Children have an interest in storytelling if they enjoy telling stories or listening to other people's stories. Storytelling excites children's imaginations and emotions. It helps them think and reflect.
Stories are much more than books at group time. They can be told orally, communicated through gestures and movement, written down, or told through forms of art.
EYLF learning outcomes
Communication is fundamental to the Early Years Learning Framework and involves expressing ideas and making meaning using a range of media (5.3). Storytelling is a social experience (3.1) that requires verbal and non-verbal interactions (5.1). It encourages reflexivity, curiosity, imagination and creativity (4.1).
Learning experiences
Retell a story
There are many opportunities for children to memorise stories and retell them later:
- Play Chinese Whispers. Children sit in a circle and whisper a quick story into the ear of the child next to them. That child repeats the story into the next child's ear. The last child repeats the story aloud to the group. How much did the story change?
- Read a simple book to a child. Now ask them to tell the same story to another child.
- Educators can ask a child to tell their parent about something good that happened during the day.
- Educators can ask children to tell stories about something they did on the weekend.
Tell a travelling story
Children sit in a circle. The first child starts telling a story. The next child adds another sentence to continue the story. Each child has a turn to add a sentence to the story.
Alternatively, an educator can write each child's words down on a large sheet of paper. The first child adds a sentence in the morning. Throughout the day, all children have a turn to add a sentence. At the end of the day, the educator reads the story to the group.
Play with puppets
Use hand puppets or shadow puppets to tell stories. If you don't have any, help the children make some.
Record audio stories
Children can practice their verbal storytelling and listening skills by playing with technology. Teach them to use an audio recorder so they can record and play back their own stories.
Make a story-telling basket
A storytelling basket has a range of interesting items. Children sit in a circle and take turns choosing an object and telling an imaginative story about it.
Tell a story with loose parts
Encourage children to use loose parts to create their own scenes. They could use bricks to create a castle, or leaves and twigs to create a forest. Toy figurines can be used as characters.
Interactions
- Remember to show deep respect when children tell stories, they are sharing a part of themselves.
- When you document a child's story, read it back to them afterwards. Check that it was written correctly. Write stories in their words, not your own.
- When telling your own stories to children, use sensory and emotive words. What did it smell like? How did you feel?
- Encourage children to make predictions during a story: "What do you think will happen next?"
Routines
Make dedicated storytelling sessions a part of your daily routine, that both children and educators look forward to.
Resources
Picture books
Press Here by Herve Tullet (a book for interactive storytelling)
Videos
State Government of Victoria:
Websites
- First5Forever: Made-up stories