The Process Continues

When CIS applied for the grant, I suggested a list of stories that would be used and a story schedule. After the grant was approved, the CIS Director and I realized that we would have to modify the schedule. At that meeting, we also amended that story list slightly, to better serve the needs of the two particular centers where the program will be performed.

Story selection was based on finding stories that offered both a way to best present the goals of the program and that would allow a lot of interaction with the students while being presented and offer the students an opportunity to maximize learning with crafts and through their own presentation of the story later.

The opening story is “The Power of Words” my own adaptation of the familiar “Magic Paintbrush” tale. In my version the “magic” happens when the proper words are used---polite, kind words. Later the Emperor will try to guess at the magic words by using lots of bluster and rough commands, but the real magic happens only with kind words.
As usual, “standard” folk tales such as the “Three Billy Goats Gruff” and “Stone Soup” will not be told as they are commonly known. My versions will incorporate both more action and a strong anti-bullying message. This means that in the case of “Billy Goats Gruff”, the troll will not be butted from the bridge. He will be dealt with in a way that we would want students to emulate.

As for “Stone Soup”, my presentation will include both principles of good nutrition and borrow from lessons of cooperation shown in the “Great Big Enormous Carrot” (aka Turnip) as well as the story’s own inherent lesson of generosity and kindness to those not like ourselves.

My version of “How the Rattlesnake Got His Rattle”, a Hopi tale, is based on reading of many versions and tellings over twenty years of story performance work. It’s a quieter telling tale that emphasizes the power that a small person can have.

The story of “The Bear’s Breakfast” is one I first discovered through reading Margaret Read MacDonald’s “Twenty Tellable Tales” and later adjusted after finding versions of it in Russian and Native American folklore. This story offers a simple sequenced formulaic telling that allows students to memorize it immediately and offers opportunities for five-ten students to participate immediately. It’s a fun one for students to put on for others because they learn it so quickly and in addition to the anti-bullying and generosity to others lessons that are inherent, is a great story to use when teaching language skills and writing skills to children of all ages. More tomorrow.