“”North Woods International School unveiled their brand new outdoor story walk feature this week.
A story walk is designed to integrate the enjoyment of reading a picture book with the benefit of being active. It is a great way to get all students involved with reading in a fun and engaging way regardless of their reading level. The story walk also encourages teamwork and cooperation while working with classmates.
“We were inspired by the success of our last two story walks we held at North Woods International,” said North Woods teacher Sara DePaolo. “During those story walks, students walked, jumped, and climbed to the next pages of the story stopping to read and discuss what they thought would happen next. We saw reluctant readers engage with younger buddies as they read aloud to them.”
To build on that success, North Woods staff planned the creation of a permanent outdoor story walk feature to provide students with a variety of experiences and picture books from different reading genres. The plan included changing out the stories monthly to keep students interested and engaged.
“We thought it would be beneficial to have permanent displays for ongoing story walks and it could be used on a regular basis instead of just a one-day event,” said North Woods teacher Jeanette Schams. “Offering a permanent story walk would be a great strategy to not just achieve goals of increased literacy experience and increased physical activity but to also develop some lifelong readers as well.”
The story walk adds more than 800 hours of student reading this year. The first featured book is “Be Kind”, by Patricia Zietlow. The story will recognize and reinforce the value of kindness.
Staff and students held a ribbon cutting ceremony at North Woods International School to celebrate the new permanent story walk fixture. After the ceremony, students and teachers used the course for the first time.
The story walk was funded through a Gold Star Grant from the La Crosse Public Education Foundation and underwritten in part by Coulee Bank in La Crosse.””””[vc_gallery type=”flexslider_slide” interval=”0″ images=”14563,14559,14560,14566,14561,14562,14564,14565,14569,14567,14568,14558″ img_size=”625×417″]””
