Recently I told stories to the day camp children at our local YMCA. The sessions were amazing, and the power of storytelling came through! I had two groups. The first group consisted of children from grades K -3. One of the stories I told is my personal favorite, “The Enormous Turnip.” The story of a family struggling to pull a turnip out of the ground. It’s a classic tale.
The children had an opportunity to act out parts with me or be in the audience as helper storytellers. They like this. Children who are comfortable in front of a group and can ham it up, shine! The other children get to watch the story unfold, participate with motions, and repeat parts of the story. Everybody’s happy!
Here’s a big tip: Get an adult or older teen to be one of the actors. I had one of the high school counselors play a key part — the farmer. He had as much fun as the kids. I tell the story and have the actors act little parts and repeat lines which are usually funny . The counselor always overacts, then the kids follow suit, and they ham it up too. For example: When the farmer in the story calls for the wife to help pull out the turnip, he will repeat the line I tell him such as … “Wife, wife. Honeykins! My darling! Come quick. Come quick!” The children roar! Then the actors do or say funny things that work! it’s magic!
Another tip: Stay in tune with the personalities and actions of the children and go with the flow. And keep in mind no story is ever told exactly the same way. Only certain parts or lines are repeated that are key to a story. During the turnip telling, a little boy played the part of the dog. When he was called to help with the turnip, he got to howl, bark, and wag his tail. Well, his tail wagging tickled everybody’s funny bone, so I made sure to repeat that part of the story … “The dog wagged his tail.” The children started to look forward to it and anticipated the dog would be wagging his tail (or howling at the moon). The audience tellers enjoyed repeating lines and used motions to try and pull the turnip out.
By the way, the older counselors (and teachers) love to act out parts of this story, and I have told it many times to children from first grade through fifth.
So, tell a story. First, chose one you like, think how you can incorporate action, stay true to your story, exaggerate certain parts, and key in on what you see your actors or your audience likes and thinks is funny. Make your story participatory in any way you can: hand motions, body movements, repeating lines, making sounds, chanting, or singing … whatever works and fits in.
And if you do … your storytelling will be filled with laughter and happy kids!