Story Wheel

I think one day when Emma looks back on her childhood at some memorable moments, our story times will be in those moments remembered, at least I know that is something that will always be special and memorable to me.
Sometimes instead of reading books we tell stories from our imaginations. Emma will choose if she wants to be the story teller or listener. I love hearing her stories. They are always a mixture of things happening in our lives and things she hopes to happen; all twisted up with magic, fairies, talking animals and all other wild things that can only be found in a four year old's amazing little mind.
Story telling is a wonderful way for a child to express the way they are feeling. This morning I was told a story of a mermaid that moved to a wonderful new ocean and loved her new magical fish friends. You can imagine how happy this made me; being that we have just moved and I worry day and night about how she is adjusting. With tears in my eyes and a big smile on my face I just had to give Emma the biggest squeeze and tell her how happy I am for that mermaid.

This brings me to our latest project. Emma has been asking to make what she called a "story spinner" for the past week. We sat down and brainstormed together so I could figure out exactly what purpose she had in mind for this story spinner. What we came up with was a wheel that we can spin  to start our imagination stories with. Off we went to gather supplies:

1 sheet of foam board

1- 1" fastener

x-acto knife

markers

 

 First draw a large (about 12-18") circle on the foam board, we used a large mixing bowl to trace ours. Then draw lines to divide it into 8 equal sections. Next draw an arrow just a little smaller then the circle. I just did this free hand, doesn't have to be perfect. Now for the fun, we sat and thought of different things we like to tell stories about and drew pictures in each section of the wheel. We added some color to the arrow and I cut both the arrow and wheel out with an x-acto. Use the knife to pierce a small x in the center of the circle and the arrow and attach them with the fastener.
There you have it....the beginning to many fun and special stories told together.

P.S. I also use story telling as a way to prepare the kids for changes or events coming up and to teach lessons, for example we recently had a story about a big sister bear who did not like sharing her things with her baby brother bear. They seem to pay attention more when it is not directed to them and funny talking bears help too!