When I was pregnant I bought a book with seven fantastic stories. Every night me an my husband read a story to my belly. And now I read these stories to my newborn. The book is "7 habits of happy kids" by Sean Covey.

It may seem funny or even odd. One may say that she doesn't understand anything or that she doesn't listen even. Fair enough, babies usually eat and sleep a lot. I think you can use the breast-feeding time to strengthen the relationship between mother and her child. That's why I tell stories to my baby during breast-feeding. Currently, I'm too sleepy to come up with my own stories, so I read her the stories from "7 habits of happy kids". They are not only entertaining, they also teach values - 7 habits that are universal principles of personal and interpersonal effectiveness.
The seven habits are:

I've got the book in Polish, but I have found the first story in English on the Internet (http://seancovey.com/books/7kids/index.html#). You can also listen to some stories on YouTube.

Everything can be fun if you make it funny! 

During my last trip to Warsaw I bought a pack of wiggle eye rings. And I found them very useful in practicing everyday pharases with my younger studens. 

I decided to put into practice an idea of my friend, Jolanta Okuniewska.

Yesterday I asked a group of my students to take some photos of their hands wearing the wiggle eye rings.

Then they used Befunky.com to edit the photos. They added glasses, hair, moustaches etc. And they also added speach bubbles with everyday phrases. Here's the result:

We only had one camera and one computer, so some of my students were a little bit impatient waiting for their turn. I wish I had some tablets at school, so they could work in pairs. Anyway, we had a great time!

Some people may say that reading is a waste of time, you should just live your life and experience things. But I read a lot and I'm quite happy with that. There's always a book on my bedside table. I'm just looking for a bookcase to store a huge amount of books I have.

I'm not that kind of reader who can read a few books at the same time. What I need is a good story (rather fictional) I can read from cover to cover without interrupting. For a few years I've been choosing series, such as Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. And since I met my husband I have read a lot of fantasy. I've never expected I would be fond of such kind of books, but to my surprise I am. 

What makes books so powerful that we feel scared or excited reading them? I believe it's the story itself. People love stories. Some of us like reading stories, while others prefer listening to them. And of course, there are many gifted people who can tell really good stories.

It's amazing that we can even share our feelings while reading stories, e.g. when we are reading them aloud to children.
Today I'll present you my favourite sites to listen to and to create stories.

READ / LISTEN TO STORIES

Oxford Owl - Library

You have to Sign in to read eBooks, but it's free.

Storyline Online

 
I bet you'll love this site! Would you like to hear a story read by Betty White or Elijah Wood? If yes, it's the perfect place for you!

CREATE STORIES
If you would like to write your own stories or inspire your students to write theirs, there's no better site than Storybird.com.

You can create free classroom acount (up to 35 students). You can give assignments, keep your class activity private or share it. Making storybirds is easy, and students will be inspired to write by beautiful art.