[Bruk Taffesse]

After Storytime, I love using “character interviews”—I’ll put on a puppet or hold up a plush from the story and let the kids “ask” it questions. For example, after reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”, the children took turns asking the bear about its favorite foods or colors. They were giggling, trying out new words, and even making up silly animal voices.

[Ramla]

I tend to ask questions about the book, the characters, who their favorite character was and such. As well as having the kids remember one word each that they don’t know or is new to them and we go over them.

[Raba Munye]

One creative way I’ve used to get kids talking after Storytime is through <strong data-start=”126″ data-end=”147″>props and puppets. For example, after reading <em data-start=”176″ data-end=”218″>Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, I passed out animal puppets and asked each child to make their animal “talk” about what it saw next. The kids really enjoy this way of telling stories.

[Sandra]

After Storytime, I like to extend the story through play or props to spark conversation. For example, after The Very Hungry Caterpillar, children used toy food and a puppet to retell and expand the story. Open-ended questions and activities, like making playdough “feeling faces,” also encourage them to use new vocabulary in fun, meaningful ways.

[Ishah]

After Storytime, I ask open ended questions like “What would you do if you were this character?” I also use puppets or toys to act out the story, which gets kids talking and using new words. One favorite activity is a “word treasure hunt,” where children find objects that match new vocabulary, it’s always fun and full of conversation.

[Emily Erickson]

One of my favorite ways to get kids talking after Storytime is through <strong data-start=”137″ data-end=”160″>props and role play. For example, after reading <em data-start=”189″ data-end=”218″>The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I brought out felt food pieces and let the children “feed” the caterpillar. As they chose items, I asked open-ended questions like, <em data-start=”352″ data-end=”391″>“What do you think he will eat next?” or <em data-start=”395″ data-end=”443″>“How would you feel if you ate all that food?” This sparked lots of fun conversation and gave them the chance to practice new vocabulary.

[Toya]

For toddlers they love sing along songs. So to get them to interact we do sing along songs. Which has boost their confidence and vocabulary.

[Angela Neal]

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar book at circle time and then had a stuffed animal caterpillar that we passed around the room. When the child was holding the caterpillar, they said what food item their caterpillar would eat. Kids could reference a food from the book or talk about a food that they liked to eat at home.

[Adriana]

To foster engaging discussions after storytime and expand vocabulary, I incorporate props and puppets, act out the story, relate the narrative to children’s personal experiences, and pose open-ended questions. For a fun activity, I prepare a “mystery box” containing items from the story, prompting the children to identify them and then elaborating on their responses to introduce new vocabulary.

[Fabian Bombela]

some creative ways I have gotten kids to talk about a story after story time is by asking them questions about the story we were reading about. Younger kids love to answer questions and play a role in telling the story they just read about.

[Katherine]

In my center, children love Goldilocks and I love to act it for them in different voices so they can identify who is who like papa bear gets the loud big voice, mama bear gets the soft gentle voice and baby bear gets the baby voice, making the story captivating makes them want to hear more and more so after the story i use the voices of the characters to ask who said what.

[Gretchen]

I am not an early childhood educator. I assist in elementary classrooms and after school child care. That said, I have used story telling in the past as an aid to teaching other subjects. I would tell a story, using only one or two props. Then, we would use the imagery from the story as an aid to remember how to knit, for example.I also read every day to my child, at bedtime, as he was growing up, until about age 11. One reason we kept reading that long was because it was a time for just the two of us to bond or reconnect after a busy day. We also moved into books that his friends were reading but that had problematic topics. For example, he and his friends wanted to go see the Hunger Games movie. Many of his friends had read it but my child had not. I knew that my child would have issues with it because he is very sensitive. We read it together because I wanted to discuss with him the portrayal of children as disposable and fighting as something to be proud of. When we finished reading the series, he was able to watch the movies without being too stressed. Also, because we read together so much, he loves reading for himself now.

[Hamdi Hussein]

I like asking kids to act out parts of the story or draw their favorite scene. I also let them describe their drawings or tell what they think happens next. One time, after a story about animals, a child pretended to be a lion and made everyone roar—it got the whole group talking and using new words!

[Maryamo]

One of my favorite ways to get kids talking after Storytime is by using props or puppets from the story. I’ll pass the puppet around and let each child share what their favorite part was or what they think might happen next. Sometimes I also ask silly “what if” questions, like “What if the bear wore roller skates?”—kids love to imagine and it gets everyone talking and laughing while learning new words.<hr data-start=”505″ data-end=”510″>

[Katherine Ventura]

what I usually do is first of all make sure the story is captivating to children and they are curious about it, and I would use different voices for different characters so they can have their own personality and their own voice to make the story more captivating, after the story I usually ask for a recap and see who could tell me the first part of the story, the middle part and the last part, I usually ask for who was the characters and what voice they had.