Some people say that babies only learn to talk so they can tell adults to stop being so silly. When faced with a new born, or a toddler, or a child, we do have a tendency to adopt that cutesy tone, speak a couple of octaves higher than we usually would and get very overexcited by anything the infants tell us.
But it’s easy to get carried away. Especially at story time. A key time of day in the Early Years is that point where we all settle down to hear about Elmer’s latest trysts or to find out if ‘The Gruffalo’ ends any differently on the 45th read through. And we all know that it’s no good to just tell the tale. We need expression, we need to demonstrate the pleasure that we get from stories and we need to be excited so we can pass our love of and enthusiasm for reading on to the little ones. And a great way to bring all this together is by building the tension and creating that atmosphere of suspense.
So I sat down to read the latest class favourite to my charges, and although I could recite the text word-for-word, backwards, I still got a bit caught up in the moment. ‘But who do you think is hiding in the bush?!’ I asked, all wide-eyed and squeaky voiced. ‘An elephant!’ The class cried, giggling as I turned the page to reveal all. ‘And who do you think is stuck up in the tree?!’ I jiggled a bit in my seat as I waited for the cry of ‘snaaaaaake!’ followed by screeches of delight. But on that particular day I may have gone a little too far ...
‘And, last of all, who do you think is hiding in the hole?!’ I drew out my vowels and slowly moved my gaze around the room, watching as a few of the more imaginative children screwed up their noses and hugged themselves in excitement. But one of them wasn’t quite so taken.
‘Uuhhhh…’ came a sigh from the back corner of the room. ‘Teacher, can’t we just see? If you turn the page, then you’ll find out!’
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