The Startwell physical characters want settings to incorporate more movement into their day and a great way to do this is by making ‘Story Time’ more physically active.
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).
Take a look at this video to see how you can implement an active story in your setting.
The importance of linking language and movement
“Combined movement and story-telling intervention enhances motor competence and language ability in pre-schoolers to a greater extent than movement or story-telling alone” ( Duncan et al., 2017).
Coventry and Nottingham universities have developed what they call a MAST (Movement Active Story Telling) programme which is underpinned with research that supports the importance of linking in Physical activity with storytelling to achieve better EYFS profile results. They found that a 6 week intervention that combined physical activity with storytelling showed a greater increase in several areas of development including a higher impact in cognitive development and fundamental movement skills rather than undertaking the two activities separately (Cunningham et al., 2022-23). https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/a-movement-and-story-telling-intervention-for-reception-children
Startwell have adapted the principles and research of MAST and used it to create a range of useful story telling support sheets that can be used in settings across Birmingham as either a one-off active story session or longer term active story interventions.
The Gruffalo
Ginger Bread Man
Shark in the Park
Bathroom Boogie
Here is our support guide for delivering the Startwell Active Story Sessions in your setting:
Session Breakdown – Adults Initial Role:
- Choose the book.
- Decide on the time frame – one off or extended over several days/weeks.
- Decide on key learning outcomes that you want in relation to language and movement skills from the Active Stories Sheet – either 1 movement and key words or several.
- Gather any props and resources that will be needed.
- Read the story to the children and role model key movement skills and words.
- Reinforce the new skills and observe any key changes to support future development
Session Breakdown – Active Story Sessions with the Children:
Reading your chosen story
- Introduce the story and key characters to the children in a traditional way.
Priming Phase
- Show the children a page of the story to see if they can re-call who the characters are and any key points/words
- Read set number of pages to the children and ask children specific questions about what has been read
- Introduce Sammy Skills and the story character you are focusing on and the new skill/ key words to the children (use story support sheet)
- Demonstrate the skill associated with the story character using Suzy Startwell
Development Phase
- Developing the new skills to more complex movement pattens e.g. increasing the speed, varying the size of the movement, increasing the tempo, more directional changes etc.
Consolidation and Embedding Phase
- Applying the new skill to different contexts
- Use key words from the story in a range of extended activities – ask questions, develop understanding etc.
One-off sessions – One off session will be focussed on 1 or 2 story characters/ movements and vocabulary as you will want to focus on that specific area. Choose 1 story character/movement and a few key vocabularies to focus on. More could be picked if you have a longer session to deliver in and the children in your care are able to complete the required outcomes.
Extending a one-off session: If you have chosen to do the active story over several days or weeks then you can take your time and use a different story character / characters and key vocabulary in each new session whilst referring back and embedding the previous story characters, movements and key vocabulary. Repeating steps 2, 3 and 4 from above.
Remember you can make any story in your setting more ‘active’ by incorporating the character movements. Take a look at our training videos as examples:
Partners
Facebook Posts
This is the sixth and final week of our 6 week Startwell summer holiday challenge. Enjoy running and rolling with Sammy Skills and have a go at making lunch with Fay 5 a day. We hope that you have enjoyed all of the activities over the last 6 weeks and have had a great summer. startwellbirmingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/6-Week-Summer-Challenge-Poster.pdf
Thanks to those who came along to our Startwell Characters and Messages Training on the 19th August. Take a look at some of the feedback from this training!![]()
![]()
Our training is free and available to early years practitioners within Birmingham. To see what training we have available: startwellbirmingham.co.uk/training-dates/