Day: October 1, 2020

Here are a few things to consider as the leader of a program that wants to incorporate storytelling and story acting:

Modeling: Consider how you might incorporate more storytelling into your interactions with your staff.  Could you add a brief storytelling practice into staff meetings or team meetings?  Perhaps you could use storytelling and roleplaying as tools to solve problems or come up with solutions to challenging conversations.

Materials: Many storytelling prompts are inexpensive and many can be gathered through family donations. You may choose to purchase some prepackaged storytelling kits from your supply vendor to get the ball rolling.  Present these materials to your staff in a staff meeting and brainstorm how your team could create their own storytelling kits for the popular stories.

Assessments: Work with employees to identify the skills that they can assess during storytelling and story acting sessions. Here are just a few areas that teachers can document as part of their ongoing assessments of children’s learning:

• New vocabulary words
• Improved structure and focus of stories
• Memory skills
• Audience skills
• Listening skills
• Sequencing skills

Family involvement: As with most learning opportunities that take place in the classroom, it is important to identify ways to extend the learning to the home environment. Teachers should share videos of children engaged in storytelling with families along with tips on how to engage in storytelling at home.  Consider also inviting families into the program to tell their favorite stories.

For the main article Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Developmental Benefits of Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Storytelling Materials, CLICK HERE

For the article Story Acting, CLICK HERE

As children develop their storytelling skills, teachers may consider adding story acting to their routine. This involves children performing stories, either in part or in whole. Teachers can encourage children to act out their favorite parts of familiar books, poems, or nursery rhymes.

This process begins with the telling of a story. To introduce the concept, teachers could read a passage to children and ask them to act out what they think the character looked like during the scene, including the moves the character was making. As interest and skills develop, children can take on longer and longer scenes.

Children can even engage in story acting of original stories they create. This process requires the teacher to capture the stories that children tell by writing them on paper. Then the child and teacher work together to share that story with other children and determine which children will take on different roles in the story.  They then present the story acting to the audience of their peers.

With time and practice, story acting can become a valuable community-building element of your curriculum. Children learn to work together, listen to one another, and show respect during story acting experiences.

For more information about setting up story acting in your learning environment, check out this story acting resource.

For the main article Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Developmental Benefits of Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Storytelling Materials, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner, CLICK HERE

To help children practice storytelling, you can provide a wide variety of props and storytelling materials. You can include props from familiar stories that will encourage children to retell stories. These materials can be stored in plastic bins or cloth bags and rotated into the learning environment at different times of the year.  Random props should be available to promote original storytelling as well.  Here are a few ideas:

• Figures – plastic people and animals
• Props – Backdrops, houses, and scenery such as trees and mountains
• Puppets – store-bought or homemade
• Cutouts from magazines – attach tongue depressors to the cutouts so they are easier to manipulate
• Cutouts from recycled books
• Photos – pictures of children and their families attached to cardboard or contact papered to blocks
• Fabric scraps
• Items from nature
• Felt pieces and felt board
• Magnets and cookie sheets
• Stickers attached to cubes or blocks
• Painted rocks or story stones
• Decorated wooden spoons
• Recycled boxes or bottles

For the main article Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Developmental Benefits of Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Story Acting, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner, CLICK HERE

Storytelling provides opportunities for children to strengthen skills across developmental domains. Here is a look at just some of the skills children learn:

Language and literacy skills

• Children are exposed to and begin to use a wide variety of vocabulary words. They hear these words in context, which makes them more meaningful.
• They become familiar with patterns of spoken language. They notice changes in tone, inflection, and the pace of language.
• Children can begin to make the connection between spoken and written word if adults transcribe their stories onto paper.
• They develop an understanding of the parts of a story, including plot, setting, characters, climax, conflict, conclusion, etc.
• They develop an enthusiasm and excitement toward learning new things in story form, which can extend into an excitement about reading.

Social emotional skills

• Children employ their creativity and self-expression when telling original stories.
• Confidence is strengthened as children’s skills improve and their stories are seen as valuable.
• They are introduced to elements of different cultures and traditions, which can lead to a better understanding of their peers.
• Children are required to practice empathy and perspective-taking, which helps them see the world through the eyes of other people.
• They strengthen their listening skills when they listen to adults or peers tell stories.
• Children practice self-regulation as they show respect for the storytellers and use their audience skills.
• Relationships are built when adults take the time to tell a story to a child. When adults transcribe children’s stories, children feel a sense of trust and acceptance, which can strengthen trust and bonds between children and adults.

Cognitive skills

• Children will use their planning skills to develop the arc of the story. This is a skill that takes lots of practice to master. Young children will tell very disjointed stories at first.
• They begin to understand the order and sequence of a story, along with the meaning of words such as first, next, last, etc.
• Children will need to employ their problem-solving skills to help their characters out of sticky situations. This is an excellent way for children to explore how solutions to problems might work out, making it more likely that they will try these solutions in real life.
• Children use memory skills when retelling a familiar story or telling a story about an event they experienced.

Physical skills

• If adults encourage story acting, children will use physical skills to act out events of stories.

Seeing their words come to life on paper may encourage children to begin writing their own stories when they are developmentally ready to do so.

For the main article Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Storytelling Materials, CLICK HERE

For the article Story Acting, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner, CLICK HERE

It is said that every culture in the world uses storytelling as a way of passing down wisdom and history to younger generations.  Before there was written language, before scrolls and books, people used storytelling to share ideas and values with other members of the community. Storytelling is magical for children. It opens the doors to new worlds and helps children understand their heritage and traditions.

Young children are natural storytellers. If you step back and watch children at play, they are constantly telling stories about what is happening in their block town, the dramatic play area, and in their artwork. Early childhood educators can capitalize on this natural interest and ability by introducing a more formal approach to storytelling in the classroom.

By adding a storytelling element to your curriculum, you will introduce and reinforce so many developmental skills that will serve children throughout their education. In this newsletter, we will explore the benefits of storytelling and what it might look like to implement storytelling in your program.

For the article Developmental Benefits of Storytelling, CLICK HERE

For the article Storytelling Materials, CLICK HERE

For the article Story Acting, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner, CLICK HERE