In her book she writes about her storytelling experiences and the amazing responses of the children. The Kennedys are in their 70s and admitted that having the energy to keep up with a five year old can be challenging. When asked about what kinds of things they like to do together, he told the interviewer about telling stories to his grandchild. She loves to hear about our travels, our life in the movies, our life as children living in a different time. With a little questioning he remembered that Jesus rode a donkey through the town and the people put palm leaves down for Him to ride over.
Children remember stories of all kinds.
Because stories are so popular with children, there must be many reasons for this phenomenon and values to be gained from telling stories in the classroom. Telling stories takes classroom experiences to a deeper level, going a step beyond activity learning with pencils, pictures, and puzzles. As teacher and child share one another's stories, they connect with one another and begin the journey of developing respect for each other. Stories can be read or told from personal experiences. Stories can be told by persons invited to come into the classroom for all or part of the day.