The next hour the teacher divided responsibilities among the groups and each one took on the task of making with paper, cardboard and paints one of the ingredients of the Stone Soup (some groups zucchini, some tomatoes).
“What do the children in the two villages learn?”, “How do they learn” , “What do they feel?”
It was very moving that the children, despite being still quite young (third grade), discovered that in the second village the children learn to think, cultivate their imagination, try to find solutions. All students
have equal opportunities, there are no smart and “dumb” among them. They learn and succeed through play.
They also understood that their entire path to knowledge is full of joy, fun, cooperation, pleasure, faith in themselves and their abilities. Unlike the children of the first village who are competitive, and lack self-confidence, divided in successful and unsuccessful ones, their knowledge is restricted on one thing. So,
after the children had reached a very satisfactory level of understanding the concepts and messages of
the story, they proceeded even more to the point.
They focused on the last sentence of the story, whichparticularly touched the whole class: “Catching dragon scales does not make you a dragon dancer,
dancing with dragons makes you a dragon dancer.” A child took on the task of recording the ideas on a
piece of paper that was stuck on the board. This time the question asked was “What are these
characteristics that make us true dragon dancers?” The pure, childlike way in which they expressed
important concepts was so touching! Some of the answers recorded were:
Do everything you do internally and do not show it to others (at this point the class discussed a lot about
the behavior of parents in both villages: in the first they were arrogant about the children’s performance,
hanging the scales in the houses for everyone to see, while in the second they were happy about the children’s experience, keeping the scales as precious souvenirs in chests)
The class was divided into two groups (10 children – 11 children). One would dramatize the scene from
village A and then the second group would dramatize the story for village B. Roles were distributed (parents, children, teacher, old man who never sleeps, dragon, the scared child from village A, little girl
who helped the dragon from village B). The children spontaneously made some theatrical objects (jacket
as a net, paper knife, blueberries, fish, houses with hanging scales, etc.) It was particularly interesting how they presented the characters and improvised the dialogues according to their roles.
The last action was named ‘My dear diary’ and was in a way a continuation of the previous action. Now our heroes have returned to their homes and are recording their experience in their personal diary (each from the perspective of their role). So, pupils wrote of how each character felt, including the feelings of the dragon itself in each of the two villages, thus improving students’ emotional intelligence.
The children after finishing the activities, wanted to keep the dragon scales that they used in the dramatization. So when they went out for the break, the teacher grabbed the opportunity… As soon as
they returned, they found a dragon scale on their desk and on the board the message “from the dragon”, because…. a little magic is always welcome!
Creating a playful atmosphere for storytelling and igniting the curiosity and fantasy of students by using the element of the unexpected, is very important as a preparatory step for beginning to work with stories and playful learning at school.
The preparation of the setting for a different way of teaching and learning directly engages students’
attention, anticipation and interest. Playful learning is to a large extent characterized by a playful mood and atmosphere and this is an example of how a teacher can create this atmosphere by using props from the story the class is going to work with each day.
The teacher said: “I was particularly pleased with the fact that the children actively participated in the
whole process from beginning to end, that I saw their willingness to play, to respond, to create in each
activity. And the most moving thing of all was that as an educator you saw my students master concepts
and knowledge without this being done in the typical way and without them realizing that through the
discussion or the game, they were managing and mastering important notions. The atmosphere and
interpersonal relationships between the children and between me (the teacher) and the children, were positively affected as all the activities and this more playful and “magical” dimension in teaching,
brought us closer and united us even more as a team. The stories themselves certainly contributed to this as the values that were illuminated through their messages strengthened cooperation, teamwork,
joy and enjoyment on the path to knowledge, equal opportunities.
The children, without realizing it, had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the SDGs and I think that the fact that this was not done in a purely didactic way was what made the difference. Usually in teaching manuals, the way in which concepts related to the SDGs are introduced (such as social inequality, etc.) is done in a way of admonition and didactics. On the contrary, storytelling brought to
light very serious issues and the children had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with in a more
empathetic way as they identified themselves with the heroes, with their experiences and with the
solutions that were ultimately given. I therefore believe that this more playful but also experiential way is much more substantial and effective.” This supported the students’ emotional learning skills, empathy
abilities and general improvement of wellbeing in the classroom.
One of the students argued that he feels he can accomplish everything after this experience, highlighting
the empowering effect that active participation and use of the material had for the children who piloted the PLACES materials.
