You are in for a treat – this blog contains 18 audio stories, written and read by 1st graders in the Banyan Room. The stories are an offshoot of the larger 1st Grade Library project that culminated with a weeklong event at our school last week.

Some technical notes: The stories were recorded using an iRiver mp3 recorder, the music was added and the stories were edited using Audacity, the music clips come from FreePlay Music, the stories are being stored at the archive.org website and this blog is hosted by Edublogs in Australia.

To begin enjoying the stories, select and follow the appropriate instructions below:

1. Listen to the audio stories directly from your web browser: Click on any of the titles below. The audiobook will load and begin to play momentarily. Be sure that your volume is turned up! You may need to have QuickTime installed in order to hear the story. (Windows users can download Quicktime here.)
2. Subscribe to the audio stories as a podcast in iTunes: This is a fun option because you can then transfer the stories to your iPod/MP3 player or burn the stories onto a CD. You have 2 ways to listen to our stories through iTunes:
1. Click on the Listen in iTunes link on the left side of our page, and when prompted, click the Launch Application button in the window that pops up.
2. Go to iTunes, click on the Music Store and choose Podcasts. Search all podcasts for 1st Grade Banyan and we will show up as one of the first choices.
3. Subscribe using another podcatcher: Go to our Feedburner feed page and click on the right-hand link that says Show all Subscribe options. Click on your choice.

I know that the Banyan kids would appreciate any and all comments you may have about their stories. Feel free to pass our website information along to others as well, and be sure to check out the links we’ve provided to the Huckleberry and Maple classroom stories.

Big Love,
1st Grade Banyan