I had a chance to attend a storytelling zoom training posted by Carolina Quiroga-Stultz. Any misinformation of my notes is the fault of the note taker. These are the final set of notes.

The Story Time Experience:

• Your audience seeks for an experience.
• You use gestors, an instrument, and puppet. You are already providing an experience.
• You want the location to be the perfect place to tell our stories. If you have bad location, you need to change it. You need test the space you need to see where you can cast your spell .and for kids to pay attention for you. If you see doors, wndows, or make noises, you need to change your location.

Cautions about telling stories on Friday:

• On Friday, everyone wants to go home. Unless you tell 10 am or earlier.
• If telling stories after lunch. Your digestion system is processing your food and attention wavers. This is especially an issue with children.

Enhance your telling:

• You want to create a ritcheral that makes that story time special.
• You might have a special a corner in a special room.
• Decorate it. Maybe play music before.
• Avoid visual noise. You don’t want something very colorful behind you like a mural that will take people’s attention. You don’t want it to compete. Try to have a plain background.
• Introduce the subject and the props you are using.
• Maybe you dress up. If you do, use bright colors, because kids love colors. The older audience may not need color stimulations but young audience does.
• If you have cool earrings of animals can draw their attention.
• If you have the chance ask, what they liked and what they will change.

Engaging:

• Teller brings things with her to support imagination.
• Use different voices for different characters.
• Use different sound affects to compensate for lack of words (The presenter had to do this as a foreigner who was learning english)
• Uses movements help connect to the kids.
• Book: The belly button monster: When she tells of a blanket to fall on the floor, she acts it out. Make movement and voice alteration. Then ask the kids what happened to the blanket. Kids will try to physically imitate the actions.
• Use facial expressions.
• Rely upon body movements. She even does hand motions with adults. And show swimming thus giving a visual.
• Want to adopt a story: the stories don’t have to have the same ending. Rhyming stories really draw attention. Rhyming the audience has to pay special attention.
• You can use puppets use objects.
• Maybe use a magical blanked.
• You want kids to be active participants. Answer questions. Let them help the narrator.
• Plan your engagement strategy based on how old they are. What is your goal? Sometime you have storyteller have fun other to teach.
• You can tell a story of 20 min. Teachers ask how to you do it? Every 3 – 4 min does something to make the story very dynamic. Kids have to respond by movements and by voice.

Book: Juan bobo and the flies:

• Use different voices for different characters.
• She has sequence of activities.
• Have the kids act out of being bugs. Teller tells them, you are now flies. I can change you back if you participate. Every time teller uses the word ‘flies’ the audience does something. At the end of the story, we need to do the sequence backwards.
• She says flies very 2-3 min.
• In this story, there is a point where we have to think about the advice by given by others. Even may question the advice by an adult.
• The kids get to think and the adults do as well.
• Prepare the kids through movements. My hands are constantly describing it.
• You want the kids to feel empowered.

Book: ann and the dog that could not bark.

• She uses puppets. Card stalk with handle pictures
• When kids given a question, the storyteller shakes her head to prompt the kids for the answer of “no.”
• Story can teach not to give up.
• Story teaches that everyone communicates.