Ad – Gifted Items
This week it is Storytelling Week and as we LOVE books and storytelling is such an important skill, I wanted to mark the week in some way. I am running a zoom session for the children and some of their friends where we will explore stories and have a go at telling our own.
Why Celebrate Storytelling?
The art of storytelling is very old and it’s how we had passed on traditions and knowledge. I think orally telling stories is really important for developing skills in oration and helping to discover imagination.
I also want the children to think about what makes a good story, and if there is a difference to reading and telling a story (out loud).
Materials Needed
The idea of telling a story off the cuff can tbe quite daunting so having some props to hand help to stimulate ideas. We have been lucky to be sent some lovely items from the team at Laurence King Publishing to mark the day. We will be using the following items across the week and during the session:
These are three very different tools to aid with storytelling. The Space Travel Dice, in particular, have been big hits with the older two and they spent about 90 minutes this afternoon playing with them. There are three other sets of these dice and I am definitely going to be getting some more of them as it’s been lovely listening to the stories they’re making.
The Story Out The Box is a set of cards which set a subject then a technique. I found this was really fun for giving the children ideas of things to tell a story about and I think we will be using this a lot, especially when they’re a touch older and we are working on developing their written skills a bit more.
The Space Travel Dice are excellent and Em has asked for some others (there are four sets I think). The dice are thrown and the prompts used to tell a story. It’s been interesting listening to them so far and even H can get involved with this one as he can talk about the images on the dice and start to form a story.
Finally, the Snow White Story Telling scene is a great way to get them to think about the steps of a story. It comes with various characters and props and as Em read the story from the enclose booklet H identified the characters. I then got him to retell the story to me, using the characters as prompts.
How I will run the Session
We will start by thinking about the tradition of storytelling and which cultures still use it. We will then think about stories that we enjoy and the children will share which are their favourite stories and why. I want them to think about language and how it differs when stories are read in their head or when they’re read aloud.
We will then each take turns to write a story using tools we have to hand, either storytelling dice or cards or the such. We will then hopefully share our stories aloud with each other.
Follow up with my own children
Afterwards, I’ll probably do a bit more with all three children. They have really enjoyed playing with the Snow White Storytelling set although they’ve kept to the traditional story so far. I think I might use the cards from Story out of The Box to add some twists in the traditional tale to see how they react. We will also use some of the technique cards from the Story out of the Box to explore some traditional tales a bit more too to get them thinking about how stories change over time.
interesting and novel