Guest Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I am hoping to set up a book bag scheme in our foundation stage unit. Has anyone got one of these set up and do you have any useful snippets of information or top tips that they can offer? Best places to get resources, managing them? Getting them off the ground etc?? Any resources to share Many Thanks Sarah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 we made our own out of calico and printed pictures of the theme, or stuck on felt/fabric /sequin/sparklyshapes, ..........................bags can be bought quite cheaply, or ask willing parents to make them for you, try to match fabric to theme.Or the consortium sell lovely cotton bags with a plastic pocket on the front, so you can pop a label in there with the theme, plus what should be in the bag.Then, charity shops,e-bay, boot sales, donations from parents of whatever you want your story to be.Our local scrapstore has also started to loan out, free of charge, book sacks for half a term at a time, and they deliver them too. so worth looking until you get yours off the ground??sometimes, LEA's do them too, or your local library.We have puzzles, books, soft toys(lots of ty beanies, they are now incredibly cheap on ebay), puppets, worksheets if you think they're appropriate,game, notes to parents on how to use the bag if they are to go home on loan......................ask them to let you know if anything gets lost or damaged...........and be prepared to do running repairs, or add refills.Nice idea to get parents involved, but be clear you are looking for things in good condition, intact puzzles/books which haven't been scribbled on, toys with appropriate number of eyes, limbs etc!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Our local primary school asked for parents to volunteer to make these.... they sent out a letter asking for help, then supplied a bag and a book with a suggested list of items to put in it to parents who were interested , they then went and found suitable items.. this is done at regular intervals. The bags contain things like puzzles, games, soft toys, any props suitable to go with the story, and also a laminated note in each one giving parents ideas on how to use the items , many will not know the most effective way to use the props, until this was added many just used to give bag to child to play with and there was no interaction with parent which is the idea behind these. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 some settings.... (not mine cause Im not that organised) held story sack courses this involves providing training sessions and the resourses and getting the parents to make the bags its quite a cost effective way of making story sack rather than buying professionally made ones if the parents are involved in the making of the sacks they also help maintain them in better condition washing and repairing the sacks if your interested in running such an activity it might be worth contacting your early years to see if there are any grants available we give out reading books and have a travelling teddy which we find goes down well but we do need to keep a tight eye on who has got what because its easy for books to go missing on a regular basis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Hi there We used to have story sacks but eventually we found they became to time consuming to run as we didn't get enough help from parents to check them and there were always bits missing. So we reduced them down to 'sharing bags'. We did a sponsered sing to raise money them bought our bags from Mappac or it might be Mappack. A parent embroidered the book titles which were then stitched on the front. All we have in is a book and puppets. We bought most of our resources from Early Excellence at Huddersfield. We charge £1 to join to cover replacing anything and the children take them home every other week alternating with the other session. It has worked much better and we now have Yr6 pupils down in their break to check and lend them out for us. Hope that helps. Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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