Literacy Week 2016: Storytelling to Kindergarten Children

July 17, 2016

To be very honest, I am not really a kid-friendly person. I usually find them very "childish" and sometimes very annoying. However, after finding out I will be telling stories to the kids, I got very excited and nervous because I had never done this before. I wanted to use this opportunity to get to bond with young kids, and realize that they are not annoying after all.

I am usually nervous when in front of a crowd, because there might be a chance that I might say the wrong things, have stage fright, or even totally freeze up. I want to use this experience to conquer my fears, so that I can do more public speaking events like this one in the future.

For Literacy Week last July 11-16, 2016, my group was tasked to tell stories to the students of K1-C in Saint Jude Catholic School. At the same time, we shared moral lessons that the story contains. 

My groupmates were Lloyd Kang, Kevin Dai, and Virramon Tumulak. I found it a bit hard to be the only girl in the group at first, but I eventually got used to it. I do not regret having them as groupmates. I had fun with them every step of the way. There were times I got a little frustrated because of the time constraint, but they were able to comfort me through that. They were very helpful in coming up with ideas about the script, and were constantly suggesting ideas throughout the preparation period.

DAY 1 - June 30, 2016

It was just a normal day at school. Suddenly, I got a notification on Managebac from Mrs. Reyna. It stated that they needed volunteers for a storytelling activity as an event for Literacy Week. It turns out I found out a bit late, and saw that 30 other classmates had already signed up for this. Despite thinking that there would be no chance for me to be picked anymore, I still decided to sign up for it, hanging on a slim string of hope.

DAY 2 - July 4, 2016

Five days later, Mrs. Reyna again messaged everyone that there would be meetings about the storytelling activity the next day. I was actually quite excited about this because I found out I actually had a chance to spend some bonding time with kindergarten kids. 

DAY 3 - July 5, 2016

We had our first meeting with Mr.Villas and Ms.Rebonquin where we discussed what to do, and who we are going to be working with. At first, I thought that this would be a solo activity, but I am glad this became a group activity.

With Sir Villas, our CAS Coordinator

In a meeting with Ms.Rebonquin

My groupmates (Lloyd, Kevin and Virramon) and I started discussing on what stories to tell. We had a hard time at first, trying to decide which story to choose because here were thousands of good choices. However, in the end, we decided to just create our own story. We wanted to tell the kids an original work.

First meeting with my group mates

DAY 4 - July 6, 2016

We started writing the story. We first wrote about a prince wanting to save his true love from a dragon. He wanted the princess to be his bride not only because she was pretty, but also because she had a kind heart. After working on it the whole night, we were very excited to share this with the class.

Writing our first original story

DAY 5 - July 11, 2016

It was finally the first rehearsal for our storytelling. We practiced a little bit before we presented it to our teachers and classmates. We were a bit nervous at first, since we had not entirely memorized the script yet. We were not the first ones to present. The first group was highly criticized, and we were afraid that we would get criticized too.

Practicing our lines before the rehearsal starts

Group selfie!

After the performance, Ms. Ardiente expressed concerns about our original story. The topic was a bit cliche, and there were some parts the kids would not understand. She said it would have been okay if it was performed in front of teens, but we were going to perform for kids aged four to six. We realized that she was right, so we decided to change our story.

DAY 6 - July 13, 2016

We were called by our CAS supervisor, Sir Villas. He advised us on what to do, to see if there are any clarifications regarding the event. After that, we decided to talk about the story. We still did not have any idea on what story to tell.

Not-so secret selfie while Sir Villas is discussing

We thought about many stories, and we came up with Goldilocks, but we decided to add a little original twist, to make it different from the usual story.

We went home and started collaborating to write a Goldilocks-themed story. As much as possible, we wanted it to be funny and amusing for the kids, at the same time it should also have moral lessons to learn from.

DAY 7 - July 14, 2016

We had a lot of things to do on the 14th despite it being a Thursday. We had a History report to write. On top of that, we also had to attend a mandatory career fair in school. Good thing, we still found time to finish our script. We tried our best to write it, and polish it until we were satisfied with the output. 

"Goldieboy and The Three Bears"

DAY 8 - July 15, 2016

It was finally the day before the presentation! I was a little nervous because Ms. Ardiente may not approve of the story again. Considering my group did the script just the day before, and we did not practice at all, unlike the first story.

Surprisingly, considering we had very little practice time, we did very well! Teacher said it still needed some polishing, but I found it very good! 

I got home, a bit tired after using all my energy to practice. I still had to bake some brownies for the kids! I'm not a pro in baking, but I still gave my heart in baking these goodies. I hope the kids would like them. I also had to prepare some props we would need for our presentation. They may be simple, but I felt they could still get the job done. 

Baking brownies with my brother

Making props

DAY 9 - July 16, 2016

STORYTELLING DAY!

The whole morning, my group and I practiced. We fixed the small mistakes we did yesterday, and incorporated it in the presentation. We were a bit nervous to face the kids, worried if they will be responsive to us or not.

General rehearsal before we meet the kids

At 9:35am, we were called to go to their classroom. The kids were a bit shy at first, but we did a mini dance number to break the ice. They were all so cute and energetic! They were so approachable and kind! With the cooperation of the kids, everything went smoothly! The kids made me forget that I was nervous and made me forget all the problems I had that day. 

Adorable children of K1-C

Story time!

In preparing for this event, I learned many things. I learned time management. If I crammed at the last minute all the time, duties would not get done properly and details will be all over the place. However, if you always do things in advance, you will be prepared and organized. 

I also learned that we have to work hard in everything that we do no matter how simple it might seem. Most of all, have fun and enjoy the process of a task! If you do not like what you are doing, then maybe you should not even bother doing it. It may end up a mess and may ruin someone else's day. It may have been tiring and stressful preparing for this event, but I realized that everything would be worth it in the end.

My goals for this event were  successfully achieved with flying colors. I did not find the kids annoying at all! In fact, I found them very cute and a mere image of my younger self. It made me realize that my younger days were beautiful and happy. I also faced my fears, and was able to tell a story in front of a big audience! I never thought I could do this before. Now that I have done this, I want to actually do more!

I really had fun storytelling. I would not mind doing it again! Thank you so much SJCS for giving us the opportunity to tell stories to the children!

Here is a little peek of our storytelling session with the kids: 

Credits to Mrs. Michelle Reyna for the video!