Creative tales told at story telling competition

This afternoon at the Bliss Auditorium, the Ministry of Education held its national Preschool Storytelling competition. It’s the second of its kind and this time, eight participants from different zones countrywide, excluding Stann Creek, competed. The north and the city shared the top three stories and the presenters took home the prizes. The competition is targeting originality and creativity to retain the attention of preschoolers. For the second time in a row, the Belize district took home the gold. News Five’s Duane Moody has this report.

Duane Moody, Reporting
The winner of the 2009 National Preschool Storytelling Competition is Guadalupe Beet of Belize District. Beet won over the judges and the audience with a creative piece on healthy living.

Guadalupe Beet, Winner
“I am feeling quite happy and I would like to thank the teachers in my zone that without their help I wouldn’t have been here. They help me a, they critique me when we were practicing to make sure when I come to represent the district of Belize I did a good job and also we try to promote the healthy for the children. The teachers and the ministry—we try to encourage parents to give their children healthy foods. Sometimes when they come early, you will see they bring chips and biscuit and we are trying to refrain our children from unhealthy foods for them to be healthy so they can have better mind to think and health bodies to grow in.”

Claudia Smith from Yo Creek Community Pre-school in Orange Walk took second place for her very comedic story on a child named Juni and his monkey.

Claudia Smith, Second Place Winner
“I feel good because my hobby is writing and storytelling and I enjoy it.”

Duane Moody
“I think most people were not expecting you to come with a Creole twist to your story. How do you feel about that?”

Claudia Smith
“Well, I thought a week about it and said well I better change my story to a Creole story in Belize City the children enjoy Creole stories.”

Taking third was the only group participant from the Corozal District with their story entitled, Open Your Eyes, triggered by the Swine Flu.

Sucely Hill, Third Place Winner
“Why we took part in this competition was to inform little children that if we take care of ourselves we would be free of any illnesses and I think we achieved that.”

The three winners agree that storytelling is an excellent technique used within pre-schools to get information to children. And organizer, Leroy Green, of the Ministry of Education agrees.

Leroy Green, Organizer, Storytelling Competition
“Story reading is just reading from a book and we all know three and four year olds will not be interested in that. The pre-school teachers asked me to go countrywide showing them how to use drama to teach story-telling and that’s what they have been doing in schools and that is what is being showcased today in the story telling competition.”

The stories had to original, no longer than three to four minutes in duration and it had to be dramatized. Duane Moody, reporting for News Five.

The first place winner took home two hundred and fifty dollars and a trophy. The second place winner took home one hundred and fifty dollars while third place received one hundred dollars.