With the start of the new year now behind us, it’s time for children to get ready to take part in National Storytelling Week. This year it begins on Saturday the 1st of February and ends on Sunday the 9th. It’s a wonderful initiative that brings children and families together to use their imaginations, get creative, and entertain one another. What better time of the year to do that than during mid-winter? National Storytelling Week is perfectly timed to be a fabulous antidote to cold, blustery, winter days and is a wonderful way for children to escape through the power of the mind.
National Storytelling Week
Saturday 1st to Sunday 9th February 2025
This year’s theme, as set by the National Literacy Trust, is Reimagine your world. It’s an open-ended theme that will allow children of all ages the freedom to create stories in an unconstrained way. With so many possibilities available to them, they can stretch their imaginations and get their creative juices flowing. They can choose to imagine anything from small, subtle changes to the world they live in, right through to worlds that are completely transformed from the reality that they’re familiar with. Imaginations can run riot and the possibilities are infinite!
Great Reasons for Children to Get Involved
Whether listening to another’s story or creating it themselves, storytelling is a fun activity for children and adults alike. In either case, imagination is a powerful thing that will allow children to immerse themselves in new worlds, new situations, and new adventures. What’s more, it can even allow them to temporarily become someone or something else. That’s hugely powerful!
Storytelling is incredibly beneficial to children:
- Storytelling stretches children’s imaginations, allowing them to see new possibilities that might otherwise never have occurred to them.
- It boosts children’s creativity and critical thinking skills.
- It enhances literacy skills including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, including vocabulary.
- Through all of the above, storytelling helps to improve children’s communication skills.
- It teaches them about the world and helps them to make sense of it.
- It encourages empathy by allowing them to step into the shoes of another person, animal, or thing.
- Storytelling helps children relax, enjoy quality time, and escape from their usual life for a while — great if they’ve had a challenging day or week.
- Storytelling is a wonderful vehicle via which children can express themselves, feel seen, and feel heard.
- It is also a superb way for children to learn about topics they might otherwise have not experienced.
- It opens their eyes to possible careers in the creative industries, for example, writing for fiction/non-fiction books, the media, journalism, copywriting, blogging, travel writing, etc.
- Storytelling is free — and huge fun!
Such benefits will help children during childhood as well as when they’re older — potentially even enhancing their careers.
Starting Points & Storylines
With a theme as open-ended as reimagining their world, children have free reign to come up with all kinds of storylines and scenarios. When it comes to creating stories the world is, as they say, their oyster and it’s only limited by their imaginations. They could perhaps come up with some kind of fantasy with colourful landscapes, magic, and weird, wonderful creatures. Or perhaps the story revolves around a futuristic city where travel by hoverboard is the norm. Or maybe the storyline is something more simple and subtle that’s not so different to reality. It’s entirely their choice and, for supervising adults and parents, it’ll certainly be interesting to see what they create.
“The most extraordinary story can come from the most ordinary place: it just needs someone to find it.” — The Literacy Trust.
Tips for Storytelling Success
First-time storytellers may better grasp the idea if an adult/parent first tells a story as an example. This will help them see what’s possible — and indeed show that anything is possible.- New storytellers may also find it easier, initially, to base their story on an existing one that they’ve perhaps seen on TV or read about. Once they get the hang of it, they can adapt more and branch out into new, unique, stories created from scratch.
- Encourage interaction. Creativity will be boundless, fun, and insightful if listening children can ask questions of the storyteller or even suggest plot twists and storylines.
- Children can brainstorm ideas, whether individually, with parents/carers, or in friendship groups.
- One child could start the story and the next child could add to it as a way of allowing the story to unfold in unexpected ways. In this way, the story could gradually build up through team effort.
- Props really bring stories to life — for example hand puppets or using cuddly toys as placeholders for characters in the story. Children will love this!
- Encourage the use of different voices and even accents for different characters in the story. This makes the story more realistic and immersive.
- Different volumes and reading paces bring stories to life too. Examples include whispering to build suspense, speaking faster when the story gets more frantic, using a louder voice when a character needs to be more animated, altering one’s spoken cadence, and so on.
- A scrapbook of storytelling ideas can be useful. Perhaps clip images from magazines or from print-outs to stick into the scrapbook as a possible reference to spark ideas. It’s a great way of getting children going on the storytelling path.
- Set your child up a storytelling and reading corner somewhere in the home. This could be somewhere in a quiet corner, alcove, or nook, away from noisy areas or main thoroughfares. Children will also love it being inside something like a tent or teepee. And, when age/safety appropriate, it could include cushions, soft toys and blankets scattered around to make it cosy and even inspiring. A storytelling corner or nook will encourage children to regularly visit the area to read, tell stories, get creative, and spend quality time.
First-time storytellers may better grasp the idea if an adult/parent first tells a story as an example. This will help them see what’s possible — and indeed show that anything is possible.So families, grab this opportunity to bring some magic and creativity to the otherwise cold, wintery days that can otherwise feel so limiting for children. They will enjoy the escapism, the adventure, the possibilities and the entertainment that storytelling brings. And, when they have been active participants, they’ll feel empowered by the discovery of creative skills they may not have realised they even had. Storytelling is immersive and magical for both speaker and listener and is beneficial in so many ways. So, make the most of National Storytelling Week this year and get children involved. Watch as they realise the endless possibilities that await them. Then, if it’s successful as surely it will be, consider extending storytelling to the whole year!
Little Acorns Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley
We love storytelling with the children at Little Acorns Nursery in Clayton-le-Woods! We know how valuable it is to their development, knowledge, and abilities, and how it boosts key EYFS areas of learning. Communication and language, literacy, expressive arts and design are just some examples of this. With that in mind, we ensure every child is nurtured, encouraged, and given every opportunity to garner a complete range of skills that will stand them in great stead as they grow older. And, when the time comes to leave us to begin school, they will have all the tools and abilities they’ll need to thrive independently and with confidence.
Get in touch today to request a guided tour of the nursery, ask any questions, or begin an application for a nursery place for your child at Little Acorns:
Little Acorns is a perfect choice for those seeking high-quality nurseries and preschools in Clayton-le-Woods, near Chorley. We are also convenient for children living in nearby towns and villages. These include Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Thorpe Green, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, Whittle-le-Woods, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Euxton, Leyland, and Penwortham.
Every 2-year-old attending registered childcare settings in England is subject to what’s known as a ‘Progress Check at 2’. Today we explain what it entails, who is involved and how it benefits little ones. Here’s our rough guide to the Progress Check at 2:
The Progress Check at 2 should not be confused with the Healthy Child Programme’s 2-Year Review that 2-year-olds also undergo around the same age. While the ‘Progress Check at 2’ looks at the child’s learning and development progress and is the topic of today’s guide, the separate ‘2 Year Review’ is more about the child’s health and wellbeing and is undertaken by healthcare professionals like health visitors. They will look at things like overall health, immunisation uptake, physical and mental health and development, overall wellbeing and support levels from parents, carers or guardians.
The three ‘prime’ areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum are also the core focus areas of the Progress Check at 2. Hence, the checks will look to see how well the child is progressing primarily in their:
The core idea behind the Progress Check at 2 is to discover whether progress is at expected levels for the child’s age and development.
