Handout comments

Storytelling and drama

In this handout we can read about the importance of learning through stories andlearning through drama.

Learning thorugh stories is interesting because children can improve their ability to understand, predicting, guessing, retell and even create their own stories in English.  Also, learning through stories is very motivated for them. As a teacher, is important to vary the kinds of stories because children can learn more and more if we include, for example: tales, fables, myths, legends, rhyming stories, stories from other cultures, stories that contain different content of the curriculum, and so on. About telling stories is important that children take part in the story because is easier for them to understand the story. Is necessary to follow the three stages of before, while and after when we plan story-based lessons.

Learning through drama is also intersting because they can make connections between language and corporal expression so they can associate actions, words and meanings. With drama ativities they can learn a lot of vocabulary in a funny way. This type of activites help them to be more self-confident.

It is advisable to combine storytelling with drama.

Then there are a lot of stories and drama activities (32) that we can use with children, all of them are very interesting but I'll highlight the activities that I liked the most:

4.1 Words in the story, 4.2 Picture the story and 4.3 Picture books covers: all of these activities consist in make predictions about the story watching some words that appears in the story, one picture of the story or the book cover. In all of them, the teacher must encourage children to make predictions about the story asking them.

4.5 Finger stories: I love this type of acivities because I think that they motivate children. In this case, the story that the author chose is Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle. The following video show this story:

As we can see in the video, the children are very concentrated in the movements and they have had a great time! So this is a good idea to imrpove their vocabulary as well as their kinestesic intelligence.

4.9 That´s no right!: this activity consists in change a familar story. When the children hear something worng they must say That´s not right! and explain the reason for this. For example if we are telling the story of Snowhite, and we say: Snowhite met five dwarfs... the pupils may say: That´s no right! Snowhite didn't meet five dwarfs, she met seven dwarfs. So I think that this activity is good to improve their memory, to practise some structures and it is funny for them because they like to correct the adults so much!

4.15 Build a story and 4.16 Film of the sory: this type of activity is for higher levels (10-12 years old) but I like this because they create their own story so it is good to develop their creativeness as well as their writting skills. In the second activity they must change some things about a well-known stories so it is very funny.

4.19 Freeze!: this is a playful activity that young children love to do. They like to imitate animals and move at the rhythm of the music or another sound. When the teacher says freeze! they have to stop like an statue and remain still for a while. Children can improve or review some vocabulary and practise self-discilpline and self-control. I think that is a good activity to introduce them into drama.

4.23 Story statues and 4.24 Still images: I like this kind of activity because the children have to express with their body some actions that characterize some characters of the story and they have to guess. With this activity they develop their imagination and their body expression.

4.26 Act out a story with puppets: children can make their own puppets, so it develop their cretiveness and their fine motor skills , and then they use them to performance a story. I think that this activity is very useful to make children more confident.

4.32 Class play: I like this activity because the whole class participate as a big group and children usually like to act for their families using different fancy dresses and making their own decorate.

In conclusion, I like this handout because there are a lot of types of activities to do with children in class. Some of them are for Primary but we can adapt for very young children. Also, the ativities are detailed and there are differents comments and suggestions to complete the activities.

The bus won´t go and others

In this handout we have four short stories with three activities each one:

The bus won't go: 

 I like this story because children can learn about the different types of transport in a funny way because in the story and the activities the children can make the different sounds that the vehicles do.

The proposed activities are interesting because they can practise numbers, develop their memory (because in the second activity they must correct the mistakes) or improve their communicative skills since they have to give different reasons about the use of the different vehicles.

The pig pot:

I like this stpry because uses a lot of vocabulary about animals and different adjectives. The activities for this story includes role playing, so the children can performance this story even for their families. They can make invitations, so this is very motivate for them.



The balloon:

This story is good to practise the names of shops, the physical features of their country (hills, rivers, mountains,...), different feelings (frightened, happy, bored,...), to express hopes,...

The activities are good because they suggest to adapt the story for our class (the main character can be a child of our class, use the hope expressions to talk about the weather, to develop their knowledge about their town, their country and the Earth,...), make predictions about the story and telling the end of the story.

Mr Morgan´s music shop:

This story is connected with the first story because it uses the same sounds for the different vehicles. I like this story because it uses different sounds that we can hear in a music shop, on the street and in a farm, so we can have a great time reproducing this sounds with the children.

The proposed activities invite us to make sounds and clasify them in noisier and quieter, to make maps and use them to see the progress in the story.