Outreach Storyteller Program

The Outreach Storyteller Program is a library service that is funded in full by the Stayton Public Library Foundation and run by trained library staff.

The Outreach Storyteller Program is designed to provide reading readiness services to Stayton area children before they reach elementary school.   Early literacy skills begin developing in the first 5 years of life.  Common thought used to be that a child’s success at reading depended on getting the “right” first grade teacher.  Now we know that a child’s likelihood for success in the first grade depends on how much they have learned about reading before entering school. 

Children whose parents and caregivers read aloud to them every day become better readers and perform better in school.  Other activities, such as telling stories and singing songs, also encourage children’s acquisition of literacy skills.  Children’s early experiences with books are among the most significant indicators for their success in learning to read in school, and supportive efforts that begin very early in life are the most successful.

During the first year the Outreach Storyteller Program served 250 pre-kindergarten children in 16 classrooms at 10 sites.  The Storyteller visits each class twice a month and talks to the children about the library, reads library books, and used finger plays, songs, puppets, and other activities during the visit to engage the children in the stories. The Storyteller delivers a rotating collection of book bags to each school classroom for teachers to keep and use in their classrooms for a month. The program also gives away four to six books a year to each participating child to take home and begin, or supplement, their own personal library collection. 

In the 2010/2011 school year the program will be expanded to add up to six preschool classes and seven kindergarten classes.  The program also plans to conduct free Early Childhood Literacy programs at the library for parents and caregivers to encourage reading aloud to children, teach children and parents how to use the Stayton Public Library, and inform families on early literacy services available in the community. 

The Outreach Storyteller Program expands the reach of the Stayton Public Library.  Children who attend daycare or preschool and kindergarten are often unable to attend library activities, such as story time, due to the work schedule of their caregivers.  The goal of this program is to help families and caregivers improve children's reading skills by bringing the library and its services directly to them.  By taking the library to pre-school classrooms we go outside the library walls.  The Outreach Storyteller Program will hopefully kindle a desire in these students to explore their community library and discover the world of reading.

For information on how to donate to the Outreach Storyteller Program click here.