Children's stories and tales and their practical applications

This book includes some educational principles that help in achieving the desired goals of teaching literature to children in the kindergarten stage in general, and teaching stories in particular, considering it as an art among the most enjoyable arts of literature, and due to its importance in providing the child with everything that contributes to building his personality in a comprehensive manner physically, mentally, and emotionally. Through this book, I aim to achieve two main goals: the first: providing the student teacher with basic information about: 1. The concept of children's literature and its educational importance. 2. Fields of children's literature. 3. Children's stories and their educational importance. 4. Standards for selecting children's stories. 5. Types of children's stories. 6. The foundations on which storytelling for children is based. 7. Some Arab and foreign studies conducted in the field of children's stories. The second: developing the skills of the student teacher as a children's story author, through assigning her to write some stories, and clarifying the strengths and weaknesses in them. This book consists of seven chapters: The first chapter: titled, Childhood Stage. Reflections and questions, through which an introduction was presented highlighting the importance of this critical age stage in human life in general and the child in particular, and some of what is mentioned in the Holy Quran, the purified Prophetic Sunnah, and our authentic Arab heritage about this stage and its importance. It also emphasized the importance of paying attention to children and raising them physically, socially, and culturally correctly. Then it presented the concept of kindergartens, their importance especially in the educational field, the development they have undergone, and the reality of kindergartens in the Arab world. This chapter concluded with a discussion of the general objectives of education in the kindergarten stage. The second chapter: titled, Children's Literature. Its concept and importance, presented an introduction showing the necessity of caring for children, especially in this era we live in, an era of technology and rapid, successive changes in various fields of life. It clarified the role of children's literature in facing these changes and developments, then discussed the concept of children's literature and its arts (story - song - play...), and ended this chapter by highlighting the importance of children's literature in cognitive, emotional, and skillful aspects, as well as its role in the cultural development of the Arab child. The third chapter: titled, Stories in Kindergartens, began with an introduction showing that childhood development—physically and mentally—is a fundamental component of social development, and that the current reality indicates there are varying degrees of deficiency in the cultural development of the Arab child, reaching neglect of the cultural aspect, and reliance on traditional education based on rote memorization and stuffing, neglecting both thinking and creativity to the extent of surprise, wonder, and denial. It emphasized the need to change the course and develop performance. It also stressed the importance of communication between adults and children, and discussed the significance of stories, the historical development of Arab and foreign children's stories, the cultural role of stories, and their relation to developing cultural awareness in its three dimensions: cognitive, mental, and value-based. It also covered the types of stories presented in the kindergarten stage, and concluded with a discussion of an important issue, especially in the current era, which is translated stories and their relation to shaping the cultural awareness of the Arab child. The fourth chapter: titled, "Stories and Teaching Language," began with an introduction about language and its importance in human life in general and the child's in particular, explaining that language teaching is a form of social upbringing aimed at equipping the child with comprehension skills to be able to deal and interact with language, enabling him to express himself and communicate with others. It then discussed the reality of language teaching in kindergartens, the goals to be achieved through language teaching at this critical stage of life. It also addressed the role of stories in teaching language in general, reading and writing in particular, and the role of stories in developing oral language skills, as well as phonetic and written awareness. It explained how to use children's stories in teaching reading and writing, the strategies followed, and ended with a discussion of story narration methods, requirements, and tools that assist the teacher in this. The fifth chapter: titled, "Stories and Stages of Childhood," presented an introduction showing that human life is a single, interconnected unit, and that various growth processes follow a continuous stream. Psychologists and educators divided human life into stages, each with its characteristics and requirements. It discussed three main stages related to childhood: the stage of limited realism, the stage of free imagination, and the stage of adventure and heroism. It then discussed the characteristics of preschool children's growth, their needs, and their relation to stories. The chapter concluded with a discussion of the storytelling approach and its role in acquiring and developing concepts for preschool children, with some stories that can help develop certain concepts. The sixth chapter: titled, "Kindergarten Teacher as a Children's Story Author," began with an introduction about the teacher’s status and impact in the outcomes of the educational system. It emphasized that the kindergarten teacher has a distinguished position and an influential role that can be performed using some tools, most notably stories. Therefore, developing story-writing skills is an important matter to emphasize. It discussed the preparation of the kindergarten teacher between reality and aspiration, the skills she must possess, and how to develop them. The seventh chapter: titled, "Practical Program for Developing Storytelling Skills among Student Teachers in Kindergartens, the First Three Grades, and the Basic Education Stage," outlined the goals, program, content, tools, accompanying activities, and methods of evaluation. The program included twenty-two meetings, each specifying objectives, procedures, tools, activities, and evaluation methods.