by Gerald Fierst
 |
| Gerry Fierst telling to pre-schoolers at the Zimmerli Museum |
“Gerry,
hi Gerry,”
the
chirping voices of three and four year olds fill the halls as they and I arrive
at Stokes Early Childhood Learning Center. Four storytellers from Storytelling
Arts have been in the school through the winter into spring, and the impact of
our work rings in the corridors as the children call our names in delight. Today is a storytelling day.
Preschool
storytelling is a holistic experience, involving body, mind and
imagination. Stories teach numbers and
sequencing, vocabulary and conceptualization, history, social studies and
science, but also values and awareness of the world around us.
One
of my favorite pre school stories is a Brazilian folktale of Monkeys in the
Rain. Swinging through the trees the
monkeys play. When the daily rain falls,
and they get soaked, the monkeys decide to build a house, but the sun soon
comes out and the monkeys never build the house that they will need
tomorrow. Lesson: Build Your House Today. The words are simplistic, repeated n patterns
of three.
Hand
Over Hand Over Hand, Its Fun!
Hand
Over Hand Over Hand, Its Fun!
Hand
Over Hand Over Hand, Its Fun!
Rain
Brrr,
I’m Cold
Brrr,
I’m Wet
Let’s Build
a House.
Sun
Tomorrow,
Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
Next
Day Let’s Play
But
the language is only one ingredient of the experience. Hands moving above one’s head
in rhythm to the chant of the words.
Fingers falling to make the rain.
Clapping palms on the lap to make the sound of the rain forest squall. Fingers connected to make the roof of a
house. Opening arms to make the returning
sun. Joyful hands in the air to proclaim
play. The whole child is involved in
unison with his/her whole community.
Words, rhythms, and images are intimately connected to the affirming
experience of organized and energetic activity within the classroom. Emotional and cognitive experience is
associated with verbal skill, and play becomes a basis for learning.
A
story like this provides multiple beginning lessons: about environments- in
this big world where do we live and how do we live; about the science of
weather; about the geography of the
earth; about biology and the diversity of life.
Storytelling
in the classroom is not entertainment.
Children who are placed into a rich verbal environment learn abstract
thinking and become more self directed.
Storytelling is really about process, not product. Most stories have familiar plots, but the
experiential journey of listening and responding is the spark of invention that
eventually can light a whole life. An
anthropologist once told me that the moment we became human was when we could
imagine as if it were real and then set off to make it happen. Every pre schooler should have a resident
storyteller, not to read a book, but to tell stories and play and dream with
words.
