School Library Day – Learning Through Imaginative Play
Last week, I was invited to Ross-on-Wye Library for a School Library Day. Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 children arrived on foot and by bus for playful oral storytelling sessions helping them to grow in curiosity, confidence, literacy, and language.
After our hello and welcome, I started the session with story magic followed by a playful game of Story Guess Who using words, pictures, and music to warm up our imaginations, and help the children feel happy and settled in the space. Soon, hands started to go up; little conversations took place – we were ready for our story adventure.
Our story started with a storm. ‘If you were writing a story about a storm, what words would you use? What sounds would you hear?’ I asked. We used our collective voices to explore the story sounds, saying them aloud, intertwining words with actions to add meaning to vocabulary, and set the tone for our story ahead. Whistle, whoosh, howl, bluster! The playful nature gently encouraged the children to join in, to find their voice, and imagine what could happen next. I repeated these words throughout the story; the children listened out for them, joining in with me, sometimes adding new words and actions too!
I used the tradition of oral storytelling to tell the story; words, song, lyrical verse, instruments, and pictures playfully coming together to teach the children a story can be told in many forms. We learnt our story song together. The children loved singing it aloud as one, all having the opportunity to tell the story, to use their voice and imagination to bring our protagonists, two young dragons, safely home through the storm. Joining in with songs and verse helps bridge the gap between spoken and written word; the rhythm helping children to match letter sounds and words, playfully exploring language to support their speech and reading development.
High quality, trusted content across many forms is at the heart of children’s oracy, literacy, social, and emotional development. Thank you to all the children and teachers for joining in with our School Library Day. It was great working with you, and thanks very much for sharing this clip capturing the learning of our story song – ‘working together to do our best!’
Oracy Development. Learning the story song – practicing our best story voices to tell the story together.
Lucy creates and presents playful storytelling shows supporting language development, communication skills, and creative play helping children grow and learn. Thank you to the library team for all your help in setting up the event. It was great working with you.
