Teacher Talk Blog | Make Reading Fun in Primary School

Making Reading Fun in the Primary School: National Storytelling Week

Few activities are as pleasurable as reading a book. There’s something irresistible about losing yourself in a good story and immersing yourself in the lives of fictitious characters and events.

Even young children benefit from stories; even if they haven't yet mastered the art of reading. As a primary teacher, you'll no doubt have noticed that certain stories appeal to different children; but one thing is for certain, there's a story out there for everyone, and very few people don't enjoy sitting down and listening to a tale or two.

National Storytelling Week: Celebrating Stories with Schemes of Work, Reward Stickers and More

This year's National Storytelling Week, which is run by the Society of Storytelling; starts on the 31st January. The event has been running for 15 years, and aims to promote storytelling as a way of communication and creative expression.

If you’d like to incorporate National Storytelling Week into your scheme of work, here are a few great ideas:

• Get your students inspired. First of all, read a story to the class, then use it as inspiration for them to create tales of their own. Get them to think about characters, plot-lines and settings, then share their stories with the class.
• 'Illustrate' the stories. Show your class some great illustrations; for example, Axel Scheffler's iconic pictures in The Gruffalo, or Quentin Blake's hilarious drawings in The Enormous Crocodile. Then read a story to the class, and ask them to create some illustrations of their own, thinking about how to show characters and how to depict the setting.
• Set a reading task. Give each of your students a section of a short story (suited to their ability) and ask them to read it aloud in the class; encouraging them all to take part in narrating the story. Afterwards, make sure you reward their effort with these reading-themed classroom stickers, certificate or with a special reward bookmark.

Continuing to Tell Stories

Of course, you don't have to limit your storytelling to just the one week per year. Storytelling can be used to support a variety of schemes of work; from history-based lessons to stories from other countries in Geography.

To view Classroom Capers range of reading reward and motivation resources click here: