Stories with a Twist! :: Barb Lawson

Your own school has many special events and reasons to celebrate. Barb would love to come and share her stories and songs with your students, staff and parents. Contact her about being part of your own unique school celebrations, or check out the list below. There are many great reasons to have Barb come to your school! She’s ready!

A Bunch of Great Reasons to Have
Barb Come to Your School:

January
Happy New Year! Happy Mid-Year! Celebrate the middle of the year (or the 100th day of school) with a wonderful program of stories and songs to keep kids motivated and moving into the second half of the school year. Barb’s ready!	January 5 National Bird Day Barb will share some of her favorite bird stories and songs, along with many other animal tales!	January 19 Popcorn Day Have a popcorn assembly and popcorn parties! Contact Barb for more information
January 23 National Pie Day Yummy! Let’s sing a Pie song and tell some Pie stories!	January 30 Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day Why not celebrate with Barb?

February
Want to do some great activities in February? Click here!
Library Lovers' Month A celebration of school, public, and private libraries. Find out more at the NEA website. Barb can act out some great stories from a variety of picture and folktale books	February 2 Groundhog Day Sing a Groundhog song with Barb! How about a Shadow Story? Contact Barb!	February 4-10 Children's Authors and Illustrators Week Invite Barb to share her own books that she has written and illustrated. She'd love to talk about her work! childrensauthorsnetwork.com
February 14 Valentine’s Day Barb will sing some silly love songs and tell some lovely stories on this special day.	February 28 International Pancake Day You’ll be “flipping” over Barb’s song about pancakes! Schedule a storytelling program now!

March
Want to do some great activities in March? Click here!
Read Across America March 2, in a nationwide celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday Visit the National Education Association web site for more information. Barb can help make this celebration come alive! She always ends her program with a wild and crazy reading of “THE CAT IN THE HAT.” You have to see it to believe it.	Music in Our Schools Month This celebration of music education features the World's Largest Concert. Find more information about the celebration at www.menc.org Barb’s songs will have everyone joining in and singing! She will have everyone moving and grooving! Shake it up! Sing it out!	March 17 St. Patrick’s Day Wear green and sing some silly green songs!
March 21 - March 25 Virginia Festival of the Book Charlottesville are surrounding school districts. Visit the Virginia Festival of the Book web site for more information. Barb has been a VFB featured storyteller for the past 4 years! She would love to come to your school and share her songs and stories!	March 26 Make Up Your Own Holiday Day Like it says — make up your own holiday and contact Barb to help celebrate!

April
Want to do some great activities in April? Click here!
National Poetry Month April is National Poetry Month: Visit the Academy of American Poets web site for more information. Let Barb help highlight your young writers by presenting some of their poems during her assembly program!	Kids, Animals and Literacy Celebrate of the ASPCA (The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Month. Contact: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Barb has many great songs and stories about animals to share with you! What a great cause to celebrate!	April 1 April Fools’ Day What better way to celebrate such a foolish day, then to have Barb visit!
April 7 No Homework Day What kid wouldn’t want to celebrate such a special day? Let Barb entertain the entire school in observance of No Homework Day!	April 12 National Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) Day The National Education Association; National PTA; the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association; Reading Rockets and Harper Collins Childrens’ Books are calling for families to drop everything and read together for 30 minutes. Get resources and find out more at: dropeverythingandread.com. Barb can help start or end this special day by singing silly songs and telling ticklish tales!	April 15 - April 21 National Library Week Visit the American Library Association web site for more information. Barb will share stories and songs that will celebrate the fun of reading!
April 22-28 Week of the Young Child This year's theme is "Building Better Futures for All Children." The National Association for the Education of Young Children established this celebration to highlight the need to ensure that each and every child experiences the type of early environment--at home, at child care, at school, and in the community--that will promote their early learning. Learn more about the Week of the Young Child here or here. Let Barb help you celebrate young children with her child-centered program of songs and stories!	April 22 Earth Day Celebrate Earth Day with Barb. She’ll share all her songs and stories about skunks, trees, birds, and bean stalks – and of course a bunch of other animals and plants will be included in the festivities

May
Want to do some great activities in May? Click here!
Get Caught Reading Month This celebration is sponsored by the Association of American Publishers. There are images of celebrities who have been caught reading and you can download copies of the images or order free posters. Check it out at: www.getcaughtreading.org Have a “Get Caught Reading” celebration and let Barb start it off with a bang!	May 1 Mother Goose Day Barb has some great renditions of these traditional poems! She’d love to share them with you!	May 1 School Principals’ Day Let Barb entertain your school principal on this special day! Your principal deserves a good laugh!
May 6 Do-Dah-Day Call Barb and find out about this wild and crazy day!	May 7-13 Teacher Appreciation Week This activity is sponsored by the National PTA to honor the dedication, passion, and caring nature of teachers. Find out more at the National PTA website and link to Teacher Appreciation. Barb was an elementary teacher for 22 years and she loves and appreciates everything that teachers do! She can help salute and celebrate those wonderful educators!	May 14-20 Reading is Fun Week Reading is Fundamental is the nation's largest nonprofit children's literacy organization. Each year they sponsor Reading is Fun Week as a way to encourage families across the country to pick up the habit of reading for pleasure. Find out more at: www.rif.org Barb can come read and tell stories to you students, teachers and parents

June

School’s Out for Summer
Barb will come celebrate the end of another successful school year with fun, crazy, songs and stories!

July
Summer Library Fun! Barb would love to be part of you summer library programs!	Summer School Fun! Barb has been part of many summer school programs!	July 10 Don’t Step on a Bee Day Sing some insect songs! Barb has some great ones!

August
Summer Library Fun! Barb would love to be part of you summer library programs!	Summer School Fun! Barb has been part of many summer school programs!

September

New School Year Celebration
Invite Barb to come help kick-off your new school year! She can work with any theme you have or she will come up with one of her own! Her energetic, interactive programs will get students and teachers ready for a wonderful school year.

September 8
International Literacy Day
International Literacy Day is sponsored annually by the International Reading Association and is designed to focus attention on literacy issues. The International Reading Association estimates that 860 million adults, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, do not know how to read and write. They also estimate that more than 100 million children worldwide do not have access to education. International Literacy Day is just one way the Association strives to increase literacy around the world.

Barb can help spark the joy of reading with some of her favorite stories and songs!

September 19
Talk Like a Pirate Day
Shiver me timbers! Barb loves to talk like a pirate! Call her, matie! Or call her matie! :) Arrgh!

September 22
Welcome, Fall!
Fall officially begins at 3:40 PM. Let Barb help bring in the new season with stories and songs.

A Saturday in September
National Book Festival
The dates change each year, but the National Book Festival is an annual celebration of books and the joy of reading. Find out more about the previous years' festivals and specific dates for the upcoming festival at: www.loc.gov/bookfest Invite Barb to share her book writing experience as well as other great stories from popular picture books and folktale books.

October
National Book Month The National Book Foundation seeks to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America. Through The National Book Awards, the Foundation recognizes books of exceptional merit written by Americans. Celebrate National Book Month in your school. To find out more, check at: nationalbook.org. Barb can come and share her books with your school, plus many other fun stories!	October 3-5 National Storytelling Festival The International Storytelling Center inspires and empowers people around the world to capture and tell their stories, listen to the stories of others, and use storytelling to produce positive change. Read more about this festival at: storytellingcenter.com. Barb can share her storytelling talents and even talk about how she became a storyteller. Celebrate storytelling throughout your entire school!	October 19 - 26 Read Aloud to a Child Week Visit the Read Aloud Virginia web site for more information. Barb would love to come read aloud to your students and staff! She can share her own picture book, JAMBO, WATOTO! (Hello, Children!) and many others!
October 18 Happy Birthday, Shel Silverstein! Celebrate this wonderful poet’s birthday with a Shel Silverstein assembly! As part of the program, Barb will act out some of Shel’s most wonderful, zany poems. Your own young poets can be part of this assembly! (Check out the Programs page for more info on highlighting your young writers during the program.) Find about more about Shel and how to throw a birthday bash by visiting this link.	October 31 Halloween Barb will whip up some fun and fantasy for this special day. Some scary (just a teeny bit scary) and silly (a whole LOT silly) songs and stories will be shared to celebrate this holiday. ReadWrite website

November
November 1 National Family Literacy Day The National Family Literacy Center celebrates the importance of having the whole family involved in literacy and learning. Check out this website for information on this special day. Barb can perform a Family Fun Night event or Laugh-Out-Loud Literacy Night for your children and families!	November 15 Barb’s Birthday Bash Barb would love to spend her birthday with you sharing wild and wonderful songs and stories! She will even bring a birthday gift for your school!
The First Library in the USA “The Library Company,” the country's first subscription library, was founded by Franklin and friends in November, 1731. Let Barb help celebrate Ben and the first library!

December

Winter Holiday Celebration
Barb has stories and songs from around the world that will add you’re your winter holiday celebrations.