06.09.2022

Storytelling in Early Childhood Education

By Lais Carvalho

On a very inspiring morning, educators Tania Terpins and Maria Gabriela Boneder Amadei conducted the Café & Educação event with the theme “Storytelling in Early Childhood Education” and brought strategies, tips, and examples of how storytelling impacts the children’s universe.

Tania started the meeting by presenting images of the students at school at various moments of the routine and invited the families to reflect on how they give meaning to objects and actions. She also stressed the importance of working consistently with expression, creation, and interpretation. “Children can read images without knowing how to read,” says the coordinator. At Beacon, our students are encouraged to read the images and tell the stories before they are formally literate,” she adds. 

The choice of books related to the Units of Inquiry was also discussed and explained. Gabriela discussed which books are the most appropriate for Early Childhood Education, how they relate to the student’s profile, and what provocations teachers can make in the classroom to foster discussions.

The educators also talked about the places and the best way to store books to make them available to the children. Finally, they suggested ways to stimulate interest in reading and strategies that families can use in their daily lives, such as reading the stories over and over again, pausing at strategic moments, and even searching for the same titles in Portuguese and English.

According to Martin Heidegger, “Man speaks. We speak when we are awake, and we speak in our dreams. We are always talking, even when we don’t utter a single word, but merely listen or read, and even when we are not particularly listening or speaking, but engaged in some work or resting. We are continually talking in one way or another.”