Sensing a story

Nabanita Deshmukh

The Kindergarten teacher stepped inside a shallow basin of water placed at the centre of the classroom and exclaimed, ‘Ooh, I’m crossing a cold river!’ She then tiptoed across a tray filled with coarse grass and cried out, ‘Ooh, I’m crossing a vast meadow!”

What’s actually happening? A sensory storytelling session is underway!

What are sensory stories?
Stories where certain parts are narrated using words and sensory stimuli are called sensory stories. In the past, sensory stories were created for children with learning disabilities but now they are used in classrooms across the world. Teachers are increasingly learning to communicate through stories by offering students rich sensorial experiences that create enjoyment and develop comprehension and learning skills.

As children, weren’t we thrilled leafing through books that had cut-out windows with small pictures in them? Or when we found sound buttons on pages which made funny noises when we pressed them? Real strips of fabric were sometimes stuck to gowns of princesses or queens to give the story an authentic spin. These were great reading experiences weren’t they?

Children today, are just as eager as we were to hear stories when narrators use exotic aromas, tangy flavours, real objects, eerie sounds and spectacular pictures. These sensory stories work superbly for different types of learners in nursery, primary, upper primary, higher secondary schools and even at the university level!

Sensory stories for young learners
Sensory stories can be safely used with young learners to encourage a greater interaction with ‘stories and texts’. Sensory storytelling not only helps children learn new words or concepts but also develops effective spoken skills.

Retelling
It has been observed that children retell stories fluently after a good sensory storytelling session. The real objects or prompts the storyteller brings to the classroom are apt reminders of the story sequence and setting. Sensory stories are known to develop memory and retention.

Vocabulary
Sensory stories also help children understand new vocabulary. One of my favourite sensory stories is called ‘The Hidden Treasure’. Here, a prince has to cross several obstacles (thorny grasslands, dense forests, cold rivers, dark caves and violent storms) to get to a treasure chest buried deep inside a cave. For children to understand words such as ‘cold river’, for example, the teacher gets a low basin of water to the classroom and steps into it while narrating ‘crossing a cool river’. She lets the children do the same and immediately the meaning of the word ‘cool’ is revealed and the children love the experience.

Similarly, for students to get a feel of the ‘coarse grassland’, real grass from the garden is brought into the classroom and placed on a large tray. The narrator walks with her listeners through the grass while recounting ‘crossing the grassland’ and gives children a real sensation of how grass feels under their feet.

Confidence
Sensory stories also help nervous children express themselves confidently. A stuttering child who has difficulties pronouncing the word ‘torch’ in a story, for example can be helped by using a real torchlight. His classmates would surely understand what he is trying to say and not giggle when they hear ‘troch’ instead of ‘torch’ because the child would actually switch on the real torch while pronouncing the word.

Text and stimuli
Sensory stories have two important components: a good text and stimuli.

Text
Young children love stories and some of these are made up of just a few sentences. There are some wonderful ‘short, short stories’ printed in books or narrated by storytellers that use but a spattering of words or phrases and when narrated sensorially, children just love listening to them! So why worry too much about the length of a story that you want to recount? Be creative! Make up your own stories or choose one from a book and then confidently retell or summarize it by using appropriate props and stimuli. A sensory story is not as complicated as you might think!

Stimuli
You want to use exciting stimuli while narrating a story but you do not know where to start? Well, try spending as much time outside to experience the world. Have you sensed or wondered how certain objects work? Or how natural elements such as the wind, snow and rain feel, smell, taste, look and sound? Let your awareness rise so as to feel the different sensations as vividly as possible and then think of ways of describing them either literally or figuratively. For example, the rain can be expressed by drumming your fingers on the desk or by spraying water on the audience! Once you do this, it will be easier to weave sensory elements into your stories.

Planning a sensory session
Sensory storytelling requires good mastery, planning and classroom management skills.

Vocabulary list
Teachers need to develop good mastery over the language for making their sensory storytelling sessions a success. Try choosing apt words related to the senses and make a list based on themes. Food can be sour, tangy, spicy, bland or bitter. Tinkling, whirring, whisper, screech, flutter are nouns used for describing different types of sounds. Aromatic, fragrant, stinky, putrid, pungent are interesting adjectives for exploring a variety of smells. Verbs like glance, spot, stare, watch, glare, look and squint are lovely synonyms of ‘see’ and if used in context could enrich your storytelling.

Story boxes in classrooms
Select an appropriate story for your class and summarize it in not more than 10 to 12 sentences. Underline the parts you want to use for sensory stimuli. Write down names of resources you could use while narrating the story. Keep a box handy and arrange the materials in order so that you do not waste time looking for them when you need them during the story sessions. Remember props can be anything from space under the table for representing a cave or even a green velvet fabric for grass.

Teachers have to be creative and innovative and think of practical ways to arrange their classrooms for storytelling. Be careful not to bring in stuff that is hazardous or bulky so as to make children nervous or distracted. Resources of these kinds tend to rob storytelling of its thrills.

Rehearsing and narrating
Practise your story several times by using voice modulation, facial expressions and appropriate body language. It is certainly a good idea to use refrains to repeat certain phrases and expressions that you want your students to remember or learn. Children’s stories that have refrains, rhymes, songs, music and mimes are very popular amongst young learners. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and recount your story and if you have passion and dedication, your story will do all the talking and the SENSING of course!

Here are some tips on how to use a song for sensory storytelling

A-HIKING WE WILL GO
Refrain:
Oh, a-hiking we will go,
A-hiking we will go.

A fox we’ll spot,
And take a long shot,
And the snap to friends we’ll show!

Oh, a-hiking we will go,
A-hiking we will go.

A peacock we’ll spot,
And take a long shot,
And the snap to friends we’ll show!

Oh, a-hiking we will go,
A-hiking we will go.

A porcupine we’ll spot,
And take a long shot,
And the snap to friends we’ll show!

The author is a teacher, teacher educator and writer of children’s stories and poems. She can be reached at deshmukh.nitu@gmail.com.