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! 

As if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared!

Let's bring the magic back into childhood! I just love that glint of wonder in a child's eyes when they believe something that is unbelievable.

The other day at nursery, I was about to take the children out on a walk around the grassy and wooded areas. I had no real plans apart from to get the children out because they needed some fresh air and to burn off steam. I watched them as they put on their wellies and wondered 'how can I make this walk magical?' and so I began to tell them a story...

I told them of a special friend of mine who just happened to be a fairy. I explained how my friend was very sad because her tree house had been cut down, and now she had nowhere to live!

By this point all of the children were engaged (boys and girls alike), all with looks of concern on their faces that made me want to giggle - but that would spoil the moment, so I asked the children what they thought we could do for my friend.

They came to the decision that we should find my friend a new home. They discussed amongst themselves how there were lots of trees around our nursery, and we could find one that was just right. We decided to take a digital camera out with us, so that we could take photographs of the trees - nicely linking in the technology side of the curriculum for me!

And off we set, investigating every tree that we stumbled upon. The children quickly wrote off some trees as too small, too thin, too ugly - linking in descriptive language and some mathematical comparisons too.

As we walked, one of the children asked me "is this real, or is it just pretend?"
This caused me a small dilemma,  I don't like to tell children flat out lies BUT I didn't want to spoil the magic, so I said "well, I believe it's real. What do you believe?" It took her a minute to reply. You could almost see the cogs turning in her mind until finally she replied "I think you're making it up!"

Feeling a little deflated, but not wanting to let it ruin our fun, I shrugged it off and continued with the group to look at many, many trees until the children finally decided on a beautiful big old tree with a hole at the top which they agreed could be a window.
The children took it upon themselves to decorate the tree and spent ages finding pretty little flowers, feathers, leaves and all sorts of other natural resources which they placed on and around the tree until they were satisfied that the fairy would love it.

By this time the children were due to get some lunch, so I lead them inside and promised that we could go back to visit the tree in the afternoon.
While they sat eating, and after scribbling down some notes of all the fantastic learning that had taken place that morning, I headed out to the tree alone, armed with glitter and a note - addressed to the children from 'Fern the Fairy.'
                                         
                                                              **********************

In the afternoon, the children were eager to get back to their special tree, so again we got wellies on and walked out across the grass. As we got closer, the children noticed that something was different.
They began to run and shout with excitement! I watched as they circled the tree, following the glitter trails with wide eyes until they saw the note rolled up and pegged on a branch.
The little girl who earlier had been an unbeliever jumped up and down and cried "it's a note! It's a note for me!"
I read the note to the children which told them how happy Fern was with her new home and how she was so grateful to them for decorating it for her.

Now, I expected the learning to end there - we had completed everything that I had planned for and as far as I was concerned, it was quite a success! But the children had other ideas; on their return to nursery they proceeded to draw pictures and write letters to Fern. They took the idea into their role play and I even heard them discussing it while playing in the sand tray!

As for the little girl who hadn't believed in my friend the fairy: when her Mum came to pick her up she said "Mum, fairies ARE real! I know because we saw one!"

So much learning with just a touch of magic!