‘If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life’. (Siberian Elder)

Kids acquire language unconsciously so stories are valuable resource for teaching language.They really like listening to stories, looking at story books,acting the stories out and creating something about the stories such as; a wall display, a big book or a mask. ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ is one of my students’ favourite stories that was written by Eric Carle.The story introduces the wonder of the metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to butterfly.It also teaches counting to 5, the days of the week and some food. They can learn many things, develop language skills while enjoying this great story.

WHY STORIES AND STORYTELLING ARE IMPORTANT

*Kids are exposed to fluent and natural English, it develops both fluency and accuracy.
*Stories offer an effective way of introducing new language, making it meaningful and memorable.
*Stories allow kids to practice listening and speaking skills as well as to stimulate their imagination and creativity.
*Storytelling is a good way to teach new words.Kids need to learn and remember many words.They remember new words easily when they like the story.
*Stories help them become aware of the structures of the language.
*It caters for different learning styles, it is both visual and audial.There are so many activities you can do with stories.
*Stories invite empathy and sharing between kids in class.
*Kids likes listening to a story again and again.Each time you retell a story, they will become more familiar and practice the structures of the language.
*Stories are interesting and fun.

TELLING A STORY
*You can arrange story corner for your kids.It can be motivating.
*Wear an item of clothing associated with one of the magical characters; such as, a hat or a cloak and say ‘It’s time for story’.
*Show pictures and ask them to tell you about the pictures.
*Jumble the story pictures around the classroom and ask some volunteers to put the pictures in order.If the classroom is overcrowded, you can put them in order.
*Tell the story using gestures, body language, sound effects and pictures that help them to understand the story but the way you tell the story is very important. Use your voice to create the atmosphere.
*Ask kids to check if the order of the pictures is correct or not.
*Tell the story again and kids mime the actions and join in as much as possible.
*Ask questions about the story to check their understanding.
*Talk about their favourite characters and story lines.
*They act the story out. After retelling the story, some of the students act out the story while the others retell the story.
*Kids make a big book, a wall display or a picture of the story.
*Create a chant of the story and sing all together. I recommend Carolyn Graham’s ‘Creating Chants and Songs’ book to create chants in your class.
Teaching Jazz Chants – Carolyn Graham

SOME HINTS FOR STORYTELLING
I want to share some useful books and links that I use to create for more effective storytelling lessons.
*I recommend Andrew Wright’s ‘Story Telling with Children’ and ‘Creating Stories with Children’ books are all about story telling and how we tell and create stories more effectively. You should read ‘Carol Read’s Six Favourite Picture Books’ to learn about her favourite picture books. ‘The Magic of Story Time ‘ is a nice article to learn more about storytelling by Carol Read. I also recommend ‘500 Activities for the Primary Classroom‘ book by Carol Read. Don’t miss to check out ‘Magic Pen‘ link if you want to find great story support materials! You should read and watch ‘Storytelling Lessons from Bill Cosby’.

* I highly recommend some online story links and websites: Eco Zoo Stories, Kids’ Stories, Audio Stories, Storynory Audio Stories, Online Little Red Riding Hood, Online Clifford The Big Red Dog, Online The Three Billy Goats, Online Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Online Library for Kids and loads of online stories.
*We can use technology to tell stories to our digital natives.Here are some useful digital storytelling tools to get some ideas: Animoto, Dvolver, Kerpoof, Photopeach, Storybox, Storyjumper, Tikatok, Toondoo,Voicethread, Wacky Web Tales, Xtranormal, Zimmertwins, Mrs. P’s Magic Library.
Check out CogDogRoo Wikispaces that is a great link to find loads of tools for storytelling.
‘Life will go on as long as there is someone to sing, to dance, to tell stories and to listen’. Oren Lyons