Stories for children:

These are the notes I took from a presentation of Hannah B. Harvey, PHY, Professional story teller from some education CDs called the great courses.

A teacher in front of a class presents the audience is in a submissive position. Teacher, who stands in the room of sitting students, is in a position of authority. Same situation is kids sitting on the floor and a teller sitting in a chair.
You will need to project your voice. ‘The more bodies in a room the more the sounds of your voices will be observed.
Speak louder if more people are in the room.
You will need to project from your diaphragm and it won’t tire you as much.
Kids want you to take them and their stories seriously
You can do broader gestures and bigger voice. Most popular for young to middle schooler.
Book: telling stories to children at www.storynet.org by Rebecca Isabell and Judy Sima. gives tips on how to tell of kids of various ages.

Birth to age 3: kids are learning language. have stories with actions, sounds affects and props. keep story simple with only a few characters, lots of smiles because kids can be scared easily. Make the story as long as the age of the child.

Preschool age: 3-5.

Can handle 3-5 min stories. their social and age skills are developing.
Give them roles to play and words to learn.
That age they’re asking why so you can introduce science and basic physics stories i.e.: how our bodies work, how to build a house etc.
You have a chance to ask them how a little bean seed grows.
Keep it simple with plots i.e.: the three little pigs, the ginger bread man or the three little bears.
Kids before 5 love fantasy stories but they can’t distinguish between real and fiction. they’ll ask did that really happen. (You want to plan in advance how you would handle that)

5-7

Kids can handle more complex stories.
Here you can have the witch die in the story.
If you let the witch get away there may be some kids that could get terrified that she’ll return.
Spooky silly stories are fine or more complex fairytales such as red riding hood.
Kids begin to compare themselves to their peers. and their self-esteem begins to develop.
Good story: a grandfather might tell a story of him having a problem with bed wetting. then he tells how he fixed it.
Kids need to feel validated and that their individual problems are not the end of the world.
They need to know their unique strengths are important.
Stories that show a variety of strengths and a diversity of abilities are great.
They’re starting to reasons a dime is worth more than a Nickle.
They are becoming more interested in telling their own stories.

8-10:

You can tell longer stories such as snow white or Paul bunion.
You can tell spooky stories or stories with surprise endings. Kids have a better grasp of reality.

11-14:

Start seeing beyond their own problems.
They can reason through abstract problems. This is a tough age.
They are self-conscious and gender identify.
You should veer away from fables that lay it all out and avoid didactic stories.
They think they know everything.
Let your audience come to their own conclusions.
This age likes stories with riddles and mysteries are popular.
Let them prove how smart they are by letting them figure out the story.
They liked to be scared so they like urban legends and scary folk tales.
They like to be taken seriously, so challenge them with myths and historical stories.
In the beginning, this age group audience will not start as begin on your side.
The biggest tasks to get them out of their own posturing before their peers and concentrate their story.
For the young audience. you want to train them to get ready to listen to your story.
Use body language to accompany your works
Ask: Are you ready to listen to a story (say it excited) (have them touch their ears) raise their hand
Look”: point to their eyes
put lips on their lips (Finger on lips to shoosh themselves)“Ready to hear a story”
Listen and look we’re ready for a story (put your hands on their laps.
Ask questions appropriate to the age. Instead of introducing a story depicting a romance, ask: Do any of you have a best friend? this story has a couple of best friends solve problems together.
If you tell a familiar story, a child may way “we’ve heard that before” did you now the real story of Cinderella?
Hands in lap to show they’re ready to listen (and kids keep hands on belly)