The Week for Telling Tales: Storytelling Week 2015

Once upon a time there was a company called School Stickers, they liked to write blog posts about all kinds of things parents and teachers might be interested in. Then one day, they realised it was nearly national storytelling week and that it was time to tell their readers all about it.

As you might have gathered from the title and our story (we need a little practise), national storytelling week is on its way!

2015 marks the 15th year of The Society for Storytelling promoting and celebrating National Storytelling Week.

Between January 31st and Febuary 7th schools, hospitals, theatres, care homes and people all over England and Wales will be telling stories in hundreds of different ways. There are events across the country and plenty of ways for everyone to get involved.

 

Why?

• National Storytelling Week is all about promoting story telling out loud, using the very first method of telling stories and sharing life experiences whilst using your imagination.
• Narrative skills are essential for children, the ability to string coherent sentences together is essential for academic success. Lots of children struggle with this, it affects the way they communicate with others and can make socialising with peers difficult.
• National Storytelling Week is a great way to get children to experiment with expressing themselves, speaking out loud and using their imaginations to communicate ideas across to others.

School Stickers Storytelling Suggestions

A picture is worth a thousand words: 

This idea involves telling one story which has been put together by every class in the school. Neil, our managing director came up with this idea a few years ago and we still think its a great idea, especially for older children.

Teddy bear picnic:

This is a great one for younger children. Invite everyone to bring in their favourite teddy or toy into class (teachers included!) and put aside some time to sit down and share stories with each other.

This could either be a teacher reading to a group, a class split into small groups to read stories to each other or even children that just want to read to their toys! It’s all about getting children to start feeling comfortable with speaking out loud, it doesn’t matter if the person (or toy) listening doesn’t reply!

Value of Storytelling

Whilst the value of storytelling is being placed on speaking and listening skills, there are so many ways to tell a story. The important thing to remember is that anyone and everyone can do so regardless of age or ability.

At School Stickers we have a range of rewards that can be used to motivate pupils and reward them for both their reading and writing efforts.

 

As a bit of fun, Andy put together this list of Troublesome Fictional Characters and ways you could motivate them as a teacher. It shows that we can all learn lessons from fictional stories no matter how old we are!

Let us know how you’re planning to get involved with National Storytelling week. Share your ideas below, lets get a discussion started to inspire other teachers and parents.

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