Building Literacy Skills By Sparking Imaginations

(Child) Do one side and then the
spider crawled up the house and then...

(Heather) Playful learning to me is
seeing the joy on the children's face

when they're learning something new.

So seeing them smile, seeing them
be able to use it in context

when they're playing,

because they've learned it
through play from us.

When I see them giggling and laughing,

but still doing
what I've asked them to do

I say: "Yeah, that's it. That's great."

(Children voices)

Storyland is oral storytelling.

My students are learning
the basics of writing,

but they're learning it orally

which is where they need
to learn it in kindergarten.

They need to learn the oral part of it

before they can move into the written part

as they get older.

Once upon a time, tell me
about your beautiful house here.

(Child) One day, a spider...

(Heather) I cover each table
with a tablecloth

and it becomes that land.

So, you know, the land of fall,
the land of water, the land of snow,

so all of those different lands.

I change them up so that
they're not always the same.

What we play with is nature-based.

I had acorns, I have pine cones,
I have shells, I have pieces of wood.

I do have animals out
so that they can add those in.

I put out the baskets
with all the nature items in it,

and then they come in very quietly

and they gather the items
that they want to play with,

and they bring it to their land of choice.

And then they create
whatever they're making,

the house, the trees, whatever it is.

And they start telling their story
to themselves,

or sometimes with a partner.

(Child) I think this is actually real.

This is real, so we tuck down...

(Heather) And then I circulate

and I walked around
and I make sure that I touch in

with every child at least once.

(Child) And then this ran away
and then they jump back up there...

(Heather) So then, as they play Storyland,
I'll go around and I'll say:

"Okay, what's the setting of your story?"

and then they orally tell
me what the setting is.

(Child) And this is the water
where he swims.

(Heather) If we're working on characters,

I'll say: "Okay,
who are the characters in your story?"

(Child) It was birds flying
and some butterflies.

(Heather) It was birds flying
and then their friends were butterflies?

Right now, I'm trying to work on
more of a beginning, middle and end.

And so when they get to grade one,
if they can orally tell the story,

they can hopefully start to put
something down on paper.

It's magical to them and they love it,

so that's a good way
for them to start their writing.

(Child) I make this goat never get
his chocolate peanut butter--

(Heather) Oh, look, and I think
someone's at the door.

(Child) That's a bear.

(Child) Hello. Who's there?