National Storytelling Week is organised each year by the Society for Storytelling to increase public awareness of the art, practice and value of oral storytelling and this year the celebrations take place between 30th January - 6th February.

Storytelling is the act of sharing a story without a written text and can be done wherever and whenever! So why not use National Storytelling week as a reason to start telling more stories?  

You can make them short or long, factual or fictional, funny or sad – anything goes!  Why not get everyone involved in making up their own stories with our special Coram Beanstalk story dice, beautifully illustrated by Nick Sharratt. 

Being able to tell a story needs imagination, an understanding of how stories work and the language and vocabulary to bring it all together.  Sharing books and reading aloud with younger children not only helps build vital pre-reading skills, it also gives them everything they need to become storytellers!  

Inviting children in to be part of the reading even before they can read themselves makes them feel good around books and reading.  The more positive experiences a child has with books the greater the chance they will fall in love with reading.

Watch 4-year-old Alex below as he gets stuck in to helping read 'The Runaway Pea' by Kjartan Poskitt.

Encouraging children to listen to and tell their own stories helps build their reading confidence. Here's Sara, a reading helper for Coram Beanstalk, telling one of Aesop's fables, The Crow and The Pitcher.