developing a storytelling culture

Children are natural storytellers. Every experience, structure, dramatic play script, painting, and little collection of found treasures holds a story. We have the opportunity to encourage children to tell their stories, to share and listen. Storytelling is an intimate experience between the storyteller and their audience. Through our stories we share a piece of ourselves. Through the sharing of our stories we connect, excite, and inspire. 

To develop a storytelling culture, we must start at the beginning - at the beginning of our year together! The teacher must ask questions, listen, observe, and document. The teacher must tell their stories, modeling the art of storytelling. My view of the child as a powerful storyteller and as an active participant in our world has encouraged the children to continue to share - this encouragement and recognition has further been supported by our classroom community.

As we begin writing true stories, we talk about the stories we have been telling all year long. The stories I tell from my childhood during lunch, the stories we tell together - like the time a chickadee landed next to our bus line - the stories from playdates and weekend adventures, and the stories from the holidays told during snack. When we support children in understanding that what they have to say is important and that they can make an impact on our world, a culture of storytelling develops. 


Children continue to practice telling true stories to their community;

 

On Tuesday, our first day back following break, there was a buzz in the classroom. As children pulled off boots and unzipped coats, you could hear the beginnings of stories. As with last year, I found this time in our year the perfect time to begin the process of writing stories. The children have practiced telling their stories out loud throughout the beginning of our year together. Now, with their developed writing skills and strategies, children feel prepared to transcribe these stories. 

During our morning meeting, I asked the children to close their eyes and think of their experiences during break - the family and friends they saw and the places they explored. 

"Describe your break using one word - think of it as a story, how would you describe your stories from break using one word?"

Children quickly opened their eyes, grinning at the opportunity to share one word, one word to make their peers want to know more. Some of their words included; snow, Beckett, countdown, beach, presents, sister, hatchimal, playdate...

Later, during writing workshop, OM expanded on his word; OCEAN.

In the above photographs, OM tells a story from his recent trip to Mexico; 

We went to the ocean, my mom got salt water in her eye, but my dad and I went back into the waves to play. My dad asked me to hold on to his glasses, so he could go swimming. But then, the biggest wave came, and his glasses were GONE! He lost his glasses in the ocean! But, he was able to get new ones. My mom was okay, too.

In the below video, CM tells a short story about losing her tooth during snack that afternoon. She uses words (and then, after that...) to connect the parts of her story together - just like we connect pages!