Telling a story should be a fun experience for the teller and the listener. With a few very simple techniques and props almost any story can become an enjoyable experience!. You don’t need to be a ‘performer’, just willing to have a go.

There are many resources available for the serious storyteller and some really good web sites dedicated to this topic. However if you just want to ‘polish up your act’ here are a few basic’s to enhance your storytelling. Once you have the basics, the best thing  to do is make your storytelling unique to yourself.

Firstly read through the story at least once and decide how you want to tell it. This will be influenced upon variables such as; the ages and interests of the audience, the purpose of the story, the message of the story…

Once you have decided on how the story would be best presented i.e. picture board, magnet story, oral … decide how much time and energy you will allocate to this particular story. Again this will be in consideration of variable such as; will you use this story again. Sometimes you may have to rethink the way you will present the story i.e. purchasing puppets to tell a story that can’t be used for any thing else is not cost effective or time efficient. However if you are using this as part of a drama unit they become justifiable.

Read through the story underlining any verbs or adjectives, write a symbol for how you will say these word e.g. capital letters for words said loudly, so that as you read or tell the story you can use your voice as a prop.

If there is lots of ‘speech’ in the story write it up like a play script so you can change voices for each character and not worry about the ‘he said, she said’ In the early stages stick to using one distinctive voice for the main character and another voice for every one else, other wise it is very hard to do well.

Mark on the story where and when you will use each prop, so you can concentrate on the story and not the props.

Find a bag or sack to use for your props etc. Children's pillow cases make great ‘sacks’, they're low cost and colourful, so you can change them with the theme if you want to.

Get the children engaged in the story and keep checking by strategies e.g. leaving off the last word on a repetitive sentence or asking open ended question e.g. ‘what do you think will happen next?’

Use your body language as a prop e.g. lean forward into the audience and lower your voice as you tell a scary part in the story. Use hand movement to portray the events in the story.

You voice can be one of your most effective storytelling props e.g. talk quickly when the action is exciting, quiet and slowly and you want to portray sadness.

Always have an entry and exit plan - whether the children see you every day or only once, this can have a huge impact on your audience, and you don’t have to even move out of your seat to do it well e.g. teacher sitting in front of class announces that the ‘storyteller is coming’ look around the room or out the window ‘no I can’t see the storyteller’ here you have two options

• Turning away from the children, and getting your hat from your sack say something like ‘Oh here’s the storyteller’
• Turning back to your audience ready to start as the ‘storyteller’ 
  This time you say ‘ I’ll go see if I can find the storyteller’.
• Leaving the room briefly while you put on your hat, you return as the ‘storyteller’ 

Younger children have great delight in telling you the teachers gone to look for you. Many are not 100% sure  whether you are in-fact the teacher! And when the teacher arrives back later The ‘storyteller’ has left, of  course they tell you that the ‘storyteller’ has already been and gone again!