thebenefitsofstorytellingandpoetryforkids
The Benefits of Storytelling and Poetry for Kids
Reading stories is a great way to improve vocabulary and help our children inculcate the love for books. Educational stories such as Aesop’s Fables help impart essential life morals and values to kids in an easy-to-understand and fun manner.
But reading isn’t the only way to help your child develop language and literacy skills. Telling stories, singing songs, composing poems, are all great ways as well.
Take a well-loved story book or traditional fairytale and find ways to retell it in a hands-on way. Research shows that this is perfect to consolidate learning and raise confident readers and writers.
In line with World Storytelling Day (20 March) and World Poetry Day (21 March), we invite you to try some of these activities with your children!
Storytelling Activities for Kids
Little Red Riding Hood Story Box by The Imagination Tree
Cut down the edges of an old shoe box with scissors so that 1 side can flap out like a stage.
Paint or colour the background scenery.
Add trees by rolling up brown paper, and top the trunks with green tissue paper.
Stick on flowers on the forest floor.
Add a house for Granny by cutting paper shapes and sticking them on the side of the shoe box.
The story box is ready for the puppets!
P.S. The Imagination Tree used store-bought puppets, but you can make your own from ice cream sticks, markers, and felt pieces. More ideas for hand-made puppets here.
Imagine a story and bring the city to life with these free printable cityscapes. The possibilities are endless!
Instructions: click on the templates on the Paper City site, then print. Fold along the dotted lines first, then cut along the thin solid lines across the top and bottom to have a 3-D pop up city come to life.
Don’t forget to colour them in!
Poetry Activities for Kids
Poetry's playful rhythms, silly rhymes, nonsensical words grab children’s attention and give them a chance to succeed with language. In the words of poet Allen Ginsberg, poetry is ordinary magic.
Acrostic Name Poems
Find a poem in your child’s name. It can relate to her/ his name, things she loves to do, or nothing at all.
Rhyming Poems
Rhyming poems gives children the opportunity to anticipate what's coming next, and helps with language skills. Most nursery rhymes are basic rhyming poems, such as:
Hey Diddle Diddle
Hey diddle diddle,
The Cat and the fiddle,
The Cow jumped over the moon,
The little Dog laughed to see such sport,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.
— Author Unknown
A quick learning idea is to have your child identify the rhyming words in the poem!
Source: www.kidsacademy.mobi
For younger kids, this activity from education.com is a great one too. Kids can fill in rhyming words in the word bank to complete the sentences of the poem.
Source: education.com
Try some today and then save this blog post to try others in coming weeks. Have fun with stories and poems!
-Y Plus SG
