When I began teaching, most local authorities had a museum service that would deliver artefacts to support your topic. I borrowed a stuffed fox, Roman pottery and a Victorian coat. It’s a shame that such services have died out. But perhaps children could collect objects, figures, puppets and images related to a story and build their own story museum?
Year 6 pupils might fill a garage box with ration books, tapes of local memories and memorabilia to accompany a book such as Michael Morpurgo’s Friend or Foe, which is about evacuees.
A Year 3 box about Flat Stanley would surely have an enormous envelope in it. Year 1 pupils might also collect a slipper, a cloak, a pumpkin and a clock to represent Cinderella.
Story museum displays could be used as a strategy for representing and revisiting stories using a visual and auditory approach. They could be displayed in class or set out in the hall or reception for other classes.
Story museums might make stories more meaningful and memorable if they provide a tangible representation of a tale - a ball of string, a maze, a bull’s horn and a rock painted red could represent the Minotaur Pie Corbett is a literacy consultant
