Storytime Stretchers

Book excerpt: Includes more than forty selections, including action songs, chants, tongue twisters, musical games, and audience participation tales. Whether you are working with preschoolers or high schoolers, a story stretcher is a great way to create immediate rapport with your audience and within your group. These "two-minute miracles" from storyteller Naomi Baltuck will have children and adults, singing, moving, laughing, and begging for more. For each stretcher, she has included music, hand motions, tips for telling, or other personal touches developed during the countless times she has used it to hold the attention of her audiences. Time lengths and target audiences are also included so that you can select the best stretchers for every situation. Naomi has gathered these gems from her own childhood, from other storytellers, as well as from her children who bring home new activities from camp. Tried and true, these stretchers are a wonderful way to bring together family, friends, classes, Scout troops, and audiences everywhere.