Findings

Many children felt comfortable asking an adult to read to them, choosing the book themselves and approaching an adult to read to them, asking for another book when finished.

I observed children stop what they were doing and come and join a story when they saw an adult with a book in their hand.

Some children did not ask for their own story but would come and sit down when they saw other children sitting with an adult. Joining in with questions and repeating parts of the story that they knew.

A couple of children lingered around the area listening from slightly afar before feeling confident to come and sit down.

Children also chose books themselves to look at throughout the week without asking an adult to read to them. More confident children telling the story out loud, some pretending they are the adult and their friends were the children.

A few children did not engage with books or story telling at all throughout the week.

Staff’s ability to tell stories did not appear to make a difference, I observed children being engaged with staff and enjoying stories just as much with inexperienced staff as experienced. Is this due to children choosing books they want to listen too?

Experienced staff were also observed being more flexible in their story telling, building children’s vocabulary, repeating new words and pointing out interesting things in the illustrations, messing around with familiar stories, changing words etc and observing if children noticed and how they reacted to the changes.

I observed more experienced staff questioning children about books and stories, using Blooms Taxonomy questioning, supporting children with their understanding of the story and the characters emotions and experiences, supporting language development and introducing new words and phrases. Whereas inexperienced staff asked children if they liked the story or if they wanted another story.

The small number of children who avoided the area appear to not have an interest in books or stories. Which led me to think why they avoid this area? Do they have access to books at home? Do families tell stories orally without books? Do they use a tablet for stories?

I observed lovely interactions between adults and children, strengthening relationships and encouraging children’s confidence. I observed children making choices, choosing their own books, choosing to look at books themselves, choosing to join in or not join in.

Conclusion

Throughout the week I observed lovely interactions between adults and children, and children and children, strengthening relationships, encouraging children’s confidence, developing social skills, encouraging children think about the story they have listened too. I also observed children making choices, choosing their own books, choosing to look at books themselves, choosing to join in or not join in.

Staff’s experience in storytelling did make a difference in the learning and understanding for the children however lack of experience did not take away the enjoyment of sharing books and stories or building relationships with adults and children. Experienced staff were also able to make stories accessible to all children, changing how they read, how they engaged with children, simplifying interactions for younger children or children with EAL, supporting them with new words, repeating them and if possible, showing them through pictures, encouraging children to also repeat new words and phrase.

Staff being present in the area to support children, enhances their engagement and learning.

While Froebel’s principle of unity and connectedness is embedded throughout the setting. Staff do look at each child as an individual, with their own thoughts, feelings, relationships, interests, experiences and ability’s. Most staff are able to support children to make links between what they already know and what they are learning.

Next steps

I plan to share my findings with the whole staff team in a few weeks (staff on holidays).

Encourage staff to observe each other telling stories, look at how we extend children’s learning in this area and why storytelling is an important part of children’s development in language, imagination and creativity.

Encourage staff to observe children’s play, are there links between stories they have heard and their play? Have they taken on the role of a character from a book they have looked at?

Source storytelling courses to support staff’s confidence and understanding.

If you want your child to be intelligent, read them fairytales….

If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales.

(Albert Einstein as cited by Maria Popova, 2014) (Bruce, McNair, Whinnet 2020:63)

Set up our lending library, I aim to have this running again in the next few weeks, creating an information booklet/poster for families about the benefits of reading with children.

Support staff to observe children in imaginative play, support and encourage staff to recognise connections from stories and life experiences.

Support staff with their own learning, researching and understanding how Froebel impacts our practice today in our setting.