Storytelling Starters ~ Subversives wanted
Saturday, October 5th, 2013
Monsters make an excellent theme for developing children’s creativity. Monsters appeal to young people – there’s something essentially subversive in both.
So whether you’re a parent, teacher or children’s club leader – and whatever the age of the children you work with – you can get a lot out of monsters.
Here’s a programme for pursuing a Monsters theme:
• Find one or two good monster stories – for instance the Greek story of Typhon with older children
• Prepare the stories for telling, then tell them to your children, be they in class, at home or in some kind of children’s club
• Allow time for the children to come up with comments and questions (in class or clubs, working in pairs or groups is best)
• Ask the children to suggest some modern-day monsters – you might be impressed by their ideas – and make a list of the monsters
• Invite them to draw, paint or make models of the monsters they’ve thought of (this gives them useful thinking time)
• Give them the time to make up a story about their particular monster (working in groups is best in a class)
• Get them to tell their story (each group can tell in turn to the others)
Fantastic!
This whole enterprise could take a full morning or evening session or be spread out over several sessions. (more…)