1st February – 9th February is National Story Telling Week
National storytelling week aims to bring the love of reading to life as people of all ages read stories together using a range of media such as props, story sacks, movement and music.
We at Startwell are asking you to hold an Active Story week and remember to be active several times throughout the story and make sure staff are being a good Suzy Startwell and role model the actions for children to copy.
Have you explored our active story support sheets? If not follow this link and have lots of fun with them. Remember you do not have to make every page or every character active you could just choose a few depending on the age and abilities of the children in your care.
So far we have uploaded:
- The Gruffalo
- Run Gingerbread Man
- Shark in the Park
More will be added each month for you to try out, explore and have fun within your setting.
Enhancements using the stories can be made by setting up tuff trays with elements from your chosen story. Can you use the characters from the story alongside the physical characters. Why not do a story themed obstacle course, dances etc The most important thing to remember is have fun as being physical should be fun.
How creative can you be? Let’s get on board with using active stories and use a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces to explore them. Why not collect a range of props and take the children on a journey that they interact with and help make. Use open questions as to what should happen next and who would they like to see in the story. Have fun and go as wild and bold as you can. You can also use Yoga cards to make up a story and link the moves together – this is a great activity to develop Sammy Skills. Check out our Active Stories video here as an example.
Stories provide a great opportunity to not only develop language and communication in the setting, but also increase both physical activity levels and skill development, by incorporating Active Azra, Sammy Skills and 180 Katie.
“Studies have shown an increase and improvement in Fundamental Movement Skills and language and reading competency where children had the opportunity to use movement during storytelling sessions” Donath et al., 2015 and Kory and Breazeal 2014. Interventions that enhance language skills in early years have been shown to improve communication social skills (Glonek and King, 2014) and reading comprehension (Fricke et al., 2013).
