Third Day at Southport

Blog from Third Day at Southport Elementary

I was so sad to see the last day arrive for my work with the students and staff at Southport! The site is small and I got to know many of the children in the two days I was there.
On the last day, they delighted me by not only recalling (very well!) the tale of the Bear’s Breakfast, but also by wanting to tell it alone! So many wanted to do solo performances that I felt badly that we did not have the time to do that. But I encouraged them to tell their parents the stories when they were at home.
Only six parents were able to come—many work long hours. Some of the students expressed regret that their parents would not be able to come for that reason and I encouraged them to perform the stories at home and told them about my childhood—both of my parents worked so could never attend school events. They seemed somewhat comforted by the fact that I really understood how they felt.
Per prior arrangement with Kathy Smith, CIS After School Director, and the CIS Site Director, Miss Shelia, we began the “show” at 4:15.

I performed a North Carolina Version of Ming Lo Moves the Mountain for them. Then we did my version of Stone Soup, set in a school. Then I explained to parents what the week was about—stories with positive values to help with the problem of bullying by modeling right responses and encouraging creative thinking to deal with problems.
While I spoke, the students were given their Bear Breakfast puppets by the teachers. Then we acted out the story of the Bear’s Breakfast together for their parents. We gave them my grandmother’s chicken soup recipe to take home!

The staff served cookies to everyone afterwards and I stayed and talked with several students and parents.

The handouts for the stories should reinforce the learning in each story in future weeks. I forgot to hand out the evaluation sheets but will ask Kathy to email the sheet to Miss Shelia next week.

On Monday the program starts at Virginia Williamson where the format will be different, reflecting the much larger size of the program and lack of ability to have craft time at the site. For that program, I will perform three stories each day and give out the puppet forms as a take home craft rather than an on-site activity.