by Susan Ramsay and Guest Contributors
Winter arrived at our playground like a child in dress-up clothes. At first it draped itself in snowy white softness, then turned into cold rain that coated our playground with ice, before morphing into wind-driven ice pellets that pecked at our unprotected faces. But...
Some day, when my granddaughter is a little older, I’ll share a book with her that she hasn’t yet read called Skeleton Hiccups. This Hallowe’en story fits easily into the light-hearted Hallowe’en genre, but also prompts a scientific wonder. Here are some ideas for Hallowe’en story-making.
Not all stories begin with a book or pictures. Often, stories emerge through connection to place. It was playtime in this small-town kindergarten classroom. The children could choose from a selection of materials during this time. Noah was decisive. “I want to build...
It began with a fact, a belief, an observation … and a book — Shades of People. We decided to take the idea of skin tones being like colours we find in nature to make watercolour paints from natural materials. Used this StoryMaking art activity to explore complexity of diversity with children in your program.
I’ve never needed to be convinced of the importance of stories in children’s lives. Once upon a time stories, real-people stories, nature stories, adventure stories, fantasy stories – the value of stories goes well beyond helping children develop language and literacy skills, or helping children find calm or stillness at certain times of the day.
I love the story “The Old Woman and the Eagle”. It is an Afghan tale that has been told orally for generations and, in more recent years, turned into a beautifully illustrated children’s book by Idries Shah and Natasha Delmar.