This was a story that developed collaboratively over a period of a couple of weeks at a small daycare with children who mostly had English as a second language. It contains some marvelous examples of ways to incorporate different areas of the curriculum and specifically oral literacy into a storytelling activity. Here (with photographic examples) is the way it all unraveled over a number of days. A shark and a crocodile were swimming in the sea 2
It began with new creations at the carpentry table, and led to bursts of oral literacy, visual literacy, art work, written work, acting opportunities, singing,( to the tune of Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed, plus hand gestures), small world play, role play, and more. It greatly increased my appreciation of the potential of storytelling by,for and with the children, and meant that I saw a sudden surge of creativity in oral contributions,a playful interest in the sounds of words, an animated series of playful collaborative encounters in the playground as well as a lively and creative interaction with the resources, each child confidently finding their own niche and level of engagement! ‘Lively’ is a complete understatement for what went down, and so much of it is, i believe, because in the realm of made up stories, nobody can claim to have the ‘right’ answers, an insidious and pernicious effect of the downward pressure from school as well as being the constant focus for some parents. It is our job, I believe, to constantly educate the parents as to what they are actually witnessing. Viz: it is definitely not ‘just playing’. However, children are profoundly motivated to play and this is why they learn so much within contexts like this. We also made a book with all the stages of the story in it. Here is a preceding sequence which also used alphabet tile reject pieces. The story of DogDragon and Triceratops