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