PREFACE
There have been societies that did not use the wheel, but there have
been no societies that did not tell stories.
URSULA LE GUIN
Through literature I become a thousand (people)
and yet remain myself.
C.S.LEWIS
Teachers all over the world often begin their lesson with
‘Once upon a time…’ because they have reallised that these words
can engage pupils in a way no other material or method can.
Storytelling is such a powerful and tried through time tool; it develops
language and emotions, it enhances imagination and strengthens
relationships among other things.
In the field of ELT, stories introduce children to the English
language in a natural and authentic way providing visual support and
context to help them grasp ideas and acquire new structures, which
are not formally or explicitly introduced. The repetitive and
cumulative content in some of the proposed stories and/or activities
in this book encourage pupils to join in and have fun. The new
vocabulary in these stories is usually easy to be understood because
of children’s familiarity with the context or the appealing illustrations.
On top of that, the teachers will provide (through the guidelines of
this book) ample help through intonation clues, mime, and gestures.
Moreover, children’s visual literacy is encouraged and further
developed through the observation of storybook pictures. Giving
pupils time to ‘read’ the images and focus their attention on specific
details (when, for example, the teacher asks them questions about
the pictures or the illustrative style) will not only enrich children’s
visual literacy but their appreciation of art. Storybooks provide a
valuable channel for a multisensory learning experience as children
are involved in listening to the story while looking at the beautiful
illustrations.
Last but not least, storybooks develop children’s learning
strategies (such as listening for general meaning, predicting,
guessing meaning and hypothesising) via visual and audio clues and
the learners’ prior knowledge of the world.
Surviving Kindergarten with a storytelling handbook is
woven around a story-based syllabus. Each story provides a
springboard to a wide range of related language learning activities.
The stories and activities in this book have been carefully selected to
meet the needs and interests of pre-primary school children and at
the same time they are in accordance with the Kindergarten
curriculum. The stories and activities can be used in any order the
teacher thinks is best for the pupils. There is no time limit for them:
this is a condition that will be decided upon and dictated by the
needs and wishes of the class and the teacher.
Certain criteria were taken into consideration upon selecting
the stories in this book.
- The stories are engaging and cognitively accessible to the
children’s age.
- The subject matter of the stories makes them memorable and
arouses pupils' curiosity and their desire to continue learning.
- The vocabulary structures are appropriate for that level and the
literary devices used (repetition / content / rhythm / dialogue/
humour / onomatopoeia / alliteration) will help the children
understand the story, participate in the storytelling, enrich their
language, keep their concentration level high and add to their
enjoyment.
- The stories bear cross-curricular links to Maths, Art, Geography,
Music, Drama, and STEM and cater for different intelligences and
diverse learning needs by allowing children to respond at their
own linguistic or cognitive pace and level.
- Finally, the stories address global issues and raise intercultural
awareness by providing opportunities for presenting cultural
information which encourage intercultural understanding.
With this book we aspire to give valuable practical help to new
teachers of English at pre-primary level, while at the same time to
remind experienced, ‘hardened’ teachers of the real value of a storybased
approach.
We hope you enjoy using it as much as we have enjoyed writing it!