One year, I had to stop telling the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to my group of preschool children, Teacher Learning Network Program Manager Max Grarock writes.
In order to make the story more gripping I’d upped the stakes each time I told it by building extra tension around the return of the bears to their house. The house containing the vulnerable, sleeping Goldilocks.
Apparently I’d increased the tension to a point beyond which George could handle. While I stomped my feet on the ground and brought the props that I was using for the bears out from around the corner, George began to cry. One of those terrified, but silent, teary, bright red cries. The other children were delighting in the tension and hugging each other or covering their eyes, but I could see that this was all too much for George.
Later George seemed quite angry with me. “Why would you tell us that story Max? It’s just too scary.” I tried to tell him that it could be fun, but it didn’t work. I gave Goldilocks a rest that year.
I mention this incident only because it illustrates the power of storytelling without books. I never had quite the same reaction reading directly from any book as I did from putting the book to one side and telling the story with props and my expressions. While the story was an example of me taking it too far, it’s also an illustration of the power of occasionally putting down the book and telling stories in other ways.
I’m not a purist
There are a lot of truly gifted storytellers in our profession. I’ve seen them craft a story from nothing and using only their bodies and imagination, create gripping adventures. I’m not one of those amazingly creative people. I rely strongly on classic stories and some form of prop to tell my stories at group times. Maintaining an awareness of all the things I worry about when teaching means that I like to know I have a well worn story and a set of props to fall back on. If I have to quickly intervene in a moment between two children or deal with a safety issue, I can quickly jump back in with the help of my props and familiar story when it’s done.
It has surprised me how simple the props can be. Starting with a high quality purchased set of felt figures for the objects and characters in the Goldilocks story, I fell back onto a printed set of paper with glued magnets on the back when I left that service. These printouts are still the props I use today. I’ve learnt that it’s more about the energy that I take into telling the story than the quality of the props that I use.
I’ve also, on occasion, used props of wildly different scales. Once I used a set of makeshift props with the Goldilocks prop being three times the size of the biggest bear. To my surprise this did not seem to worry the children or lessen their engagement with the story.
Making changes
One of the many benefits of telling a story without a book, is the ability to change the direction of the story. This has provided me with a great opportunity to find moments for intentional teaching within the stories. One year I spent quite some time with baby bear being upset about his broken chair and drew a parallel between that and a need to treat the objects at our preschool with respect. Another year, before a cooking experience, the care needed in dealing with the hot porridge was a focus of the story.
Children’s engagement
The main reason why I tell stories without books is that I’ve found much deeper engagement from the children than I have with almost any other mat time activity. Children who regularly look around the room while I’m reading a book or talking about other ideas are gripped and engaged when Goldilocks starts eating the porridge.
The ability of the characters to interact with the children and ask for suggestions in what to do next helps build this engagement. Goldilocks saying “I’m going to pick someone sitting properly to tell me which room I should go into next” is guaranteed to be met with a mat full of children sitting beautifully.
Getting started
Giving up the crutch provided by holding and reading from a book can be really frightening. For a long time I was worried about what would happen if I forgot something or told the story incorrectly. Eventually I learnt that this can be the best thing to happen! The children always laugh the loudest when I accidently bump the felt board or the magnetic board and all the pieces tumble to the floor.
My best advice for starting is to use a musical story so you don’t feel totally exposed. The most successful one I’ve ever found for this is the playschool musical telling of The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It’s on a number of their CDs including The Best of Playschool, Play School – Hip Hip Hooray and Traditional Stories, Rhymes & Songs from Play School. You probably already have a copy of this song in your service. Here’s a link to a video by another educator using the same song to draw along with the story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcWyIEe-MaQ
This song was my gateway to telling stories without books. Using a set of felt characters, I’d tell the story along with the song. Eventually, as I got more confident, I’d sing and do the voices. As I got more confident again I’d thump my feet on the floor to represent the bears’ returning footsteps and make growling noises. You might want to avoid that though, George found it too much to handle.
Max Grarock is the Program Manager at the Teacher Learning Network. The TLN is a not for profit professional development provider supported by the education unions. The TLN offers hours of BOSTES accredited, online professional learning for a low, centre based membership fee. Max was a preschool teacher in Melbourne before taking up his role with the TLN. See www.tln.org.au