This year we have been focusing on supporting our children’s literacy, communication and language, and speaking and listening skills with our Story Telling Project.
What started as a way to develop listening and recall skills, as well as familiarity with traditional tales has been extended as our children’s (and practitioners’) skills have flourished. First children listened to the tales; they then joined in with acting out and reciting familiar stories; now we are proud to announce that our children are inventing and creating their own stories!
The Butterflies children enjoy taking turns to sit on the ‘grown up chair’ to tell their creative tales to an audience of their peers. Sometimes these tales reflect traditional stories, but more often the children are able to create their own, new stories – often featuring their friends!
To build upon this, we will be scribing our children’s creative stories and collating them in a book that we will be able to return to again and again. Not only will this continue to support our children’s listening and communication skills; it will also support early literacy and physical skills as the children have opportunities to write or illustrate their stories. Furthermore, the Story Telling book will provide a sense of ownership to the children, thus supporting self-confidence.
Watch this space to see how the Story Telling initiative evolves next!
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