Fall Storycamp: Bringing Stories to Life

Submitted by Kara Nitschke, Joey Lewis, Rachael Whitfield, and Sara Baggett-Preston

This year's Georgia Public Library Service Fall Storycamp focused on making storytime a more collaborative and engaging experience for children, families, and librarians. The core idea of Storycamp was to move beyond simply reading to children and instead create opportunities to read with them through conversation, movement, sign language, crafts, and other interactive methods.

Our sessions explored a range of innovative ways to tell stories:

• The Whole Book Approach: Led by Kelli McDaniel (Piedmont Regional Library System), this method encourages critical thinking and visual literacy by inviting children to discuss the text, art, and design of picture books, making storytime a shared conversation.
  
  
• Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs): We learned how games like these are beneficial for social development and enjoyed a demo of a game called Honey Heist. This sparked inspiration for new teen programming.
  
  
• American Sign Language (ASL): Evan Bush (GPLS Director of Youth Services) taught us key signs, demonstrating how ASL can enhance storytime, aid in transitions, and provide an educational activity for all ages.
  
  
• Creative Methods: We explored other methods of improvisational storytelling using myriorama cards and tandem poetry.

Evan Bush shared several wonderful picture books, including The Knowing Book by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and the classic Frederick by Leo Lionni, which we examined through the Whole Book Approach.

The camp also featured a hands-on craft exhibit:

• Inspiring Crafts: We created colorful paper fish, mini-comics, and tried Scherenschnitte (German papercutting).
  
  
  
  
  
• Staff Contributions: Our team shared their own creative ideas, including a flying bat craft and a tiny ghost garden.

Each attendee received a free book and won some free swag. The free book, Zoo Zen by Kristen Fischer, was a perfect match for an upcoming Mindfulness Storytime! 

Storycamp was a fantastic opportunity to gather new resources, spark creative program ideas, and connect with colleagues over folk dancing, Chi Kung, and a mutual love of bringing stories to life. View all the photos from Storycamp HERE. If you’d like more information or to see any of the resources we collected, please reach out to any of the attendees!