Presenting Storytelling To Children

Storytelling can be presented in different ways to create richer learning experiences for children. Show a child how to make a puppet. Make it simple and fun, and build on the child’s ideas. Children can do drama plays in a small group using simple props such as a box to represent a boat. The boat that you introduce in the drama play will be the theme for the next book you read to the child, helping her make connections.

Set up a play area and allow children to organize their play within this boundary. As children we had one room where we could set it up for our pretend play. The games we played here were different to the games we played outside, but all games were structured. It isn’t necessary to perform children’s plays, and I like to do a few spontaneous ones until one idea is developed from these. When the time is right, I like to suggest a performance. By this time the children are so confident and happy that they excitedly say, ‘yes!’ In my experience, when a performance is suggested in the beginning stages, the children will feel anxious.

When stories with similar themes are explored, the child feels secure with the consistency this brings. Children enjoy repetition and gain different perspectives when revisiting ideas. They also more readily learn new vocabulary, and this is especially helpful for children with special needs.

I give children time to explore the ideas in the book, before reading it to them. For example, if the theme of the book is on the life cycle of a butterfly, we do creative activities based on it. We play games, tell about our own experiences, draw caterpillars and butterflies, tell our own stories, we act the lifecycle out and so on. Then children will be able to relate to the story more. This is particularly helpful for stories with themes that the children is not familiar with such as about another country, culture, animals, buildings etc.

Once the child learns about a new idea, this idea is repeated in a different way with a new activity. There’s always something new to learn, with the old idea as the consistent part to build from. I allow children time to ask questions, and these drive their learning. I tell children about how much I’m learning from them to develop a sense of two way, cooperative learning.

Thank you for reading,
Maria Grujicic (Malena)

http://www.onelittlecaterpillar.wordpress.com

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