The children in our Star Daisies group at Little Shearwater have had a very special beginning to Term 3. We have celebrated our belated Winter Festival, which we had all been eagerly awaiting over the holidays. The Star Daisies have been gently preparing for their festival over the past term with winter stories, seasonal songs, and crafts. The children participated joyfully, and with great care, in each stage of the preparation of their paper lanterns, with painting, wool twisting, pasting and folding. To finally see our lanterns aglow was a true delight, and a sight well worth the wait, when our festival evening finally came.

At the heart of our Winter Festival was our community of families coming together, to sit by the fire and share stories and soup, made by the children themselves. In the lead up to the festival, we shared the story of Stone Soup, a tale of a great and magical feast that came about after each family in the village contributed just one vegetable to an empty pot of water with a stone in it. And then, just like that- this story unfolded at our festival. Each family contributed a single vegetable, and our children happily chopped, peeled and prepared the vegetables which were added to our big soup pots. A stone went into each pot too! Before we knew it, our pots were filled to the brim, bubbling away with a wide variety of vegetables, from everyone’s individual contribution. Our tummies and hearts were full after sharing our delicious stone soup together by the fire. As the wise old man, a character in the story, says just before the story closes “It was not the stone that performed the magic. It was all of us together.” This sentiment was reflected in the community experience of coming together on our special festival evening. It was truly magical.

Storytelling each day in our classrooms at Little Shearwater holds its own unique magic, and the children absorb deep learning from the stories shared. In the Star Daisies group, oral storytelling is a much loved part of our daily rhythm. A candle is lit, children gather in a circle, and story time begins. Often with the addition of puppets and props to support the narrative and themes, the children are absorbed in the story as it unfolds, and taken on a journey, with lyrical, rhythmic language. The storytelling process in Early Childhood involves repetition, as the story is repeated day after day, week after week, for two to three weeks, with the same words, and the same gestures. This process brings to the child a deep sense of security and familiarity, and a deepened relationship with the themes and the characters. Susan Perrow, a renowned local storyteller refers to the therapeutic potential within a story as “story medicine”. Social situations, daily challenges and life’s journeys can be explored in a layered and nuanced way that teaches, guides, makes sense of, and has the potential for healing. The rhythm and repetition we offer allows the child’s will forces to develop as the story begins to live deeply within the child. The use of puppets brings focus, colour, movement and life to story concepts.

Our festival puppet story “The Winter Light” explored the idea of finding our own inner light, and sharing that light with others. The more we share our light, the more brightly lit is the path for one and all. We take this winter story message with us, and carry our story themes along the way, as the season now begins to change yet again, and we prepare for the unfolding of spring in the coming weeks.

Jedda Davis
Star Daisies Teacher