Introducing Tanya Batt... Storyteller Extraordinaire

 

Te Whāriki (2017) states “one of the major cultural tasks for children in the early years is to develop competence and understanding of language.” As such, oral language and communication are a priority within our learning environment at Bream Bay Kindergarten.

 

It was with greatly anticipated pleasure that recently we welcomed renowned performance storyteller Tanya Batt to provide children an opportunity to experience the awe and wonder of a master storyteller, who weaves together story, movement and music.

By her own admission, Tanya Batt is a self-confessed story-lover from Waiheke Island, Aotearoa, New Zealand. “She is a word warbler, tale teacher, seed sower and story stitcher who channeled her childhood propensity for talking and her love of dressing up into a real ‘imaginary job’. Stories have put food on her table and a roof over her head for thirty years enabling her to share her work in more than twenty countries. She is the creative director of the ‘Once Upon An Island Charitable Trust’ that uses storytelling for community, building environmental and cultural education” (imaginedworlds.com)

“Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole” (Eudora Welty.)

 

Such is the magic of Tanya Batt, that from the moment she started to speak and tell her story, she captured the attention and captivated the minds of our tamariki, keeping them engaged and entertained for a sustained period of time. The children hung from her every word, she had them eating out of the palm of her hand. The fun and joy was evidenced on the faces of the tamariki.

It was a full body, interactive storytelling event, and in no time at all Tanya Batt had the tamariki;

singing and clapping...

 lying on their backs with feet in the air...

flying around the room...   

locating insects…

and gobbling them all up.

“Storytelling is valuable for children's language, emotional development, coping, self-concept, and sense of belonging” (E Reese, 2013.)

And then there were also the bat games, where tamariki dressed up as a bat by wearing a bat mask and then used their new-found knowledge about ‘echolocation’ to find another child who was pretending to be a hiding insect. (A bat-tastic version of the classic children’s game ‘Marco Polo.’)

The tamariki at kindergarten do love a good story, and to see a story come to life before their very eyes was a truly amazing experience. To become part of that story enhanced the experience. 

“Even without the modern neurological research that proves storytelling is the best way to capture people’s attention, bake information into their memories, and forge close, personal bonds, humanity has always inherently known that people crave and seek out great stories almost as much as food and water” (Clifford Chi, 2019.)

  Tanya, Pete, Bat Lamb and their stellar cast of supporting characters had us all mesmerised with their show 'Bats Incredible'; a collection of stories and songs all about the fascinating and intriguing world of bats.

We were entertained. 

We were informed. 

We thoroughly enjoyed having them in our space.

Our final words belong to the storyteller herself, Tanya Batt (2006); “Whenever we tell a story, we open ourselves to others, we communicate and share something about ourselves, and invite a response, either spoken or unspoken from our listeners. Stories always give rise to other stories."