There has been a lot to learn from the training, especially about the importance of children’s literature to expand social inclusion. We aim to use the acquired skills in storytelling within the classroom.

Parents were very interested and many mums took part in the PINOKIO activities. They shared stories from their countries and were encouraged to use children’s folk stories and fairy tales with their children at home. They were explained why and how children’s literature from around the world is a valid support in education and enjoyed very much the storytelling sessions. They were also encouraged to learn Tux Paint and engage their children with creative expressions around a story by using a medium that is already, or soon will be, a part of their life.

We adapted a little rhyme from the story and given it to the main character – a simple man called Hans who – although not terribly clever has the knack of being happy whatever he has.  It goes like this:

Over Hill, over Dale, I’m happy as I roam,

All I have is all I need and All the world’s my home!!

We altered the story somewhat (shortened it) and changed a few details to make it clearer and simpler for the little ones.

In terms of capturing stuff, we wove in lots of repetition and asked the children to “act out” bits during the narration.  After the story we asked children to draw something inspired by the story. What does Hans look like?  What does “happiness” look like?

We used also The Ugly Duckling and lots of simple, very creative dramatizations. We also asked the children to use words other than English (from their cultural background).

Children were very attracted by the stories. The project teacher manual was very interesting.

It is very useful to use children’s literature to better children’s behaviour and enhance their understanding of human values.

We hope you liked our movie ‘A morning of Storytelling at Martin School’.

You can find it here, in the Blog.

Maybe our Blog readers would like to see more photos and more comments on our work, so we try to share some meaningful moments, starting from the storytelling in the classroom.

The starting point was the training arranged by the Pinokio trainers and The Mosaic’s ‘PRACTICAL SCHEME OF WORK IN CLASSROOM’ was activated.

(This can be seen at:  http://www.pinokioproject.eu/node/32)

The Labs were fabulous.

Fleur Chandrani,  teacher at Year 3, said: ““The P.IN.O.K.I.O. workshop was fantastic. The leader was full of energy and enthusiasm, and captured the children imagination very quickly. The story was engaging and exciting. Many lower ability children were far more vocal and engaged than normal. A fantastic experience”

We continued by developing the story in the classroom and had more versions of dramatizations and  works with creative writing. Fleur and her children produced a new story as a continuation of the Bremen Town Musicians. It was great to address children towards reflecting on social inclusion and sense of initiative by telling the story.

We had some videoing and we are going to share some parts with you. Please follow the links and explanations below. Debs from The Mosaic, after some warming up exercises, started the Bremen Town Musicians story and we had an excellent example of how a story should be told and how to make children interact and become part of the story. Children were able to feel empathy with the story’s characters and deepen the intrinsic social and anthropological elements in the narration.

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Children creating the ideal Action Plan to get out of the Scary situation with robbers….

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How Bremen looks like?

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Sculptures of Bremen

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WE WANT RESPECT

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WONDER WATERFALL

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THE GREAT CANDY WENDY

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FURY FORTRESS

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Writing postcards

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THE STORY GOES ON AND THE TEACHERS STARTS A NEW GAME:

“Writing about the animals’ feelings on 4 posters”

AND THEN…..RECORDING WITH AUDACITY SOFTWARE AND MOVIEMAKER….

WE HOPE YOU LIKE OUR  ’ A MORNING OF STORYTELLING ‘  VIDEO

http://youtu.be/huA9BzxZz3g

We would like to share more of our P.IN.O.K.I.O. experience which has been both very interesting and enjoyable.

It all started with a training to understand the concepts and the education potentialities behind a list of children stories especially selected by the project Scientific Committee and to which we could add many others.  We learnt about values and competences that the European Union is promoting and that are becoming increasingly vital in our fast changing society (e.g. social inclusion, sense of initiative, cultural awareness). Actually, we learnt something about the European Union too (which we did not know…).     

We also learnt more about using computer software to create beautiful works with children, e.g.  using Audacity to record voice and sounds to use in a movie or an e-book. We discussed on how to write a story-board and also how to use a Blog!

Not all teachers are equally skilled but we have our Miss Roberts who helped to overcome several barriers during the training, such as the school security code for internet access and she was great in helping the P.IN.O.K.I.O.  trainers. These were very kind and had a lot to share with the teachers.

In the Creative Lab, Deborah Newobold was excellent in showing the teachers how we can tell stories in the classroom and how we can interact with the children and deepen important meanings included in children’s stories. Deb is really great, she teaches Shakespeare to children at the Globe Theatre!   In the classroom, we also produced drawings, voice recordings, photos and short films that we have used afterwards for nice and innovative P.IN.O.K.I.O. e-works.

We tried to have the P.IN.O.K.I.O. experience into as many classes as possible and the labs were split in various sessions during curricular hours. 

 Children were told ‘The Bremen Town Musicians’ by the Brothers Grimms. During the storytelling, children were invited to tell about their thoughts and feelings on the animals and the situations of exclusion and marginalization they had to go through.

“If my donkey would be old and tired, I would bring him to the vet”

“I would give him more food”……

 Children also were invited to share ideas on possible plans to reinvent the animals’ life…       

When they came to know that the animals never got to Bremen, they used their imagination to describe the town.

 The teachers wrote all the imaginary images that the children depicted:

Then the children, split into several groups decided to ‘interpret’ some scenes from Bremen, create ‘living posters’ and their photos could be sent to their friends, the cat, the dog, the rooster and the donkey.

This was done with various classes during several meetings…

Then the children were invited to draw and write postcards for their friends, the dog, the cat, the rooster and the donkey…

We knew that we would use in a creative way all our works to produce an e-book….

We had to add some recordings for the sound parts:

Then …… juggling with technical skills………

We learnt a lot during the whole process: how to be good storytellers, how and why using children’s stories in children education to enhance specific competences, how to foster creativity in the classroom through new media relevant to children of our time.   

WITH  PARENTS (ALSO GRANDPARENTS)  AND CHILDREN….. SHARING DIVERSE CULTURES AND ENJOYING INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUES (AND GAMES)

A MUM WAS TELLING A STORY BOTH IN SPANISH AND IN ENGLISH:

THE CREATIVE STORYTELLING GAME

Ten cards had been prepared showing different objects.

The teachers started an imaginary story and this would be continued by children and parents. One child would pick a card and add a new part of the story by inventing a new episode based on the object depicted on the card and how this would stimulate his/her imagination. The object would represent an element for the continuation of the story. Some words from different language background had also to be included in the narration.

Then a parent would pick a card and would go on with the story…and so on… until the last card.

What an amazing result and what a great fantasy not only by the children but also by their parents!

The Creative Storytelling Game was a way to share imagination, cultural hallmark, creativity, figurative language…

And…. party time….