School may be out for the summer, but Fort Scott area kids still have opportunities to enjoy a good book and time spent learning. Angie Bin, Theatre Director at Fort Scott High School, filled in as storyteller for Angie Kemmerer at today’s story hour. Today’s theme was “pirates,” and Bin spoke to an eager audience of children who listened intently to her expressive reading of the stories, including character-specific voices.

The story hour is part of a weekly summer program called “Dig Into Reading” put on for area children. According to Julie Townsend, the story hour is split up into two groups, one on Wednesdays for younger children, and the other on Saturdays for older children. “We get twice as many kids involved that way,” Townsend said.

Angie Bin emphasized the importance of literacy and learning for children. “It’s extremely important to read to kids every day,” Bin said. Bin said that the Parent Teacher Organization got involved with the story hour program 3 years ago. “It’s a fun way to get them interested in reading,” Bin said of kids’ involvement in story hour. Bin mentioned that activities for the younger and older kids’ groups are tailored to the age of the children involved. In order to cater to effective learning styles for younger children, Bin said that the younger group does “hands on” learning in the form of crafts projects that are designed to go along with that day’s story theme.