Children love stories!
Storytelling fosters imagination and creativity and transports children into magical worlds and faraway places. Imagination is about making pictures in our minds. Preformed pictures of a story in a book, somewhat limits a child’s imitation to create the picture. In storytelling .gestures, voices, rhythm, repetition, and movements a bring the story alive.
But story telling can be a little bit scary. Most of us think it is fine to read a storybook to our children. One fun and engaging way to facilitate storytelling is to make some story stones, story boxes, or story cubes. Making story stones, cubes, or boxes is also a great way to plan the story telling session. Involving your child at this stage, models the way characters and setting come alive. Use these sorry telling ideas helps to drive the storytelling session and it engages a child rather than allows than the opportunity to be passive listeners.
Story stones can be made from stones that you pick yourself. And you can make many creative things with stones such as number stones. Bring the stones to life by using eye-catching pictures. Browse in magazines or use stickers. Fabrics to make an interesting sensory contrast. You can also use dried flowers, leaves, pasta, rice. . .
Ask yourself what makes interesting characters for telling stories. A sloth, a cat, a magician. . . A boy dressed in a large hat. . . An astronaut. – great! And so on. . .
Cut out the pictures and paste the picture or stickers on the stone. Use white PVA glue and glue a layer over the image as well to make sure that the picture sticks to the stone. The stickers you can simply peel off and use a layer of glue to make sure that they stick.
This is a great activity to play with several children but you can also use them for a bedtime story. Place the stones in the middle and let your child pick up a couple stones. The story starts with the child inventing a story around the pictures on the stones she has. Encourage your child before your start using the stones, to think about new twists and turns. Stories are filled with emotions and the character may feel happy, sad, angry, scared. . .
The stones are nice to touch and hold in your hand. A great way to inspire storytelling. You can also make a story cube or dice. Where you glue pictures of the character on a dice make out of wood. You can also make a story box where you put little things that will inspire some story telling. Or a bag filled with exciting things. You can also make little story telling cards. For more inspiration, visit my board Stories and Story Telling on Pinterest.
Go here to read about a Storytelling party at the creative learning blog Mommy Labs.
Photo: Mommy Labs