Story Studio with Mrs. Howard's Kindergartens

I saw the idea for story studio shared on Instagram by Mrs. Leslie Dent Scarcello, a teacher and teacher librarian.  I saved the idea and was excited when I had the chance to share it with my colleague Mrs. Howard.  She was as excited as I was to try out this idea with her Kindergarten class.

What is story studio?

The idea is for students to tell a story orally while using loose parts and classroom materials to "show" the story.  The story is recorded to be shared.

How did we set up story studio?

Mrs. Howard found a wonderful assortment of loose parts and classroom materials to put out for students.  I modelled how to select materials from the options and then set up a scene (a playground with snow hills in my demo story).  We talked about taking the supplies we need, but making sure there is enough for everyone.  

I modelled how I would practice telling my story out loud with a beginning, middle and ending.  Then, we showed what it would look like for the video recording.  I told my story and "acted it out" with my items and Mrs. Howard video recorded for me.  

After modelling, students were allowed to select their supplies and set up their story.  We encouraged them to rehearse and let us know when they were ready to record their story.  We roamed the room to record each student on video and then posted their videos into their Seesaw learning journal for families to see. 

Students were highly engaged in their play and stayed on task so well.  Many of them were hoping to record more stories at the end of our allotted time, so that's always a great sign!  It was awesome to see and hear students express their ideas.  There was lots of originality --seldom did we find the same details in two stories!

What did it look like?

Check out this video for a few clips of the story studio experience in Mrs. Howard's classroom: