“Truth used to run around the world naked. Everyone was frightened and avoided him.  He saw someone dressed in beautiful robes surrounded by friends. Truth asked her name. She answered, "I am Story. I could dress you." And from that day forth Truth and Story traveled together." (Jewish saying)

Mankind’s fascination with story telling goes back thousands of years. Story telling is as old as language itself. Prehistoric man would have used story telling to help him to make sense of his world and to simply deal with the challenge of survival. He painted and carved pictures on the walls of caves depicting animals and strange creatures that probably featured in the most popular stories of the time. Fact would have mixed with fantasy until popular legends were created. Man has always had this drive to create legends, and the purposes that story telling served for past civilizations are as relevant nowadays to our children as they were to our ancestors centuries ago. 

Stories are one of the most natural, brain-based ways of learning for children. Stories can be elaborate and commercially produced, or they can be based on an account of the simplest of incidents. In fact, real life events are often more meaningful and relevant to children than adult-created flights of fancy. A mother told about how a parcel arriving for her two-year old daughter was the starting point for an elaborate story: 

‘Today a parcel arrived for Melissa from her Grandma, containing a T-shirt identical to one that she’d had the year before but had outgrown. (Grandma must be psychic, as we'd battled to get the outgrown shirt over Melissa’s head the previous Saturday!)

By the time Daddy came home from work, the story of how the T-shirt got to our house was extremely elaborate. It evolved from ‘Grandma gave it to the postie-man' to 'Grandma thought, 'Oh, the children are all growing sooo fast cos they ate their broccoli', so she she went to the shops and told the man that I eat my broccoli, and he got a bigger shirt, and Grandad paid for it, and the man put it in a plastic bag, cos it was raining, so then Grandma went to find the postie-man, who wanted to know where the little girl lived, who ate the broccoli....' and so on.  

It took twenty renditions of the story before we got to this stage, and a little help from me, when she got stuck, such as, 'Maybe Grandma looked up the address in her book, to show him where we lived?' but essentially the story was Melissa’s. The process helped her process and reach better understanding of how things interconnect, along with some recent experiences, like recently learning that paper gets soggy in the rain. Plus it helped her with the processing of some emotions, such as whether or not she was going to let her little sister have the outgrown shirt. Some issues of sibling rivalry and sharing came to light, and as we were using the story to explore them, it was easy for me to help her come to an understanding that it would be a good idea to give the smaller shirt now to her little sister.”

If we analyze what went on as Melissa developed her story we can see that she had revisited previous learning,  questioned previously-held ideas, asked and answered questions, organized her ideas, sequenced events, linked concepts, hypothesized, and processed and then verbalized her emotions.  

Story is one of the mediums that can address multiple areas of child development at once, in a natural, enjoyable way. Engaging in stories can help young children to: 

The three aspects of story 

There are three ways to use stories with young children: 

Story reading:

When reading stories the child comes into contact with print, and so early literacy skills are addressed either directly or indirectly through the activity. Pictures give cues, and can add another dimension by telling a different, or more complex story than the words. However, children don’t have to create their own mental image. The success of a story reading depends to an extent on the creativity of reader to help story come alive, although the best written stories will engage the reader along with the children. There is usually little room for altering or adapting the story. A story that is read can be repeated over and over again, which helps children to memorise it. They will then often learn to ‘read’ the story themselves, meaning that they can undertake the activity independently at a later date. 

Story telling:

When story telling, the adult usually has an outline of the plot in mind, and narrates it without reading it. Story telling works better if the story has not been memorized, as this allows for some flexibility and creativity. The story will often evolve and alter over multiple tellings. The story teller is free to look at the children and encourage active participation and interaction, and so there is often more interaction than when reading a story. Props can be used to engage children, which in particular will appeal to the visual learners. Actions will engage kinesthetic learners, whilst the faster pace will be pleasurable to children who are auditory learners.  

Story making:

When making stories, the adult usually interacts directly with the children to create the story itself. She might start with the opening of a story, or with some props, some atmospheric music, pictures, or questions that lead the way into the story. She might base her story on a character that is already familiar to the children, or on an everyday event that is meaningful to them. The adult guides the children through the story, going back over it frequently to remind them of the plot and help them with sequencing. The story can be recorded in pictures, symbols, words or on tape, or not at all. A story making session can be as long or as short as necessary, as the children’s engagement will act as a guide. A story can be created in one session or multiple sessions, and can be revisited as often as children wish. 

The stories and practical activities in The Can-Do Club series are designed to be used in all three ways. The story books can be read to children and the illustrations used to give visual input. The stories in the teacher’s manual can also be read, or they can be told by an adult with the use of puppets, toys or props, without showing the children the illustrations. Suggestions of props and other visual aids are given in the teacher’s notes. The activities described in the teacher’s manual can be used with groups of children across the age range. Notes give suggestions about the timing and organization of the activities. Practitioners can choose to follow the activity as described, or adapt it to suit the children in their setting.

Often the story activity will stand on its own. At other times, the children might move away to do a related activity. They might be given the opportunity to play with the props that were used, or they might role play in the home corner, or make a related item, or draw or record the story. A story activity might be a part of an overall topic plan, or it might be used to address one specific aspect of the curriculum. A particular activity may be chosen by the teacher because of a social or emotional issue that she wishes to address with the children. Or it might just take place simply because it is meaningful and fun!