Story telling is a great way to supplement what the teachers do at shcool and it has always been something I have wanted to do, to assist E in her reading and comprehension without too much repetition of what is happening at school. It is a hard thing to do
though and takes some careful thought and planning. What I found hardest was not boring E and keeping reading interesting for her while working alongside the teachers and not against them using the same methods they use and so on.
Depending on how creative you think you are and what you think you might like to try will affect how you go about doing this, and there is no right or wrong way (according to those who have taught me) so I hope that this piece of advice gives you food for thought and a place to move forward from. If you are still stumped and need more ideas feel free to leave a comment below and we shall see if anyone else has ideas that can assist.
First of all choose a story to read together, read it through and discuss it.
Then either:
make a puppet using a wooden spoon, a straw, an odd sock, whatever you have to hand (it doesnt have to be extravagant, and can simply be made easily so that you can return the items to where they came from once the play is over). Now tell the story again and whenever that character speaks or does something the puppet can act out the story
or
role play the story with your child taking on a character each and acting out what they would have been doing.
These types of activity help develop comprehension and understanding of what is happening in the story and teach the importance of identifying with the main characters.
Finally we can play a game based on the story. My favourites, (simply because they are easy and need little by way of preparation) are memory games, card games and board games using a track or circuit to get from start to finish.
Memory games:
Take the main parts of the story and write them down using a single word or picture (if you want to be posh ... lol). The objective is then to put the story in the right order using the cards.
Alternatively if there are a few objects in the story such as food items, or clothing use these instead. Maybe there is a catchphrase associated with the items.
Card games:
Again using the cards in the idea above, or new ones you can play snap or memory.
Board game:
We love doing this one and you can make it as permanent as you like. For games we are making just for that moment to enjoy we use computer paper which can then be easily disposed of. We draw a rough track and then make up rules. If you land on something there is a miss a turn, go back to the start, go back two spaces.
Whatever you decide to do there are millions of ideas out there, just adapt your childs favourites games to incorporate the theme of the story, or some of the story elements. Then remember this single rule KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - no insult intended, please do not be offended with me.
At the end of the day this is all good fun and will help them develop heaps of other skills as well as following the course of the story, beginning - middle - end, and making sense of it.
In our home it has been great fun and I attribute E's understanding to this fun that we have with stories. She is still only learning to read, but she reads with expression, not in a monotone, and I am convinced that this has had something to do with it. She is conprehending the story and is able to recite it to me, often after only one read through of a book. Be it her homework reading or a storybook from our shelves.
One of the books we have done these activities with was called 'Lima's Red Hot Chilli'. It was at a special story-telling workshop for parents of children my daughters age, it was run through our school and there were about 16 parents on the course. It is a fantastic book to start this kind of activity with as there is plenty to work with. The pictures are of a board game to do with the book and the puppets are three of the characters, Lima (in green), Aunty (in yellow), and Grandma (in blue). Sadly we only had the three spoons to use, otherwise I am sure we would have made all the characters. Finally there are Punch and Judy (though Punch's nose is a little flattened at the moment) whom we made in the summer holidays at one of the Museums activity times for the children. They are useful in many stories to date and are simple hand puppets.
Hope you have lots of story-telling fun. If you want more information just ask and if I don't know someone else may do, or I can ask around at our school.
Peace
EF.x
(October 2008) (
