We are huge fans of storysacks and they promote lots of learning and discussion. A storysack includes a book and visual aids that are linked to the story (or the subject if the book is non fiction), it can also include relevant worksheets, activities and games. Storysacks are lots of fun to make and are a great addition to a school library or classroom. I have made storysacks with parents during family learning workshops and it’s always fun to look at the ‘props’ and guess which books parents had chosen. As a result of the workshops several parents have been inspired to make storysacks for their children’s classrooms.
You can buy storysacks, Storysack, Twinkl and Child’s Play have sacks and resources to choose from, or you can make your own using an old pillowcase (if you are good at sewing you can make a bag relevant to a particular story). I use a pillowcase which asks ‘Which book will you find inside today?’ so it can be used for different books. The child takes an object out one at a time and tries to guess which book is in the sack.
I made a Goldilocks and the Three Bears storysack for my daughter using Goldilocks – A Pop Up Book by John O’Leary. It includes Goldilocks, three bears, three bowls and three chairs of varying sizes and a bag of oats. I didn’t include the beds so that as an extension activity she could find and / or make her own beds whilst discussing the concept of big, medium, small and biggest, middle sized and smallest. The oats stimulated a discussion about how to make porridge and we looked at a recipe to see which other ingredients are needed. A porridge making session has been planned!
It’s amazing how many curriculum areas can be covered by one book! Our Goldilocks sack helped introduce lots of mathematical language, baking and problem solving by finding / making beds for each of the three bears.
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Other books that I have used to make storysacks include;
- Dear Zoo: Toy animals and Dear Zoo colouring sheets. This is a great one for very little children.
- Jasper’s Beanstalk: Cuddly cat, a bean to plant, different types of beans, garden tools, watering can, snail and days of the week word cards.
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar: A cuddly caterpillar, a beautiful butterfly, real fruit, toy fruit or pictures of fruit, a picture of the lifecycle of a caterpillar and days of the week word cards. More Hungry Caterpillar resources can be found on our Pinterest board.
- Room on the Broom: A broomstick, a witch’s hat, toy animals, a dragon, a cauldron and a Room on the Broom puppet making activity. More Room on the Broom resources can be found on our Pinterest board.
Storysacks are great to use in the classroom. It’s fun to see children, either as individuals or as part of a group, trying to guess which book is inside. They’re also a fun activity for a school holiday or a rainy day, if you make one up beforehand you can bring it out when children are complaining about being bored.
Thank you to author / illustrator John O’Leary for sending us a review copy of Goldilocks – The Pop Up Book which incorporates learning colours into the Goldilocks story. This colourful retelling of a traditional story is perfect for a storysack.
We would love to see or hear about any storysacks you have made. Please leave any links to your storysack posts in the comments.
I love this! I must get together some storysacks for future school visits. Thanks for the inspiration!
You’re very welcome. I hadn’t thought about storysacks being good for authors too but they really help to bring a book to life and would be great to use on a school visit 🙂
Thanks for a very timely and informative read! I’m just in the process of preparing a story sack for some events this autumn.
They’re such fun to make aren’t they 🙂
Such a fun idea, I can see my kids loving a story sack.
They’re also fun for children to make themselves, kind of like a mini scavenger hunt 🙂
What a great idea. Have you seen the Reading Rumpus Kits? They are like little passports for books 🙂
I’ve just googled Reading Rumpus kits, they look like a lot of fun 🙂
We have a number of story sacks at home and I love them 😀 – glad I have found your blog we are a little book mad so hoping to get some brilliant ideas from you (if you don’t mind :D) x
Of course you are welcome to get ideas from Story Snug, thank you very much for visiting 🙂
Catherine,
This is a great idea. Kids can act out the books. Love it. Sharing.
Pamela 🙂
Storysacks are well known in the UK, I’m surprised that lots of people haven’t heard of them. Thank you for sharing Pamela 🙂
Hi there,
Just a note, I can’t seem to open some of the links on your post?
Some seem to open and some don’t.
Thanks for letting me know Sue. I’ve redone all the links, they’re working now.
The Story Sacks are adorable and great for literacy! They are new to me so thank you for sharing at the Kid Lit Blog Hop Catherine!
We are huge fans of storysacks, they’re brilliant for promoting early literacy 🙂