Story Telling

I recently purchased Story Boxes made by Steve Light. I had seen them at a conference and thought it would be a great tool for my library.

Right now, I am taking a class on storytelling, and with all of the reading I have been doing on storytelling and the positive effect it has on early literacy skills, I decided to be brave and try telling stories to my students instead of just reading them from picture books.

Kindergarten Students Play/Retell "Little One Inch"

This week, I am teaching my kindergarteners about Folk Tales and telling them the story "Little One Inch." I read many versions of the story, then I diligently practiced telling the story to my own children over the weekend. I was surprised how much they enjoyed it. All weekend, my 4 and 6 year old asked me to tell them the stories of "Little One Inch" and "The Girl Who Loved Danger" (the other box I purchased). They not only wanted me to tell them the stories, but they told and retold the stories over and over again. "Mom, can I play Little One Inch?" was a frequent refrain. They were quite sad when I brought the boxes back to school today. (Maybe this summer we can make our own?!)

The retelling of stories is a beginning step in both reading and writing. This little box, with only the characters from a story really got kids excited to retell and "play" the original folktale. The pieces helped them remember the characters and the setting.

Today, when I brought the box to school, I could hardly wait for my kindergarten class to come in and share my story with them. They were captivated for every moment of the story and they too couldn't wait to tell the story and play with the pieces. I am thinking I will check these boxes out to teachers for Literacy Stations since the kids didn't want to stop interacting with the story box. I just need to figure out a system.