Module Eight – Topic One: There’s more than one way to tell a story!

Reading a book is one way to tell a story but there are many ways to present stories to young children or to expand and bring to life the books that we choose to share. How have you experienced storytelling? Do you have a favorite memory of having a story presented to you as a child?

Oral traditions in most cultures have been ignored with the advent of technology but they are rapidly reviving. The tradition of oral storytelling in the First Nations culture has always been significant and is now being shared intentionally in First Nations Early Childhood programs as an important way to build cultural understanding and to connect culture to young children.

In her book “Learning to play; Playing to learn”, Susan Munzer talks about many ways to tell the same story: orally without book or props; with a book, with props, with felt story, with a story basket, musically, acting it out, using a magnetic board, and developing a story map. (Munzer, 2006).

In this module we will share these strategies and become familiar with developing resources and materials that allow us to tell stories in a variety of ways.

Storytelling Strategies

Reading from a book is by far the most common way to present a story to children. It is important to use an expressive voice, face and gestures to maximize the experience for children while reading a story from a book.

We can also paraphrase while we read, drawing children’s attention to the illustrations of a book. This works well when presenting informational material or with very long or detailed text (but be careful not to use this technique too often).

Telling a story without props can assist children to use their imagination as they are not distracted by pictures or props. It is very important to choose a simple and familiar story, to memorize it, use an expressive voice, face and gestures, and invite participation from the children. Commonly known fairy tales such as The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella work well.

Tell a story with props by using a prop to gain attention and to support the story. For example, in the story of The Three Bears, provide three different sizes of bears, bowls, chairs and beds to bring the story to life and to engage the children with the action.

Three Bears Props.

Using puppets captures the attention of the children as the puppet whispers in your ear and assists you to tell the story. The article by Ann Richards in this week’s readings talks about developing a personality for a puppet and using them to demonstrate engagement in the story; for example, having the puppet interrupt by saying, “I know, I know what is going to happen!” This allows the reader or teller to stop and get the children to predict the next action in the story. The puppet has broken the ice and modeled excitement and engagement. Richards describes the benefits of developing and using a consistent personality for the puppet, making the character very curious and having them ask a lot of questions. Take a look at this article to get more puppet ideas.

Felt board stories/rhymes/songs uses colourful felt figures to tell and act out the story. These characters can be bought (check out felt stories on a search engine to find many examples of commercially made felt board stories) or you can make them yourself with inexpensive materials and a little creativity.

Go to the following website to find templates for characters and also directions for creating felt board stories.

Children really enjoy being involved in the telling of the story and can be given a felt piece ahead of time and told to listen carefully to hear when it is their turn to put their piece on the felt board. For example in the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, the children are listening to hear the piece of food that the caterpillar eats so they can put their apple, pear, strawberry, etc. on the board. This draws them into the action and gives them a role in the telling of the story. It is also a great idea to put the felt board and felt story pieces in the book corner during free play, so that children can retell the story using these props. This supports children’s concept of story, develops memory, recall, imagination and emerging literacy skills in a play-based way that is uniquely meaningful to each child.

The Enormous Turnip.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Make your own picture stories by selecting three or four pictures from photos, magazines or on-line sources. Sort the pictures to suggest a story sequence, keeping the story short and include the children in both finding the pictures and sequencing them. Children are delighted when we capture their images in action and during play and turn these into stories that we sequence and present. These props are also great in the story corner where children can sequence and retell in their own way.

Drawing/cutting stories are magical because as you tell the story an image appears either in the drawing or the folding and cutting. There is an aspect of surprise and anticipation as children try to make sense of the lines and shapes as they emerge. These stories take some practice to perfect but they are well worth the time invested. This link will take you to a common folding/cutting story for early childhood.

Dramatization of a story is great fun for children as they try out various roles in familiar stories. It works best with a well loved story that the children and the educator have shared many times and know well. Some adult facilitation might be required as each child will have their own understanding of the action in the story. As the story is read, leave room for the children to use their own dialogue. It can deepen and extend the experience for the children to also add masks or costumes as they gain experience in acting the story out. A few stories that work well for dramatization are: “Caps for Sale”; “The Mitten”; “Mushroom in the Rain”; “Three Bears”; and “Mr. Gumpy’s Outing”.

Mr Grumpy's Outing.

A variation of dramatization is to take children on an imaginary journey. In this type of storytelling, you can build the story with the children, who come up with the action in response to questions from the educator. Richards describes the process of taking an imaginary journey with children in her article for this module’s reading. This is an amazing process that is interactive, builds upon the knowledge and imagination of the children and supports children’s understanding of story components. For example you could go to the land of the dinosaurs by getting into a time machine and going back to the time when dinosaurs were alive. You could have pictures of the landscape and the dinosaurs to help children to imagine what they need to take with them and to build some of the action elements for the children. The story script unfolds as children add their ideas but it is a good idea for the educator to have some structure and also places where the children contribute their ideas. Take a look at the article to see additional details of the process of creating imaginary journeys with children. Richards does add that it is important to have a transition back to the reality of the early childhood classroom to assist the children in separating their pretend experience from the real classroom.

Using music/sound effects can really add to a story and many songs are examples of great stories. One example of this is “Going on a Bear Hunt”, where the song is chanted with a call and answer style and children also act out the story as it unfolds.

You can also use musical instruments to interpret the story with the children playing specific instruments when a certain character is in action. In her book “Learning to Play, Playing to Learn”, Susan Munzer includes a story about the Bear family going on a walk in the forest .She describes various musical instrument sounds to represent each animal and event that the bears encounter, from birds, frogs, wind and rain. This technique can be adapted to many stories and children delight in anticipating and playing their instrument as the moment arrives.

Musical Bear story instruments.

Story Baskets

In your reading titled “A Story Basket”, Susan Munzer presents the idea of developing and using story baskets in the telling of stories to young children. Munzer describes choosing a special basket that you will use exclusively for stories. Children come to recognize the basket and anticipate the story with great excitement when they see you bringing it out. Munzer also always keeps the story props in the basket covered by a piece of fabric to build the curiosity and excitement.

She describes beginning the story by using a piece of coloured cloth that becomes the story board. You choose the colour of the cloth based on the setting of the story – for example, blue or green for the ocean, green for the forest, blue, gray or purple for the sky, etc. As you place the fabric down on the storytelling surface you begin with “Once upon a time”.

Creating the story basket

It is a lot of fun to search second hand stores, dollar stores, your own home and nature for the props for the stories. We often have many of the items in our homes or with slight alterations we can create them from materials we have on hand. It is a creative process for us and adds to the enjoyment of the process for both the storyteller and the children. Once you start creating story baskets, it is difficult not to think about finding props as you take a walk on the beach or in the forest, visit a flea market or go to garage sales.

As you prepare your basket for presenting the story, Munzer describes having the items arranged inside so that you know where to find things by touch. This is a skill that you build with time and it is also fine to look inside the basket to make sure you have the prop you need at that moment in the story.

She cautions us to always practice the story ahead of time to make sure it works with the props. As you tell the story, you bring out people, animals, or stage props and move them around according to what is required in the action of the story. You can use fabric to signify a forest, a house, a lake or an ocean and various scene changes.

Let the story unfold as you remember it in your own words. You can ask questions or let the children chant repetitive phrases along with you.

Place the story basket and props in the story corner during free play, for the children to retell in their own way – this will deepen their understanding of the story line in a very personal way.

Take a look at the article for more in depth information on developing and using story baskets and to see the benefits of using this storytelling technique.

I have used story baskets extensively with children, enjoying the process of creating the basket and also the telling of the story using the imaginative props. I have also been amazed at how engaged children become as they tell and retell the story using the fabric, figures and natural materials that are so evocative and motivate children to interact.

Hunwicks Egg.