At the beginning of February, the 15th annual national storytelling week took place around the UK to celebrate the art form of storytelling. Storytelling has been around thousands of years, it predates writing and in its early form consisted of just gestures and facial expressions. It’s an intrinsic part of our human culture and society to tell stories to one another for pleasure and enjoyment. Children in particular have a fondness for storytelling, stories like Jack and the beanstalk, Goldilocks and the three bears and more recently where the wild things are (a personal favourite of mine) conjure up tales of wonder and amazement.
 Casey reading to kids at The Forest School |
Storytelling is key to a child’s development, their creativity blossoms when they watch and listen to stories and adds to other forms of creativity including art and writing. During storytelling week, Ben, Jack and Casey, from Apollo Creative decided to volunteer to read stories and use mixed media in a classroom at The Forest School in Knaresborough. We read from books such as Jim and the beanstalk, Goldilocks and the three bears and Monkey puzzle using sound effects as well as projecting images to add to the magic of storytelling. See the video below for how teachers at The Forest School believe it is vital for a child to be exposed to storytelling:
To finish this blog post I have decided to add my top three children’s stories for your viewing and listening pleasure!
1: Curious George builds a home – Written and drawn by the French husband and wife team Hans Augusto Ray and Margret Ray, Curious George is a classic children’s series. The link below takes you to the story below, please note the story and sounds will start automatically:
http://www.curiousgeorge.com/kids-stories-books/cg-builds-a-home
2: Frog and Toad – Spring – Written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad are short stories that are often humorous and poignant.