National Society of Storytelling is a UK-based society founded in 1993. Open to anyone with an interest in the form, they coordinate National Storytelling Week, which this year runs from 1st-9th February. Their mission is to promote the oral tradition of storytelling which was the very first way of communicating life experiences and the creative imagination. Storytelling has been shown by studies to aid learning in children for history, increase interest in science and have a positive effect on memory. When the students do the storytelling, it can encourage higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis and synthesis, as well as skills in oral composition. The Society for Storytelling has a range of resources on their website including fact sheets on hosting a storytelling week as well as a list of storytellers that are available to come into schools during the week.

Storytelling historically was a way to entertain or recount stories across different communities but with the advancement in technology, books became commonplace and nowadays storytelling itself suffers. National Storytelling Week is about reviving the love for storytelling and using emotion to convey a story.

Purple Mash Resources for National Storytelling Week

How can you celebrate National Storytelling Week in your school?

If you’re planning to celebrate storytelling in your classroom, you can find a whole host of teaching and learning resources for National Storytelling Week within Purple Mash! There’s plenty to explore for use in lessons with Key Stage One and Key Stage Two children, from writing projects, such as book reviews and retelling famous tales, to author fact files, scene descriptions and plenty of paint projects. We’ve also included links to storytelling tools such as popular storybook animation tool 2Create a Story and publishing tools 2Publish and 2Publish Plus, as well as blank comic book and chapter book templates for children to pen their own narratives from scratch.

All these tools and more are included with a Purple Mash subscription. If you’re not currently a subscriber, you can try Purple Mash free for 14 days.

Writing Lessons for National Storytelling Week

There are a range of writing projects where pupils can retell stories in their own way.

KS1 lesson ideas:

• Imagine they are Goldilocks and write a letter to Baby Bear apologising for their behaviour - what would happen after Baby Bear receives the letter?
• Retell the story of The Three Little Pigs verbally and work in groups to present their story using different voices for each character.
• Write an email from Little Red Riding Hood to Grandma - will the email change the story? What might happen instead?

KS2 lesson ideas:

• Tell their own story using our Blank Chapter Book and Blank Comic Book templates. Let them pick a theme, whether this be fairy tales, folk tales, Historical stories, or invasions.
• Create a fairytale for the younger year groups in the school - students could then take a group of children to read their story to.
• Use the Creepy Wood template to come up with ideas for a story that they tell their partner - could they take it in turns to add a sentence?

Authors & Other Activities

In this section you’ll find a range of writing tools based on the works of famous authors from Roald Dahl to Michael Rosen and Hans Christian Andersen. There are Mash Cams, allowing you to transform yourself into your favourite characters from these iconic writers, while templates for book reviews and biographies allow children to record their learning in an engaging way while thinking about how to present their ideas on paper. Find all of these activities within the National Storytelling Week area.

Serial Mash

Have you tried out Serial Mash yet?

We have recently partnered with DK Learning to bring even more books to our online library. With a subscription, you’ll be able to access these incredible non-fiction books as well as more than 200 exciting stories for your class. Also included in Serial Mash access are automated online reading journals, guided reading activities and ready-made writing resources linked to the texts you have been reading. There's even the ‘Firebolt’ series, specially created so that less-confident readers can still enjoy reading for pleasure.