Those children who are under the age of entry into school are currently subject to a series of curricular expectaions that are defined by the E.Y.F.S.
Those children who have just entered school and before the K.S. 1 age are known as the Foundation Stage.
AIM
To give children a pleasureable, interactive experience of oral storytelling to help develop their enjoyment of the English language and their ability to concentrate, participate and listen.
I have a wide range of experience with children in the early years' sector and I tell traditional and original stories where the children are the active participants in the storytelling process.
I have worked throughout the whole of the country for SURESTART and a huge variety of book and activity launches for the F.S. ( 'Raw', 'Chatter Matters', 'SPLATT' : Sharing, Playing, Laughing and Talking Together, 'Reading Together' )
I use these sessions in an entertaining way to outline and demonstrate the importance of storytelling and I encourage adults, families and the children to see themselves as authors, without the need to be able to write.
The role of adults in the modelling of performaning and being creative is demonstrated in a form that can be reproduced by the adults watching.
I offer whole-school training in the EYFS and Foundation Stage, with practical, analytical demonstrations for practitioners and a later dialogue about story selection and storytelling techniques.
Having given several Key Note speeches about the role of EYFS to the NCMA, (National Childminders Association), I also run workshops about how educational practice in EYFS can be interpretted in an easily manageable and understandable way.
SONGWRITING WITH YOUNG CHIDREN
I have written many songs with and for young children. I tend to use a current area of investigation and interview the children about what they know and think about the subject. Depending on time I then create a tune with the children, or make one up myself, and try to fit all of their words and ideas to a series of verses with a strong, educationally-orientated, chorus.
Such gems as "When I was a baby all I could do was wriggle", "The frog song", "This old man sang a story song" and "Mammy chicken lays an egg in the straw" can be found on YOUTUBE.
SONGWRITING WITH YOUNG CHIDREN
