This month, kindergarten children at my school participated in a special program called The Firefly Project offered by Theatre Direct in Toronto.  They were shown many ways to enjoy the experience of storytelling and learned a variety of techniques for expressing themselves through the use of their voices and creative movement.  They also had the opportunity to invent, tell and role play their own stories, in addition to having them recorded and written down.  Truly this was a wonderful time for children to use their imaginations and to discover the magic of storytelling and the power they possess to create and bring to life stories of their own.

In my classroom, we have enjoyed exploring storytelling using picture books based on traditional folk tales.  The first is The Enormous Potato, retold by Aubrey Davis.  This is one of my favourites because in addition to being an engaging story that allows children to join in telling and dramatizing it, it introduces children to basic concepts about books, such as the characters, and the order of events (sometimes called the story map).  When I read the story to my class, I invited different children up to pretend to be the farmer, the wife, the daughter, the dog, the cat and the mouse.  We all held on to each other while trying to uproot the child in the starring role – the potato!  Afterwards, many of the children drew pictures to represent what they could remember about what happened in the story – what came first, what happened next, and how the story ended – and these were displayed so children could admire each other’s work.

Another story we have enjoyed is Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern.  This story is great because there is lots of repetition, which allows children to learn the story, and they can join in by imitating all of the sound effects such as the bed that creaks, the floor that squeaks, the kettle that hisses and a variety of animals.  They really enjoy mooing, barking, meowing, braying and crowing!  Using images I found on-line, I created a number of felt board pieces so that children could look at the book and retell the story independently using these colourful props.  I have really enjoyed listening in as the children re-tell the story and help each other to remember what happened and which sounds to make.

Storytelling makes such an important contribution to children’s learning and personal development.  It builds imagination and allows children to visualize.  It encourages listening in children and builds their appreciation of language.  It teaches them new and interesting words.  It can aid them in building writing skills.  It helps them enjoy books and to learn important things about the parts and the structure of stories (e.g., characters, setting, plot, crisis and resolution). It gives them confidence as they practice retelling stories themselves.  Storytelling invites children to discover different cultures and traditions and to share their own.  It encourages children to collaborate and to experience joy together.  Storytelling simply makes people more human, and to quote Isak Dinesen, “to be a person is to have a story to tell.”

Five Little Snowmen

Simple felt board snowmen can be made by cutting out and decorating construction paper, covering the pieces with laminating film and attaching felt to the back with glue.  Use glittler glue to make the red bows! Children can then enjoy this counting rhyme as they manipulate the pieces.  With each repetition of the rhyme, subtract one snowman until none remain.

Five little snowmen standing in a row/Each had a hat and a big red bow

Out came the sun and it shone all day/And one little snowman melted away.

Five Little Snowflakes

Though you can recite this rhyme without puppets, it is easy to make your own. Using the instructions for the Five Little Leaves activity posted earlier in the fall, (http://earlychildhoodartsconnection.ca/?p=177), you can make simple snowflake finger puppets to support your enjoyment of this counting rhyme.  Many beautiful snowflake pictures can be found in Google Images, but you should also feel free to cut out and laminate your own.  The snowflakes provide children with concrete objects to count and can help to reinforce their understanding of the number five.

Five little snowflakes dancing here and there/Until one little snowflake flew into the air!

Repeat the rhyme, subtracting – or removing - one snowflake each time until none remain.  The last verse is:

Zero little snowflakes, not one to be found/Because five little snowflakes have fallen to the ground!

Funny Little Snowman

A funny little snowman, he had a carrot nose/Along came a bunny, and what do you suppose?

That hungry little bunny came looking for some lunch/He ate the snowman’s carrot nose…

Nibble, nibble….crunch!

This rhyme can be role-played using simple props such as a plush snowman toy and finger puppet. Take turns being the snowman and the bunny!  To help children learn the poem,  leave words out at the end of each line and encourage children to fill in the blanks!  This helps them to pay attention to words that rhyme, to predict what will happen next, and to remember the words as you recite the poem.