STORY TELLING –IMPORTANCE AND TIPS

Story Telling is one of the most interesting aspects of any kindergarten. Stories fascinate everyone and play an important role in our lives. Interest in various subjects is awakened through storytelling, and children learn to identify with the feelings of others. Stories talk about various places, different kinds of people of people, a lot of new words and new pieces of information.

Stories can be real incident or figments of people's imagination.Even nature can be an abundant source of material for stories.The children not just enjoys these, but also learns various facts about nature from these.The story should be told in beautiful , simple and clear language.

Special Attention should be give to:

• The content of the story.
• Vocabulary used.
• Pronunciation of words.
• The tonal variations
• The expressions and gestures of the narrator.

Story Telling Method:

Gather the children in front of you,either as a group sitting close to each other, or in several rows close to each other.No children should sit alongside or behind you and the nearest children should be about a foot away.

Sit on a low chair so that children in the back of the group can see your face. The atmosphere should be very informal and cozy.

Story-telling is an art like dramatization.It involves Gesture,Voice- modulation, Volume fluctuation from low to high to higher to low.Tempo should be even , slow , quick, all these depending on the story.For eg: When describing a train, "The little train was so tired , it wen slowly trudging up the hill, slowly, slow--ly, slow--ly, slow----ly and at the ....eeeeeee----nd it reached  the top of the hill and it stopped !!!" All through this , the narrator should accompany the story with very tired facial and body gestures.

Very important to "do" about story telling is to look at each child constantly moving your eyes from the nearest to the furthest and from extreme right to the extreme left.

No child should feel that is neglected because teacher did not "look" at him/her.Every child should feel that the story is being told directly to them.

A story can be a continuation of a conversation.We should not develop an artificial way of speaking while narrating stories.The language should be kept simple and clear.Try to use words that the child will understand.

Going back and forth in the sequences of incidents spoils the effect.The voice should be well modulated.

Conversations between characters should be how they would normally speak.Emphasis in the right places is very important to carry the import.The charm is added with tonal variations and facial movements of the story- teller.

Sometimes the children should tell stories to the whole class and to the teacher.This helps them to organize their thoughts and to be able to pick out the highlights and important points of a story.

Often give chances to the children to fill in the details or complete a sequence in a story by asking questions like, "Then what did the monkeys do?" the children will feel pride in being able to fill in such gaps by saying, The monkeys threw away......all the caps".This gives them a sense of participation.

In addition to the purposes of story-telling, showing pictures from a book while narrating or reading aloud from a book helps children to associate the spoken and written word.The come to realize that the little mark on the page have meaning, thus increasing their motivation for learning to read.

Hold the book high, opening it towards the children and "Not" towards you .Tell the story from memory , once in a while looking at it, or read it line by line. Stop to explain any new words. Pronunciation should be clear, well-spaced and with proper emphasis , and modulation of voice.

Story time need not be a fixed time or a time when everyone gathers around the circle. The time when children are waiting to be picked up by the parents or 15 minutes before dispersal can be a wonderful time for stories.

 Tips For Teachers

In Kindergarten, story time is a serious activity.The adult has to prepare herself in the following manner before she proceeds to narrate a story.

•   The teacher should have a good stock of carefully chosen stories,either copied from other sources or prepared of her own. 

• It's a good idea to prepare a list of stories and write them in a note book for reference.In kindergarten, this will be useful for all the adults helping in that environment.

• The number of characters that play main roles should be limited.The child's simple mind will get confused and cluttered.

• The teacher has to prepare herself to narrate them like an actor rehearses before an appearance on stage.

• The teacher may even practice in front of mirrors to get the require effect.

• The adult must take special care not to laugh when children tell stories.This is very common occurrence in the child's world.Laughing at children undermines their self-esteem and we do more damage than good by laughing.Laugh "WITH" children not "AT" children.

• Tell the same story each day for at least a week. The younger the child, the longer you can stick with the same story. 

• You can make the story into a puppet show if you like and use little dolls and props to set the scene, or you can just tell the story all snuggled up on the couch.

• You can also expand on the story through other activities – drawing, dressing up and acting it out, painting from an image, feeling, or mood from the story, modeling, or crafting. In the kindergarten you can let your child learn through activity, imitation, and play, and save intellectual exercises (such as answering questions, recalling, or summarizing the story) .

                  *************************************     

    

How To Introduce An Activity

The teacher should prepare herself and the environment before a presentation.

There are some points to be kept in mind...

    1.Preparing to initiate a lesson, the teacher should realize that the child's attention should be focused on the object of study.Hence the teacher should clear the table of everything else and place on it only the material she wants to present to the class.

     2.  The teacher's role is only to show the students how to use the materials.The teacher should perform the exercise herself once.She should work carefully and exactly , using forethought, minimum movements and minimum words.

     3.  The teacher should have enthusiasm and interest in what she is doing. A cold and bored attitude will discourage the children from taking up the activity.The teacher should be able to rouse the students interest in repeating that activity.

     4.  The children can make two kinds of errors while doing the activity. 

• The first error is the error when the child makes in working with a material like Building blocks -connecting one block over the other or spilling water on to the floor when pouring it from one container to another.These mistakes occur,because he child has not yet mastered coordination of will and motor.They can be corrected only by further development of the child, by repeated use of the material.The children learn from these errors and rectify it by themselves.The teacher needn't assist them in these class.

• The second type of error is due t a kind of ill will, or negligence on the part of the teachers.Here the child uses the material for purpose other that it is designed for.This may harm the material or the children.When the material is used wrongly so as t create confusion ,or for needs that it cannot satisfy, it is not really used.The result is waste of energy or uproar.This prevents the child from being able to concentrate and therefore from being able to grow and develop.

• In such cases the teachers has to assist the child in gentle or energetic ways, without ever screaming or hitting the child.There is no place for punishment,but for earnest words and good temper.

    5. If the child is using a material in a new or innovative way, without destructive purpose, and in ways that would lead to his /her self development.

The teacher should be careful not to interrupt in their work or try not to correct his slight errors or stop them work working .

    6. When children stops the activity of their own , the teacher needs to guide the children to put back everything in it's place and clear the workplace.

Once the children has been introduce to the exercises in the first classes and has already worked on it their own number of times,they will be able to distinguish the difference in the sense materials.
Now the teacher intervenes during the time the children performing the activity to give them exact names of the materials they are working with.This helps to increase their vocabulary and assist them to speak correctly.When the teacher gives them the names,She should pronounce each syllable exactly but without assuming a false manner of speaking.

Introduction of  an object or a material can be divided into 3 periods.

First Period: The teacher gives the child the name of the object; "This is a Square."

Second Period: The teacher can ask the child to find the object after it is named for him: " Can you find the Square?".This way the teacher can test if the child can now recognize the object corresponding to the name.

Third Period: In the third period the child ha to remember the name corresponding to the object.Here the child is asked to name the object pointed to: "What is this?"( as the teacher points to the square).