The carpet storyteller, or even the storyteller, for some, that doesn’t mean much, but for a large number of kindergarten teachers, it is an excellent tool to make it easier for small and medium-sized pupils to enter language. Listening to a story is good, but not all students understand its meaning. The carpet storyteller is there to bring the characters and the action to life, as explained by Myriam Bonetti, known under the pseudo Mymygo Metresse on Facebook, a kindergarten teacher at the Vieux Moulin in Rosières aux Salines (54).
A school teacher for 29 years, including 27 in a small section class, Myriam teaches in a small rural school in Meurthe et Moselle. Always concerned with reinventing herself and aware of the difficulties her students have in grasping the stories read and worked on in class, it was six years ago, during a long convalescence that she discovered the storyteller, “J ‘ve had the time to rummage on the Net to look for ideas, new things to progress in my teaching practice, to renew myself ”. She thus discovered the work of Anne Guérin, creator of carpet storyteller, “a magician, a finger fairy … A real click for me!” »Says Miriam.
A home-made educational support worthy of an expert couturier
Self-taught, she touches a sewing machine for the first time in 2015, with “the desire to get started, to dare. I took a few sewing lessons to learn how to tame the beast and I sewed my first carpet storyteller, Goldilocks and the 3 bears, thanks to Anne Guérin’s books ”.
But what is the carpet story? It is a support in fabric, felt or any other textile material. The figures, which come to decorate the support, are sewn by hand – even if some use soft toys. A work of expert couturier in which thousands of kindergarten teachers are throwing themselves happily. A medium that “allows you to tell a story from an album in a completely different way” explains Myriam.
A mutual aid collective on Facebook
With a wealth of experience, in 2017, she opened a Facebook group, “Tapistoires in kindergarten … And the imagination comes to life”, which brings together no less than 1371 members. A group where teachers, early childhood professionals exchange, share, help each other … A group thanks to which the less adventurous dare to embark on the adventure, rich in advice from their colleagues. Like Delphine who posts photos, “my very first Tapistory which kept me busy this weekend … The mitten is missing and it will be ready for my little students”. Or Laurence, who is embarking on the adventure, “I have just received a sewing machine and I would like to buy assortments of textured fabrics, can you tell me where to find them? “. A group with lots of “finger fairies” as Miriam likes to call them.
Educational support that brings stories to life
Why Tapistoire and not Telling-Mat? “I chose to call my carpet storytellers Tapistoires because my PS called them that. It is probably easier to pronounce for them ”. And when we see her students, some of them barely three years old, rushing to the gathering area, their eyes sparkling when Myriam pronounces Tapistoire, we can imagine that it is a privileged moment. “For my little students, the word Tapistoire is synonymous with magic, pleasure, emotions …”.
Pedagogically, working on a storyboard is not trivial, other teachers use story boxes whose effect is almost similar. The Tapistory “makes a story come alive. A Tapistory version comes to life. The characters speak, they move, there is interaction with my PS, it becomes concrete, alive … It’s a great manipulation tool for the most introverted, they participate more, they understand a story better. I also use Kamishibai, complementary while being different. The same story can therefore be read, told, dramatized … The possibilities are multiple and it promotes curiosity, understanding, the language of my PS ”.
Today, Myriam has several Tapistoire that she uses each year with her students. “I have sewn a dozen of them and I have a very precious one,“ the 3 little pigs ”. It is the gift of a student grandmother. She sewed it for me and the class. I felt great emotion when she came to tell it in class and when she offered it to me at the end of the morning ”.
Tapistory, storytelling, story boxes… are all precious tools that primary teachers build for themselves, with their own resources, their little fingers and their great imagination. Language, at the heart of nursery school learning, requires them to be reinvented on a daily basis. A challenge accepted by the vast majority of them.
Lilia ben hamouda
–
