Kamishibai is a Japanese form of story telling with pictures. It translates literally as “paper play”. It was popular in Japan before and during world war II until the advent of television. Today it has resurfaced as an education method in nursery and primary schools. Although the actual pictures and narration can easily be created as power point presentations, the interaction with the audience and the intimacy of a life performance creates an almost magical atmosphere.

I spent a couple of days last week at a training workshop about narration techniques where I learned how to incorporate kamishibai into alphabetisation classes. The final afternoon was spent on creating kamishibai stories in small groups. The photo above is our final picture of the story of Quadro who goes to school where he falls in love with Ronda.

Cellpic Sunday

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