Chapter 9Kamishibai for kids - Grimm's Fairy Tales

The fairy tale folder is particularly suitable for storytelling in Kamishibai theater. This special form of public theater originates from Japan. Kamishibais are said to have been used as early as the 12th century by Buddhist monks to teach moral values through their stories to people who could neither read nor write. This tradition was revived in the 1920s by candy sellers who rode their bicycles through villages and towns, reciting stories using a wooden frame called a "kamishibai stage" attached to the luggage rack or steering wheel.

Convivial storytelling in scenic sequence of pictures holds a lot of educational potential, so it is no wonder that storytelling theater has found its way into the classroom and has become a very popular form of language development for children in both native and foreign language classes.

Let's imagine the situation: In front on the teacher's desk is a box, initially closed. Slowly the two double doors open and the curtain appears. Tension arises, one sits as if in a theater, full of expectation. As the story is told, the pictures that were previously pushed into the stage frame become visible one by one, scenes come to life, feelings are awakened - the magic works. The storytelling becomes a lasting experience, both for the storytellers and for the audience. The text passages on the back of the pictures give security in reciting the text, but they should not restrict. One can tell freely, improvise, depending on the language level. The templates can be supplemented with your own pictures.
If the children like working with the storytelling theater, they can choose or invent their own stories to work on at a later time. There are no limits to their imagination and creativity. The design of the text and the pictures is left to the children, the teacher supports them if necessary.

The stage frame for the story theater can be bought ready-made in stores or made from cardboard or veneer wood. There are plenty of instructions on how to build them on the Internet.