Camp Wacki Kooki stories are not just fun for kids, they help build listening skills as well!

As a teacher, you know that kids today need to learn to create inner imagery. Listening to stories is a great way to help kids develop their own "mental pictures."

Dr. Bob Reiher, Ph.D. says, "A quick and powerful tool to spark a child's imagination is by playing them stories on audio tape. Instantly, kids start to become more inner-active. They imagine the story they're hearing, building mental pictures of the action. They create their own 'inner' imagery which engages them internally, changing their focus from external excitement and distraction." Listening to stories also helps kids learn to concentrate, and builds their ability to use language, symbolism, and metaphors, which are the keys to critical thinking and problem solving.

Camp Wacki Kooki offers a simple exercise to help build kids' listening skills.

Here's how it works.

1. Have kids listen to a Camp Wacki Kooki story. They range in length from 10-15 minutes.
2. Each story is accompanied by 10-15 questions that test how closely students listened to story. Have kids answer the questions.
3. Discuss their answers. Have students describe or draw different story events as best they can recall to help reinforce the mental pictures they've created. For example: Draw Sticky Stanley trying clean mud off his pants with the paint rag.

Click here to download Camp Wacki Kooki Worksheets

Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to read the above files, get your free copy here.

Installation Instructions

1. Click on one of the links above to download the Acrobat 3.01 Reader installer application. You may need to use the "Save Next Link As..." or "Save to Disk" functions of your Web browser.
   
2. After the download is complete, quit your Web browser.
   
3. Double-click the newly downloaded file "ar32e301.exe"
   
4. Follow the instructions on your screen.