Creative Ways to Make Stories Come to Life
My most favorite part of every night is snuggling with my son in his rocking chair for story time. The knowledge he gains from the stories we read completely amazes me. Wanting to make this love and enthusiasm for reading continue to grow, I’ve decided to take our story time one step further. Make reading fun and interactive with these Creative Ways to Make Stories Come to Life.
I received samples and compensation in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.
Creative Ways to Make Stories Come to Life
1. Have a Pajama Reading Party! Bring a flashlight and treats and read your favorite stories inside of a tent. After all, what could be better than reading in your PJ’s in a tent?
2. Act out the stories you read. Wear costumes, use accents, and really get into the story line.
3. Read in creative places. As a little girl, I remember my mom making story time extremely fun by letting us read with pillows and blankets in the bathtub! Bring books to the park, read outside in the playhouse, or under the stars.
4. Make books come alive in the kitchen. Cook the dishes you read about.
5. Combine stories with games, adventures, and activities with Imaginary Friends.
Created by a father who understands the importance of reading (and the excitement of bringing stories to life), Imaginary Friends is a new platform that combines engaging chapter books with interactive activities that truly allow your child to become a part of the story. Although these books are aimed for readers aged 8-12, there are many games and activities that my little son can enjoy with the help of mom and dad. Let me tell you a little bit about how Imaginary Friends Works.
The series of stories is broken up into individually bound chapters. Upon completion of each chapter, your child will log onto the Imaginary Friends website and complete an activity. Activities include things like puzzles, scavenger hunts, craft and recipe suggestions, mazes, and a GPS enabled game of Hot and Cold.
After the activity is finished, Imaginary Friends’ e-mail system will send you (the parent) a message telling you to give your child the next chapter to read. Best of all, you can create the perfect timeline of events – reading by night, activities by day.
Let me just say that Chapter 1 Capes in the Family was a huge hit with my son! After-all, what child doesn’t enjoy a thrilling tale about robots? As a mother, I can truly appreciate the idea of allowing my child to be completely immersed in the books he reads. This platform allows me to interact with my son as he interacts with stories. Although Imaginary Friends does call for some work on the part of the parents, there’s no better way to make learning fun. What a perfect summertime activity to help your child learn, grow, and interact with the stories they read.
Be sure to visit Imaginary Friends and make reading come to life.
My kids are just excited to read. I guess lucky me. Now how long do they stay focused is another question I am still working on.
Wow, these ways to read a story are great. My niece and nephew would love this.
This is a great way to make reading more fun, which would be good for my son.
How FUN! My boys would likely enjoy this story as well!
This is such a great idea. It can be hard to track your kids reading. I will have to try this.
This reminds me of granny used to read with me. she always made it soo fun. and she did the same thing for my brother.
My daughter just loves discovering new books and that makes her happy. However, when it comes to my son’s reading, we have to keep finding very entertaining books – he can’t stand still for 5 minutes
Those are great ideas. I always make sounds and mimics
Making reading exciting can be fun… I love to act out scenes from the book we are reading and change my voice it really makes the story more fun.
These are great ideas! I will try a few with my son!
I love combining stories with games with my kids, they love reading!
Such great ideas….I always use voices when I read to my daughter, but some of these other ideas, totally going to use now!! Thank you!
This is great. I’ve been looking for ways to get my kids more excited about reading. These are great ways to help them want to read.
These are great ideas on how to bring stories to life! My kids would love the part about reading in new and creative locations.
My daughter loved to read when she was younger, now that we have ipads and technology, that’s what she reads now. But the important thing, is to do it!
What a fun idea. You know, I struggled a lot with Little Man in first grade because he thought it was so boring. It took a while for us to find books that interested him and I would literally read one page and he would read the next, trying to teach him how to use his voice fluctuation to make the book fun. LOL
I love the idea of cooking the recipes they read about. That’s the perfect way to bring stories to life.
Love these ideas! I’ve been trying to get my son more into reading and I think these would help.
What a great way to get kids involved in books and excited to read!
My boys love robots. Looks like a really cute book that holds their attention!
I love that these books have activities to go along with them. It reminds me of school where you answer questions on the story but this is more fun with games!
Lucky for me, my kids LOVE to read! I love the idea of making reading interactive!
My kids love to pretend to be heroic characters. I don’t mind because it keeps their imaginations alive and it is entertaining.
What a cool concept! I can see how it will really get kids excited about reading – whether they’re old enough to read themselves or be read to. Great idea!
This looks like a fun way to encourage reading with your kids. My kids are really into anything that involves the chance to use computers, tablets etc.
My girls would have loved this when they were little. Today’s toddlers have so many cool things to choose from!
Love all you suggestions for bringing reading to life. I try to engage my children in stories beyond just reading them by extending their learning and understanding in lots of different ways!
I made reading exciting for my son by letting him read whatever he was interested in. Even if it was something like comic books. As long as it had words, and he was all over it, I was good.
This looks really neat–I would enjoy doing this with my son.