"Oral storytelling gives knowledge a soul." - Trent Hohaia

“Whenever we tell a story, we open ourselves to others, we communicate and share something about ourselves, and invite a response, either spoken or unspoken, from our listeners. Stories always give rise to other stories.” - Tanya Batt

“Storytelling is valuable for children's language, emotional development, coping, self-concept, and sense of belonging.” - Professor Elaine Reese

Telling local stories

Storytelling is a way for tamariki to learn local history and whakapapa. Knowing local stories introduces meaningful vocabulary, such as place names. It also contributes to a sense of identity and relationship to people and land.

Get to know stories about the local history and people, including pakiwaitara (stories) and pūrākau (ancient stories). Make these a regular feature of your curriculum.

Listen to a kaiako from Kidsfirst Kindergartens Lyttelton tell a local story about Tamatea Pōkai Whenua and their maunga. Tamariki use different props, objects, and drama to tell the story.

Using props and objects

It’s often easier for tamariki to tell stories with the help of props such as:

• shells or stones, which can be used to sequence events
• clay shapes, which can be used to act out simple stories
• puppets; less confident children will usually tell a story to a puppet, especially if the kaiako uses a special or funny voice for the puppet.
• magnet board characters and dress-ups can be used.

Encouraging confident storytellers

Renowned storyteller and author Vivian Gussin Paley developed a particular sequence of steps to encourage children’s creativity in storytelling. By including storytelling in the curriculum almost daily, children became very confident, adept, and creative storytellers.

The steps are:

1. Invite the children to tell their kaiako a story that is then recorded.
2. Use particular prompts, such as "I’ll write down what you tell me; I’m ready; how does your story begin?" and “Is there any more to your story?”
3. Read the story back to the child with drama and excitement.
4. Invite the storyteller and other children to act out the story in a performance space as the kaiako reads it line by line.

Storytelling encourages both receptive language learning (listening and understanding) and expressive language learning (gesture and talk). It is an opportunity for tamariki to learn about performance voices and how voice intonation helps to convey a story.

As tamariki get older, encourage ways in which the spoken story can be recorded through drawing, writing, and on digital devices. This helps tamariki see the connection between the spoken word and the recorded word.

For accomplished storytellers, introduce strategies like storyboarding so tamariki can experience the planning and sequencing of their stories. The resource Stepping stones in oral language provides further information on children’s growing storytelling capabilities.