The Benefits of Storytelling

Storytelling is an ancient art that spans thousands of years. It was used as a teaching tool to communicate an event or adventure. Sharing stories turned into a historical ritual of explaining mysterious events often passed on from one generation to the next.

Books are a wonderful way to share a story but they're not the only way.Storytelling allows a person to use their own voice, facial expressions, and body language, to tell a story. The beauty about sharing stories is that each person will come away with their own interpretation and be touched in a different way.

Storytelling for children provides a rich and limitless language experience. It's not just because children love listening to stories. Storytelling encourages children to listen, think, create and imagine. Children develop an understanding of how language is formed and how storytelling is used as a form of expression. Children can imagine they are taking off on a magic carpet to an imaginary land or become a character in their own mind.

What children learn from storytelling:

*How to concentrate, imagine, and think

*How to notice separable sounds in language
*To make connections between a story and their own life
*That stories are an enjoyable relaxing experience
*That stories have a message
*That a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end
*New words to describe objects and feelings
*How to use language creatively and stretch their imaginations
*How to predict events, actions or dialogue
*That telling stories is a very enriching experience

Linking Cooking and Sharing Books

The learning doesn't have to stop once a picture book is shared. Why not provide a follow up experience like cooking to stimulate interest and understanding?

Australian Author Hazel Edwards recently appeared on Community T.V 31, Kids in the Kitchen.

Hazel read her picture books Plato Plumber (part-time) and Hooray! There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Having a Birthday Party with recipes created and cooked by 10 year olds. Although the TV program can be viewed, other children might like to experiment with their own creations.

Muddy Bubbles

(Since platypus breathe under water...and there are bubbles...) Ingredients:
4 cups rice bubbles 1 cup coconut 1 cup icing sugar 250gms copha
3 tablespoons Milo Method;

Plato and Hippo Prints

Ingredients: 1 cup of Self Raising Flour pinch salt 2 tablespoons of sugar 1 egg 1 cup of sour milk(with teaspoon of vinegar added) 2 teaspoons of melted butter/oil

Sift flour, salt and soda in a bowl Make well in centre, add sugar, egg, milk and butter. Stir flour in from sides to make smooth batter.

Put tablespoonful on hot pan, Cook until bubbly on top and brown underneath. Turn to brown other side. Eat.

Platypus Creek Dip

Vegetable sticks scraped and cut from carrots, celery etc Hummus or some muddy vegetable dip

http://www.hazeledwards.com/page/plato_the_platypus_plumber.html

In ‘Hooray! There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Having a Birthday Party’, the children have tiger biscuits, lion cupcakes and vegetables in animal shapes with a birthday mudcake But hippo likes the chocolate ant bread best.

For more delicious recipes to share with picture books, check www.hazeledwards.com for cake –eating bibliography, publisher , teacher resources and curriculum links.

P L A Y - not just for kids

Nearly everyone of us starts out playing quite naturally. But what happens when we get older that we're made to feel guilty for playing? Unless we are being productive, developing a skill, or making money, then we feel we shouldn't be doing it.

Actually the opposite is true-by bringing more play into our lives we become more productive and happier in everything that we do.

Play is critical in sustaining social relationships, being creative, and most importantly- being happy. It allows us to discover our most essential selves and our world and has been built into us through millions of years of evolution. We're designed to find fulfillment and creative growth through play.

Imagine a world without play. That means no books, movies, sports, music, art, flirting, daydreaming, no comedy, no stories. Life would be pretty grim without play. It is now even recognised in the workplace with ping pong tables going into lunch rooms, planned activities to build up staff morale, and employees engaging in social events outside of work.

I believe life without play is a grinding, mechanical existence where we only do things necessary for our survival. When you open your eyes to it, play is everywhere. It can be dancing, visiting friends, surfing, playing in the rain, reading a book, bouncing a ball, dirt bike riding, jumping on a trampoline, or daydreaming about your future hopes and dreams. Play opens up a world of possibilities and finds us doing things just for the heck of it.

So, whether play means to you gardening or bungee jumping, make sure you find time to play because the best memories we have are usually moments of play.

Learning from the Masters

I don't know about you, but I've read many books on how to write and I've attended many workshops held by talented authors. There's always a personal snippet of information that I hold onto and try and work with.

Here are a few that have been cemented into my brain.

Roald Dahl

You must have trouble on a grand scale!

When writing your characters exaggerate all of their good and bad qualities. If they are ugly make them very ugly, if they are naughty, make them really naughty.

Sometimes less words is better, brevity should be our goal.

Janet Evanovich

Here's the thing about first drafts. They really are a gift to a writer.

Having the chance to go over things frees you to play with your characters, your setting, your word choices, your sentence structure, even your plot.

(How I Write, Janet Evanovich)

Hazel Edwards

Read twice, once as a reader and next as a writer to observe the technicalities of characterisation, humour, etc.

(The Australian Writer, Issue#358, Hazel Edwards)

Mem Fox

Books for young children are usually short. Young children themselves are usually short. This leads to the assumption that children have small brains and writing for them is easy. The reverse is true. Young children have large, active brains, and writing them for them is enormously difficult.

It is even more difficult than writing for adults since only the best is good enough for children- the best words in the best places, and the best characters in the best stories.

(So you want to write a picture book, Mem Fox)

Alexander Gordon Smith

Pin down the theme. Remember the theme must be shown not told. The theme is like the cement that keeps the story together. The idea and the theme are different.

The theme can be shown through the characters feeling and emotions. By the end if the book your character will have grown or learned a lesson which makes him stronger.

(Writing Bestselling Children's Books, Alexander Gordon Smith)

Narelle Oliver

Yet, a lot of things in life, doing something that looks simple is not always as easy as it first appears. In fact, my belief s that writing (and/or illustrating) a children's picture book requires as high a level of obsession and commitment to re-structuring, re-working, and word-by-word edit editing as any piece of writing, and that really good and original ideas for picture books don't come along all that often.

('So, you're going to write a kids' picture book...,' Narelle Oliver)

Jackie French

Writing for kids. Why on earth do you want to do it?

If the answer is that you've dreamt of seeing a book with your name on the title page, and books are nice SHORT things, then consider writing a joke book instead.

The shorter a book is the more finely crafted it has to be. Consider the many fine writers for adults that have written a book for kids that has dropped out of sight. No, writing for kids is not the easy option.

(Writing for Children, Jackie French)

As you can see, with every book and workshop, I have found a sentence, paragraph, or statement that resonates with me and changes the way I write. They not only share their writing secrets, and how to fine tune my craft, but give me hope and inspiration to fulfil my own writing dreams!

I'll leave you with a quote from the master children's writer himself... Roald Dahl

'So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install,

A lovely bookshelf on the wall!

Roald Dahl