Cottage Theme. Our school mascot is “The Buccaneer”. In conjunction with other programs to celebrate this important anniversary, our pirate theme was taken to the Palm Beach Gardens Mall where we decorated a vacant storefront as our “beach” and Mrs. Hornaday (aka “Granny H” ) read to little ones who visited the Mall with their moms.

OUTREACH

“Captain Book” reads to toddlers at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall

Back at school: Behind the rock wall is a book case, covered for the current theme.

Setting the stage: Wallpaper, wooden ship models and fabric create a backdrop for the pirate theme. Children’s imaginations fill in the gaps and they all want to take the pretend-pirate theme home with them. Lesson plans are created for each theme and books that are age-appropriate are read to each grade level before children leave the story cottage to check out their library books. Invariably they want books about pirates, castles, knights or whatever the current theme portrays.

• Found objects create the scene. “Captain Book” sits on the treasure chest while reading to the children.

Parents are a part of the program

For each reading incentive program, a booklet is prepared and copied for hand-outs to take home. The program explains that children are to read or be read to each night for at least twenty minutes. Each week a reading log is distributed to the children so that they may record their reading time. Parents are to initial each night as the reading is completed. Each week the children’s librarian records the times for each class on a spread sheet and the children document their reading times as coins or tokens that are placed on a wall or bulletin board.

Each class has its own display to show reading progress each week. The cows on the wall behind the students represent each class where their “reading hours” are recorded for all to see. Competition is keen and the winning class gets a party at the end of the year.