World Book Day: using stacking cups to retell the story of Cinderella and build a fairytale tower
- Mamatomo Mama
- Mar 1, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2018
Teaching children how to retell stories benefits them in many important ways
It is often a theme in early years education that children are asked to 'read' books with pictures (and no words) or to retell a story in their own words. Why?
Retelling stories will increase a child's understanding of a story
If a child is given a picture to look at and asked to explain what is happening in the story, they can only really do it if they have understood what they see. If they are to retell a story they must remember the key points. The pictures help, of course. Young children won't be able to remember and retell much of a story without visual prompts. That is why this activity is so useful. The child has to organise the visual prompts and find their own words but they have help to remember the key points.
A child has to use their imagination to retell a story
They have to remember what they saw and what they heard when you told them the story and they have to recreate that in their head before they can retell it to you. They will also be imagining what people looked like, where the story was set and what the main themes were. You can build on this by asking questions like "why do think that is?' and 'how do you think they felt?'
In order to retell a story they have to first listen to it!
Teaching listening skills to children is essential if they are to learn what they are taught at school as well as in their everyday lives.
Being creative in how you present an activity will interest your child and encourage them to want to do it again and again
My daughter loves the story of Cinderella and I could have just made flash cards or paper puppets on sticks to have her retell the story in her own words but I thought she might get mixed up with the order of the story. The stacking cups make it obvious which order the story goes in. PLUS at the end you have a fairytale tower!
Watch the video to see how we used the cups:
I cut out pictures from the Cinderella story and stuck them to the bottom of each cup in order, starting with the largest cup first.
We wrapped the cups in aluminum foil and used silver washi tape to attach the foil and decorate. We also made a silver tower to go on top out of cardboard and a toilet roll. The idea is that my three year old starts the story largest cup first. Once done telling each part of the story she will stack the cup on top of the last, making the tower grow taller each time. At the last cup, Cinderella gets married to the prince and they live happily ever after in the Fairytale Palace that she just built!
Further activities
The idea of building a tower as we tell the story of Cinderella could be replicated with another story. For example, Dear Zoo, would work well. You could build a zoo and add each animal as you go through the story.
The most important thing is to have fun and be creative! There is no end to a child's creativity once you lead them to the opportunity.
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