Stories bring facts to life, make the abstract concrete and walk the listener through the mind of the author. Storytelling provides students with a window to a new world, where they are able to learn about life, the world and themselves. Grade 3 students were introduced to “Kathashaala”, where parents and teachers narrated stories from different states of India. This was followed with the learners modelling the activity for their peers to implement their learning, with stories of different genres. They learnt the significance of voice modulation and facial expression for expression of thoughts. Some of them chose famous stories from the collections of Akbar and Birbal tales, Gautam Buddha and their all-time favourite jungle stories. They were ingenious and extremely resourceful with different props and costumes. To record their learning experiences, the students created a scrapbook with reflections on their learning and conclusions from the story, and their immediate thoughts. The effort made by every child was appreciated and became inspirational for the peer group. Sharing of thoughts, the flow and their sequence gained precedence over sentence structures and related word work. Students donned the role of authors, narrators and illustrators, addressing their favourite part in the story. It was observed that learning becomes deeper and long-lasting with engagement of parents as part of the teaching community, who had volunteered to narrate stories in the classrooms.

Role-play, a playful activity is pure fun and so very vital to a child’s learning. Sparking and enhancing creativity and imagination in children, helps in developing speaking and listening skills in children besides giving them the opportunity to reflect on their knowledge and develop it further. Assuming the role of a character in a story helps the children take their understanding beyond the text as they make connections with the story, the characters and their motivations.The students of Kindergarten combined literacy with the expedition ‘The Food We Eat’as they read the story ‘The Little Red Hen’ and engaged in a role-play activity where they assumed the role of one of the characters and explained the story from the character’s point of view. Children’s creativity and their acting chops were at full display as they expressed themselves and elucidated on why they chose to act as the character did in the story. This activity helped the children to critically examine and understand the story from various perspectives, augmenting their literacy skills.