Upper school teacher Blair Munhofen‘s speech class practiced their storytelling skills to a group of wide-eyed three and four year olds Thursday afternoon. This collaboration was in preparation for individual storytelling speech projects. “It was challenging to project animation and the kind of captivating energy that a young audience needs,” said Mollie Greenberg ’15.

Early childhood students brought their favorite books to the main campus, where they were paired with speech students and read in pairs and groups outside. “It was a fun, constructive activity,” said Lolly Buenaventura ’15, “reading to EC students was a good opportunity for us to practice the voice of emotion and inflection and get an accurate feeling for the level of comfort we should have with public speaking.”

Munhofen repeats this class activity each year, claiming that it provides “a relaxed environment where students can gain confidence in speaking and storytelling.” Munhofen says this lesson emphasizes the importance of audience engagement. “What better audience than the EC kids, and what better opportunity to build a bridge between the youngest and the oldest students at MVS,” he said.