Playing to create stories

Who doesn't remember a story that they read to us, told or that we read as children? Sant Jordi is just around the corner and at school we are very excited about it. The little ones, little by little, begin to understand this celebration and get closer to reading.

At the School we have recommended very educational books, but we also invite you to create great stories, an activity full of benefits. We encourage you to create a personalized story for your child, which highlights his or her abilities and finds solutions to difficulties that he or she must also face. This activity will help them have more resources to manage an uncertain or difficult situation.

Adults, like children, have a lot of imagination and creativity. Taking them out and connecting with our inner child will be the main ingredient for creating stories. 

How do we start?

Let's start with the basic ingredients:

• First of all, we must take into account the language and age of each child as well as their level of expressive and receptive understanding.
• Secondly, we will look for a theme or situation on which the main plot of the story will be based. Remember that you must connect with them and their reality.
• Finally, we will set an objective: what are we looking for with this story?

Let's develop the story:

• Characters: We must choose characters that connect with our children. They find the animals very attractive and make it easy to connect with the story.
• Location: use familiar places with their lived experiences (their class, a close relative's house, the park where they play, etc.).
• expressiveness: A tone of voice with changes in volume accompanied by non-verbal expressions will get children caught up in the story.
• Words: Choose very simple common words for them. We can rely on images, puppets and drawings.
• Changing roles: Encourage them to propose a character. We can turn characters into objects. Imagination to power, anything goes!
• The end: Posing diverse endings helps them understand that they can use diverse resources to make decisions. We can also encourage them to propose their ending to have spaces for reflection and for them to project.

Benefits

• Strengthens listening and attention
• It allows us to anticipate
• Strengthens emotions from a non-invasive place
• Develop the language
• Promotes understanding and memory
• It invites them to project themselves and observe themselves from another perspective.
• teaches us values
• We are left with the best memories of our childhood
• They facilitate the search for solutions to negative feelings in situations of jealousy, anger, fear, death, etc.
• Promotes imagination and creativity

When we create stories with our children, we create a connection of affection, moments to share that are very special. Creating stories helps our children develop their imagination and develop their abilities; it is an excellent means of giving them tools to solve problems and relate empathetically to their environment.

Words have the great power to transport us to fantastic worlds!