Maisy Goes to Nursery: storytelling in early years

We have teamed up with Walker Books to provide these top tips on Maisy Goes to Nursery storytelling in early years.

Why is storytelling important?

Developing a love of stories and storytelling in a child’s earliest years provides a foundation for reading and enjoying stories. The impact of this can last into adulthood.

It helps children to develop:

Receptive and expressive language
Sequencing skills
Thinking skills and problem solving
Attention span and listening
Creativity and imagination
Phonological awareness and grammar.

The benefits of reading to children include:

Learning about the world we live in, other cultures and people
Supporting social and emotional development – learning about handling thoughts, feelings and relationships
Explore challenging topics in a safe way
Introducing a range of vocabulary
Developing imagination
Enabling children to make links between stories and their own experiences
Enjoying the humour and fun that stories can bring.

It is important that children encounter adults who enjoy telling stories, who can bring a story to life and make it exciting!

Top storytelling tips:

For stories to be fun and exciting children need adults that enjoy telling stories, adults who can bring the story and characters to life.

It can be quite intimidating to sit down in front of a group of children and read a story if you don’t have much practice or if you don’t feel confident doing so.

Observing an experienced storyteller is a great way to help you develop your own skills. We have also provided some tips below to help you think about how you can make your stories exciting for children:

practitioner reading storybook to children and children raising their hands

To make a story exciting and fun you can:

Read through the story a few times before you read it to children so you feel confident with how the story develops and identify the different characters and voices you can use
Use your voice and tone to set the scene and create an atmosphere
Build anticipation and introduce surprises
Use facial expressions
Use your whole body to tell the story
Move around the room and go outside if this is appropriate to the story
Use your voice to develop characters and introduce sounds
Vary the pace, speed and volume as appropriate
Use props to make the story come to life
Encourage the children to join in with repeated phrases
Add pauses into your story so that children fill in the missing word/phrase
Relax and enjoy the storytelling activity.

To help you tell the Maisy Goes to Nursery story in your setting, Walker Books has created a storytelling kit filled with hints on creating a space, actions, and props.

Download ‘Maisy Goes to Nursery’ Storytelling Kit

Back to Maisy Goes to Nursery resources

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