Storytelling
A child sat at the light table and began to draw on a sheet of transparent film. After a while she began to make a verbal explanation of her drawing. Both ‘languages’ (the drawing and the speaking) seemed to enhance each other. The more she drew, the more she wanted to explain, and the more she explained the more her ideas grew . . .
“Look! I made a mountain!”
“And this is a flower!”
“Monster is push them! This is a monster!”
“This is a monster feet! Red and blue, it is coming mixed. This is a tummy monster, really big tummy! And she push like this and mountain fall down!”
“I draw panda and panda say ‘don’t do that monster!’. She got big, big tummy, she like push, push! This is the panda and she is pushing to the mountain!”
We invited the child to incorporate the languages of light, shadow, drama and movement into the story by showing her that she could project her story onto a wall. The story was further enhanced as the child entered the story becoming a monster and inviting other children to join her . . .
“That is the big monster with big tummy! The big monster pushed, pushed, pushed the mountain and fell over. Panda say, ‘No monster don’t do that’ and the panda pushed the mountain. Now, the mountain is straight, it go back. The big, big monster fall – whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Inviting the children to explore their ideas through multiple languages helps them to develop and extend their thinking and explore new possibilites by considering and presenting their ideas from different perspectives.
