The Traditional Storyteller – The Three Little Pigs App Review

Posted by Jennifer

App Name: The Traditional Storyteller – The Three Little Pigs

Overall Rating: 5/5

Mom’s Rating: 5/5

Kids’ Rating: 5/5

Recommended Grades/Ages: Toddlers, Preschool, Kindergarten, Grades 1-3

Skills Developed: Storytelling, Narration, Sequencing, Summarizing, Folktales, Storybook

Available On/Price: Universal (iPhone/iPod/iPad) – $4.99

Reviewed on: iPad

App Description:

The Traditional Storyteller series of apps uses in-person live recordings of master storytellers sharing their vivid versions of traditional folktales and timeless stories.  In The Traditional Storyteller – The Three Little Pigs, Cat Weatherhill shares her lively retelling of this classic story with vivid facial expressions, gestures, sound effects, and even a catchy song.  Weatherhill is a professional storyteller and published children’s author from the UK and her version of the Three Little Pigs is positive – the pigs survive, the wolf does not (sometimes you just need spoilers, right?)

Along with each ten-minute full-screen story video, three valuable language-arts centered activities are provided.

Map Game provides eight of the stories main plot points, each is given a cartoon-style illustrated image that pops up and plays its section of the story when tapped.  These main plot points are out of place though, and need to be ordered from 1-8 by your child.  When they are all correctly placed (incorrect answers just boing off) the eight main points play the major points of the story in order.

Listen & Repeat includes the same eight major plot points with audio clips shown in order.  Your child can tap each clip to listen to it, then repeat that section of the story as best they can using the recording feature and then have it replayed to listen to.  The original story clip can be listened to again at any point as well as the recording, allowing for multiple attempts and re-recordings.

Tell Your Story provides the same eight major plot points but only as images to encourage recall of the major story points.  Your child can then record their own telling of the story using the images as memory support, and then email the recording of their own story to relatives!

There is also a Play Song option that lets your child listen to Weatherhill singing her cute, repetitive song without having to hunt it down in the video.  In the other apps this section is the Best Bits where a favorite part of the story is played on its own.

A Parents Page includes a section on the importance of storytelling, its educational benefits and the history of the story, as well as providing awesome extension activities.  These can be creative thinking and discussion exercises, simple research topics, and hands-on activities.

What We Liked:

We were sent promo codes for three Traditional Storyteller apps (The Three Little Pigs, The Giant Turnip, and Anancie and the Drum of Common Sense), and we just loved them all.  It was hard to choose just one to focus our review on, each of us had our own favorite.  We spent an entire afternoon sharing these stories with each other – laughing, singing, recording narrations – it was such a fun way to explore the essential language arts skills of listening, retelling, summarizing, sequencing, and so many more.

My 1-year-old repeated sound effects, my 3-year-old repeated phrases, my 5-year-old put the story in order and recorded her own version of the tale, and my 8-year-old sequenced and re-listened to her favorite parts in the re-telling screen.  While watching their daily movie they heard me open the app to write this review and they all ran towards me and were immediately drawn in by the power of story.

I firmly believe that stories are the richest and most basic, natural way that humans learn.  We are built to relate to stories, to tell stories, to share stories, and these apps bring out that joy with spectacular professional storytellers.

The stories alone are wonderful, but the enrichment activities that use the basis of the story to practice key pre/early-writing skills add a lot to the apps, making them easy to use in a series of themed lessons.

Day 1 – listen to the story, day 2 – put the story in order, day 3 – listen to each clip and repeat it as closely as possible, day 3 – record an original telling with the illustrations as guidelines, day 4 – complete an extension activity to draw in life science/geography etc. topics.  ALL of these activities can be completed within the one app, and this sort of repetition is a recognized, valuable approach in early education (and your kids will love it!)

Each storyteller in this series of apps tells a traditional folktale from their region with the UK-based storytellers sharing European stories, and storytellers with African and Indian storytellers telling traditional stories from those countries so this is also a unique way to explore international cultures.  My children are begging me to buy the rest of the series – there are currently five titles available.

What We Didn’t Like:

Nothing.  We are in love.

Overall:

The Traditional Storyteller apps are completely irresistible – engaging, vibrant introductions to classic folk stories that tools that help children practice vital language arts skills.  I simply can’t think of a more enjoyable way to practice sequencing, narration, and summarizing.  Almost better than a live storytelling performance at a library – these can be enjoyed on demand for years to come.

Buy this universal (iPhone/iPod/iPad) app now for $4.99!

Find the complete Traditional Storyteller series of apps here!

Have you downloaded this app?  Let us know what you and your children thought – leave a comment!