Review: Storyline Online

http://www.storylineonline.net/index2.html

Children's Website; Streaming Storytimes

Grades: Preschool-2nd

First Accessed: November 24, 2008

A collection of online streaming videos featuring Screen Actor's Guild members reading picture books.

My Thoughts:

This is an absolutely amazing website. It has some VERY famous people reading picture books in video format. (Jason Alexander, Elijah Wood, Melissa Gilbert, Sean Astin, etc.) As professional actors, the quality of the reading is amazing. Also, the movement between the book illustrations (some of which have been animated, andthe actors themselves, is very smooth and well done. Also, the books that have been chosen are titles that will appeal to children, and are a wide mix of award winners, new classics, and just plain fun! (A Bad Case of Stripes, Stellaluna, Polar Express.)

One of the neatest features of this site is the ability to either merely hear the story, or to see the text along with the reading. This is great for encouraging literacy in children. Early readers can gain experience reading along with the actors. There are even activities to go along with many of the stories. However, my favorite feature was quite simple: each story clearly tells you how long the video runs. This is very important if you want to use one for a storytime or in a classroom setting. (Or as a bedtime story...you wouldn't want the kids staying up later than they ought to!)

Thoughts of Others:
No Critical Reviews Available

Storytime...SOLO!

I did my first solo storytime at the public library a couple of weeks ago. My trainer, Librarian Amy, filmed the performance. It differed from my previous experiences in that this was a storyTIME not a storyTELLING session. I had to incorporate more fingerplays, songs, and read from some actual books. She did not film the whole thing, but rather segments of it, which I have posted to the left.

The actual venue was the 11:15 Tuesday Lapsit. Lapsits, or babytimes as they are sometimes called, are geared at children 6 months old up to 2 1/2 years. Our attendance averages in the upper 30's to low 40's. I had around 40...babies. The 40 does NOT include the caregivers! That is a LOT of babies, a lot of kinetic energy, and a lot of noise.

I was not overly concerned about the number of attendees, since babies tend to be fairly non-judgmental. However, there were a lot of distractions, and the parents were not familiar with all of the songs I sang, so I ended up doing a couple solos.

The theme was sheep....and the line-up included:

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Sheep Asleep by Gloria Rothstein
"This is the Way..." traditional song
"Five White and Fluffy Sheep" traditional song