Over the past couple of weekends I’ve been training, with a colleague, future library volunteers on how to perform a successful storytime. Included in that training is some basic early literacy information, so that volunteers will understand the importance of what they’re doing and what children are getting out of it (and why we do the things we do – fingerplays, flannelboards, age-appropriate stories, etc.). 
My colleague used an analogy that I really like, and I thought I’d share it with you. She said that children hearing stories are filling up their “word reservoirs” – so that they’ll have all those words to use in the future. We often talk about the idea of young children as sponges, soaking up experiences to learn about the world around them. Well, to continue her analogy, some of what they’re soaking up is getting wrung out into their word reservoir.
Let’s help our kids fill their reservoirs to the brim by reading lots of stories and talking to them all the time!
Revolution Read Aloud! 