When choosing material for storytime, practitioners need to remember that stories do not always come in books. The funny little incident on the way to the nursery and the great legends passed down through word of mouth can all provide rich material.
Here's a new, true story that has never been written down before: a mother was in her kitchen when her two little daughters came in from the garden. The girls were upset: there was a frog in the garden and there was something wrong with it. The woman went out and saw the frog lying on the ground with its legs stretched out. The mother said she thought the frog was dead. 'But we'll make it a grave,' she added. So the daughters helped dig a grave for the frog, the mother fetched her gardening gloves so she could pick it up and put it in the hole and just as she reached out her hand - guess what! - the frog jumped.
This story - shared in a workshop for early years workers - illustrates the kinds of little incidents that occur in all of our lives, things we recount to family or friends but generally forget about when it comes to storytime. Funny, sad, surprising, inspiring, they are the sorts of stories - true stories - that often reach children, and adults, the most.
We probably all have dozens of such stories about our own childhood, our parents and grandparents, about when our own children were small. Often the stories are personal and private, to be kept within the family. Sometimes, however, they are wonderful for sharing with the children we work with. Simplify and shorten them or embroider and expand them to suit, and your listeners will love them all the more because they come out of your unique experience.
TRUE TO LIFE
True-life experience can also provide the basis for fresh, new stories. We all know what it's like to be a newcomer to school. Or incredibly upset because something has got broken. Or to be so excited about our birthday. All these themes can provide the basis for simple stories that you can make up during storytime itself or beforehand. Draw on the children's ideas to help you. Tell them about a fictitious child in a made-up nursery. Your listeners will recognise the situations that you include in your story and will be eager to suggest what happens.
You could also make up stories about some incident that has happened in your workplace - bullying, an accident or something else you want the children to learn from. Don't tell the children that the details are from real life, just allow them to make the connections.
CHILDREN'S IDEAS
Imaginative and adventurous stories can be created using similar techniques. Suppose you leave an intriguing-looking box in the room. When children start wondering why it is there, they may be ready to start making up a story about it. You can canvass ideas from them about what may be in the box or what it may be for. Then pursue one of the emerging stories, allowing more of the children's ideas to come out as you go on. Don't feel the story has to be complicated and when you feel it's time to end it, do so. If you're stuck about how, ask the children how they think it should finish.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Of course, the other great area of oral tradition that we can draw on for storytime consists of the stories that - in all parts of the world and throughout time - have been handed down by word of mouth. Ancient myths, historical legends, folk tales, fairy tales - there are now picture-book versions of many oral stories that are suitable for young children. It is worth going to the library and borrowing those that are strong and simple enough to be good for telling to groups. Collections of traditional tales provide good material. Try the Nigerian story of how the sun and moon got in the sky or the joke story of the big-wide-mouthed toad-frog (see box).
And here's the challenge. It's often far better not to try to tell such stories with the book. Instead tell them simply in your own words, perhaps with the aid of props and adding your own refrains and gestures. After finger-rhymes and action chants, they provide the next major stepping stone for all young children into the magical world of stories.
Further reading
* Realms of gold - myths and legends from around the world by Ann Pilling (Kingfisher, 9.99) and Tales, Myths and Legends compiled by Pie Corbett (Scholastic, 14.99) both contain versions of the Nigerian tale of the sun and the moon.
* The King with Dirty Feet and The Big-Wide-Mouthed Toad-Frog compiled by Mary Medlicott (Kingfisher, 4.99 each) each contain six stories.