National Storytelling Week

I haven't had much time for blogging lately! My life seems to be a whirlwind of revision, assessments and essay writing! Not that I'm complaining as it'll all be worth it if I get accepted into my first choice university for Primary Teaching (my interview is on the 11th February - wish me luck!)


However! This week is 
National Storytelling week (31st Jan - 7th Feb) 
and I felt inspired to post a few ideas...

An inviting area for reading and story telling

Have the children help you to set up a snugly, cosy reading area using soft rugs and cushions. Drape soft voil around the area and include fairy lights to make the area even more magical.

Remember to create spaces for reading outside in your garden as well as indoors!

I adore this reading area from 'sew inspired'  

And this lovely cosy area uploaded by Rebecca Warren: (https://www.pinterest.com/rebswarren/)

Story of the week

Do your children have a favourite story? Choose a book together to read throughout the week and use this story in particular to inspire artwork, song time and role play.

A story table is a lovely resource for small world story play. Provide small world characters, props and anything you need to make up the landscape of the story.

Variations on the traditional 'Story time'

• Telling a story without a book
• Using puppets and props
• Acting out the story
• Using musical instruments as each character
• Whiteboard stories

For more on these see http://piratesandprincesses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/are-you-sitting-comfortably-then-ill.html

Image from amazon.co.uk 

Get active!

Why not go out for a walk and re-enact the story of 'We're going on a Bear hunt'? Find some long 'swishy swashy' grass, a puddle to splash through, some squelchy mud and bring the story to life!

Another way to get moving is to tell a story through music and movement. One of my favourite stories for this is 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. Now, this requires some pre-planning because you'll need to find some pieces of music which you feel suit each part of the story (such as loud, rhythmic music for the giant or gentle harp music for when Jack finds the magic instrument). Think up some actions and movements – and let the children come up with some of their own!

Links with home

Story sacks are wonderful for allowing children to share and continue learning at home with their families.

Why not also have the children to begin writing/ drawing/ telling their own stories (or diaries) where they can discuss events that have occurred both at home and at nursery.

Sharing is caring

For your more able children who can either read, or are confident to tell a story from memory or using pictures – allow them to visit siblings/ children within the younger nursery rooms and share a good book!

Group times/ together times

Allow the children to bring in their favourite books from home and share them together for group time.

Or how about a circle time game when each person tells a little part of the story, for example:

Person 1: Once upon a time there was a frog...

Person 2: … who went for a walk...

Person 3:... and found a magic wand...

(This one may need a bit more support and guidance but can be ever so much fun and can result in plenty of giggles and silliness!)

Fun!

Lastly, why not have a special story day or party where the children dress up as their favourite characters from a book or story? Don't forget to take photos of them and display them in your reading area!

Have a lovely week everyone! 

Fire Safety Fun

I know I know, this is supposed to be another instalment of my Outdoor Learning Ideas - and I am in the process of writing it (I promise) but I'm finding it a bit of a chore now and I don't want to become stale - so I thought I would write about some learning that I was particularly happy with!

My nursery recently took part in the NDNA's 'Healthy Body Happy Me' week, where the children were able to access a huge range of activities that were linked to a healthy lifestyle. As part of these activities, the children were able to take part in many outdoor experiences: one of which included toasting marshmallows over a camp fire!
This was a very popular activity with the children who immediately took it into their free play and began building their own pretend camp fires out of sticks, leaves and anything else that they could get their hands on! 

Now in my nursery, we have covered the usual 'people who help us' angle of learning about fire and fire-fighters so we decided that, in keeping with the children's interests, and to allow us link in with the curriculum for excellence, we would have a fire safety week!
Some of the my favourite activities included:

• Building a fantastic fire engine that the children can climb in and out of.
• Creating our own small world 'burning town' out of cardboard boxes and fire coloured tissue paper - complete with paper characters and a Fireman Sam to rescue them.
• Mark making and practising writing related words such as 'emergency' and '999'.
• Going on a hunt around the nursery to discover our smoke detectors.
• Continuing this learning at home as we took a picture or noted down where our smoke detectors can be found.
• Many discussions about how to keep ourselves and others safe in an emergency.
• Reading many fire-fighter stories.
• Painting a life sized Fire fighter and discussing his uniform, why he wears it and what materials it may be made from.

Now, all of this adult lead learning is great, but it's impossible to know how much of it is sinking in and being processed. That is, until you observe their free play, which is exactly what I did...

The children were outside in the garden. They had worked hard to build a den and furnished it with tables, chairs and a tea set. The girls set about having their tea party while one boy was busy sweeping the floor ("I'm the cleaning man"), and another boy used a toy hammer to 'fix' each side of the den. 

Suddenly one of the children started making a horrible screaching sound! I wondered what on earth was going on and was about to intervene (thank goodness I didn't) when I heard another child call "That's the smoke alarm! Everyone go outside!"

Each child hurried out of their den and stood outside. One little girl held her hand to her ear and said "999! Fireman come fast, there's a fire!" and I heard a voice from the other side of the decking (another boy who was involved in the game) call "I'll be there soon!"

The children waited patiently until the boy who was previously the 'cleaning man' decided to go inside. The children all called "No, no! It's on fire!" but the boy said confidently "It's ok, I've got my special jacket on! I can put away the fire." He then proceeded to use his broom as if it were a hose and waved it around the den. He was joined by the other little boy from across the decking (who was also pretending to be a fireman), and had brought a bucket full of leaves which he told us was the water.

When the boys had finished they said to their friends "It's all done now" and everyone went back inside and continued to play.

What fantastic evidence that they children know and understand what to do in the event of a fire! They also show that they understand the role of the fire fighter and how a fire fighter can help to put out the fire.

They used the new language that we had introduced (i.e. smoke alarm) and not only that but there was also wonderful imaginative skills, resourcefulness and interactions between children!

This observation reminded me that the children are never JUST playing! They are always deepening their understanding, exploring new situations, practising new skills and working out what comes next. 

How lucky we are to be a part of this process!

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

I love story time! I have always loved a good story book and having the chance to share this with the children is an experience that I treasure.

I think that everyone is a story teller at heart, here are some of the methods I use at story time to keep the children engaged and interested:

Puppets

I find that adding puppets can add a whole new dimension to the story! There are many ways that puppets can be used:

If you are using a book, you could hold up the puppets as they are mentioned in the story allowing the children to visualise the character as you read about them. You could even pause the story to have the puppet 'speak' to the children about their thoughts/ feelings at that point. Or let the children ask the puppet questions.

If you are telling a story from memory you can get really creative and have the puppets act it out.

You could use one large puppet to hold the book as you tell the story, or the puppet could be the story teller - just having this character involved can make story time different and exciting for the children!

You could also give puppets to the children, and let them act out the story as you tell it. This is great fun and gives the children something to hold which can help to stop them fiddling with themselves/everything around them!

Whiteboard

This is one of my favourites!

You can use the whiteboard to draw the characters, scenes, and anything else throughout the story. You honestly don't have to be an artist to do this! I recently tried to draw the 3 Billy Goats Gruff from memory and they ended up looking like bizarre dogs with horns which the children (and staff) had a good laugh at, but it was a very successful story time!


You could also allow the children to have a go at drawing the characters.

The great thing about whiteboards is that you can continually edit your picture to fit with what is happening in the story.

Using the children's names

Imagine finding yourself as a character in your favourite story! Well you can do this for your children by cleverly replacing the names of some of the characters with their own names! For example instead of Goldilocks discovering the 3 bears house, it could be little Susan discovering the house of Fred, Ted and Billy! Simple!

Making up a story

If you're particularly imaginative, you could have a go at making up your own story! I find the best ones involve the children, the nursery, their own homes or something else that is well known to them.
Maybe you could even add in some familiar characters like Bob the Builder or Peppa Pig!
You may even want to let the children help to create/ tell the story in their own words.  This usually works better with slightly older children and can be used as a fun circle time activity where each child takes a turn to add a little more to the story. You'll be amazed at what they can come up with!

Reading from the book

Of course, you can't beat a traditional story time with a good book. It's so important to get children interested and excited about books at an early age. It makes me sad to think that some children miss out on the wonder of getting sucked into another world full of adventure and magic and grow into young people who think books are 'boring'!

While reading from a book you could try:

• holding your finger underneath each word as you read - showing the children at you read from left to right and encouraging them to begin to recognise some simple words.

• Using different voices for the characters

• Using songs and music throughout the story 

I believe that on first reading of a book, it it best to keep the flow and read it through from start to finish.
After reading the story a few times, and when the children have an understanding of the story, you can pause at certain points and ask questions such as...
"What do you think ___ is feeling?"
"Why do you think ___ did/said that?"
"What would you do?"
"What do you think will happen next?" (This one can also work on first reading of a story, if you are developing the children's ability to predict and guess)

Children telling the story

My children LOVE to play teachers. So sometimes I allow them to take turns sitting on the teacher's chair and using a familiar book to tell the story to their friends.

Some other ideas

•  Use a particular 'Story chair' (decorated perhaps) that the children will associate with story time

• In the same way, you could have a special 'story apron' or other item of clothing that when you put on, the children understand that it is time to sit and listen to a story. If you use an apron, you could keep puppets or other props in the pockets!

 Please let me know if you have any other ideas or methods that you find helpful. I'm always looking for inspiration!

Good luck Story Tellers!