Helen Evans Storyteller

www.helenevans-storyteller.com

Helenstorytelling_methods

Toys

Even in ancient times, toys were an important part of a child’s life.  In our modern world almost all babies in western countries will see toys hanging close by when they wake up.

There is a great variety of toys for a storyteller to use such as:

• plastic farm animals                        

• plastic zoo animals                                                 

• wooden animals

• doll’s furniture

• soft toys

• cars and other vehicles

• blocks

Perhaps a child or a group of children will help you to build a city and put the people, animals, cars, trains, airport etc. in place.  You can create the story together about the environment you have made.  Such a project needs a place where it can stay for an extended period.  It is frustrating for children if their constructions are cleared away before the game is complete.

Some child care centres recognise this, and allow children to keep special constructions at least until parents have seen them at the end of the day.  Children learn much about our world by constructing and playing in this way.

Children can sit around the construction and help with the story. After some practise, children will want to take part in this type of storytelling. Take photos of the places made and use these to record the stories and to tell more stories.

The children who made these block constructions, were inspired by photos their teacher   had taken on a visit to Cambodia.  Her photos showed ancient temples entwined by enormous tree roots.  They had also seen a video recently of a hippopotamus in Africa.  They put a hippo in a river made from a piece of blue material and  decided to put other African animals in the constructions.  As they worked, they talked about what the animals were doing.  They were really telling a story.

Humpty is one of my most popular story aids.  He appears in a number of stories