Storytelling Relay
Age range: 7- 14
Commonwealth values: Respect and understanding, valuing the importance and contributions
of young people across the Commonwealth,
Curriculum Links: English, Drama, Art and design
Key Skills: Communication, creativity, collaboration,
Learning Outcomes: To increase knowledge and understanding of the oral tradition of
storytelling and stories from different cultures. To discuss what makes a good story and
storyteller.
Every Commonwealth country has a rich heritage of storytelling.
To celebrate the Queen`s Baton Relay setting off on its journey around the Commonwealth, storytellers, Peter Chand,
Lari Don and Mara Menzies are sharing traditional tales from their homelands, (India, Scotland & Kenya) in a storytelling
relay.
Watch the film of the storytellers telling the traditional tales of Tam Lind, The Boy Who Wanted a Drum and The Lion`s
Whisker. Discuss the techniques they use to bring these stories to life.
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What makes a good story and a good storyteller?
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How would your pupils describe the main characters in each story?
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Do they think there is a moral to each tale?
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What questions would they like to ask the storytellers?
Record the children`s responses and ideas during the discussion.
Ask your pupils to discuss with a partner which was their favourite of the three stories. Challenge them to sum up the plot
in just three sentences and then improvise conversations between two of the characters at a key point in the tale; such
as the exchange between the boy and his mother when she returns from the bazaar, the confrontation when Janet takes
the flower in Carterhaugh Woods, or the discussion between Zahara and the old woman when she goes for advice.
Share these with the rest of the class and explore the characters further through the use of hot seating techniques. This
occurs when students act ‘in role’ as one of the characters, responding to questions about their actions or motives from
the rest of the class.
Encourage your students to sit in a large circle and create your own story telling relay by beginning a story and passing
an object around to everyone in the circle. When the object reaches each member of the group, they should add 3
sentences to the story before passing it on. Try creating a funny story, a mysterious story and a spooky tale! Perhaps
introduce props such as a message in a bottle and a magic pebble or specific characters that must feature in the plot.
Which do your pupils enjoy most - telling or writing stories? Do they have a favourite story or book they would
recommend to a friend? Make an interesting display or graph of these results to share with others.
Divide the class into small groups. Ask each group to talk about traditional tales from their own country or culture and
record any common themes, settings and characters that often occur in these stories? Challenge them to choose one
they know well and think about how they could use story telling techniques they saw in the film, such as, audience
interaction, character voices, actions and hand gestures to retell the story to an audience in an engaging way. Give time
for rehearsal and feed back to each group before performing the stories to younger audience. If you have a partner
school, record the stories and share with them.
Peter Pan and Wendy by J M Barrie. Published by Orchard. Illustrations © Ian Beck, 1998
The British Library in London is currently holding an exhibition called Picture This Illustrated Children`s Classics which
shows how different illustrators have explored ten classic children’s books in beautiful and imaginative ways. An entry
from the exhibition states, “When we think about the books we enjoyed when we were younger we often recall the
illustrations as vividly as the stories themselves”. Do your pupils agree with this statement? Can they remember
particular illustrations from their favourite picture books? I can clearly recall the illustrations from my childhood copies of
Peter Pan and Heidi. Ask your pupils to bring into school some of their own favourites to share. Discuss the different
types of illustrations and the materials used, before choosing a style they particularly like to illustrate key scenes from the
three stories. You could photograph these and swap them with your partner school.
Can your pupils find examples of poems and traditional tales from other Commonwealth countries? Perhaps use
suggestions from the Commonwealth Class debate, or family members, local libraries and partner schools could help
with the search. Encourage storytelling sessions where parents and grandparents come into school to tell or read a
favourite story to a group or class. Your pupils could then create an illustrated anthology or stage a performance of
stories from around the world for parents and other classes within the school. Depending on resources available, you
could try experimenting with traditional techniques such as shadow puppets with a screen and simple light source or
more contemporary techniques such as stop frame animation to retell some of these stories in different ways. Share the
results with others by filming and uploading the results onto your school website or with your partner school if you have
one.
Suggestions for further development:
Watch the interview with the UK`s Children`s Laureate Malorie Blackman at ( add link to Commonwealth Class).
Find out about the work of previous Children`s Laureates such as Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake.
Do your pupils think a Children`s Laureate is a good idea?
Discuss who they think would make a good Laureate in the future.
Additional Resources:
To find out more about the storytellers taking part in this film go to the Scottish Booktrust website at:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/teachers-librarians/authors-live/storytelling-relay
The Booktrust Everyone Writes Website contains games, case studies, ideas and resources to inspire and enthuse
young people about writing and telling stories:
http://www.booktrust.org.uk/programmes/primary/everybody-writes/
Visit www.ariverofstories.com to see information about A River of Stories - a collection of traditional stories and poems
from each country of the Commonwealth, beautifully illustrated by Jan Pienkowski
For further details about the British Library`s exhibition Picture This :Children`s Illustrated Classics go to:
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/picturethis/index.html
This short film shows how shadow puppets are made and used to tell stories:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/how-shadows-are-made-shadow-puppets/2175.html
For more information about the Children`s Laureate go to:
http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/
Additional storytelling ideas and resources are available from the Scottish Booktrust website at:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/node/11139