Story Baskets

Are you looking for a really fun way to share nursery rhymes with your little ones?

Have you tried story baskets?

This is such a fun idea for you and your children.

Not only is this a fun idea, there are a number of benefits for your little one.

This activitiy encourages their imaginations, creativity and recall skills.

They learn coordination, small motor skills, language skills.

They even start to develop stage and presentation skills!  What fun!

The idea is fairly simple..... place in a basket items related to the nursery rhyme.   Then use those items as props as you or your little one recite the  rhyme. 

The fun starts with gathering the items to place in the story or rhyme basket.

This should be done by your little one as much as possible.  

The items can be a piece of fabric, let's say blue for the sky or water.

They can be toys, puppets, dolls, even items they can collect from mother nature.

Perhaps a rock can be a mountain, a twig can be a tree, leave it up to them and they will find all sorts of wonderful items to place in the basket.

You don't even have to use a basket if you don't have one.

How about a shopping bag or gift bag?  They could even decorate the outside of the bag to be a scene from the rhyme.  

The bag can do double duty, not only does it hold the story props, it becomes the stage.

Even a shoe box or other cardboard box could be used to hold the items.

Just let yours and their imaginations run wild.

If they can't find something in particular they want in the basket, let them make one.  

They could make popsicle puppets to be their characters.  Or perhaps they need a house.  They could make one from construction paper.

A nice touch to the basket could be a colorful piece of fabric to cover all the items in the basket.  

This creates a bit of mystery, like opening a book to see what great adventures are in there.

The cover, once it is removed, can be laid out on the table or floor as a stage for the rhyme to be played out on.

Once their story basket is assembled, they can tell their rhyme.

This can really be a lot of fun as they will most likely expound on the original verses a bit.  

That's OK as they are learning new skills, stretching their imaginations by creating new story lines for those delightful little characters.

Listening and watching how excited they are to "act out" the nursery rhyme with their own creativity is simply joyful.

If you give this idea of story baskets at try, please come back and share with us your special story.  

We'd love to hear what rhyme or story you selected, how you and your little one went about assembling the props, and the results.

We'd really love to see one with video of your little one acting out their special rhyme or story.

Five Little Monkeys  Basket

Mary Mary Story Bag

Three Little Kittens Story Basket

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