StoryWalk®
Out in the community? The StoryWalk® is an outdoor educational activity that places the pages from a children’s story along a walking route at a local park. Fun prompts build early literacy skills, combining the pleasure of reading with the benefits of learning and movement.
Monroe County StoryWalk® Locations and Stories
Flatwoods Park: 9499 Flatwoods Road, Gosport, in partnership with Monroe County Parks & Recreation
Current Story: Max Speed by Stephen Shaskan
Rev. Ernest D. Butler Park: 812 W. 9th Street, Bloomington, in partnership with Bloomington Parks & Recreation
Current Story: Everybunny Dance by Ellie Sandall
Learn more and watch a video about the Butler Park StoryWalk®.
Along our StoryWalk® stops, you'll see icons for Talk, Sing, Read, Write, and Play with coordinating activity suggestions to help encourage the growth of early literacy skills.
Children learn about language by listening to parents and adults talk and by joining in the conversation. Hearing and joining in on talking and conversation not only builds language fluency, but also builds important background knowledge for kids.
With singing, kids can learn new words and information, develop listening skills, and phonological awareness. Because singing slows down language so children can hear the individual sounds that make up a word it strengthens their phonological awareness.
Reading together, or shared reading, is the single most important activity caregivers can do with their children. It develops vocabulary and comprehension, nurtures a love of reading, and motivates children to want to learn to read.
Children learn about letters, words and stories when given the chance to try writing on their own. This is the gateway to writing. When a child signs their name on a piece of paper, even if it is scribbling, they are learning that they can write something that represents their name.
Children learn about language through play. More than that, playing builds conceptual knowledge of the world, words are able to map onto concepts, it engages children in problem-solving, and it fosters important social interactions.
The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT, and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. The Monroe County Public Library StoryWalk® is funded by the Friends of the Library Carol R. Nicholas Endowment for Strategic Initiatives.