Storytelling for Older Children

Our local libraries approached our storytelling group asking if there would be anyone interested in being a guest storyteller during the summer reading program. 

 I said yes.

The age group is 5 – 9 year olds, older than I’m use to. 

The theme of the the reading club is Strange, but True.

So I started searching for stories and found a great resource of audio stories called “Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz. A lot of the stories are quite scary for this age group but I did find four that I was comfortable telling and kind of fit in with the theme.

I do one session today then another at a different library on Monday.
But I`ll have a fellow storyteller with me for that one.
I`ll let you know how it went.

Here are the stories…
“There’s Room For One More”

"Bess"

 "Cemetery Soup"

"Cold As Clay"

Drama in Your Classroom

Barbara over at Grade ONEderful is having a linky party.

She asked, "How do you add drama to your classroom?”

Well I love storytelling and having the children participate but also to leave the props and story available for them to reenact over and over or tweak to their delight.

Here are a few examples.

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell  - I’m reading the story and the children have volunteered to act it out.
             
I then leave the book and props for the families to use.
                   

Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina – As I tell the story the children become the monkeys and each get a hat.
               
Here’s a little monkey imitating the man by stomping his feet.
                

We’ve also done The Three Little Pigs several ways.
With large paper props.
 
With big cardboard boxes.
            
And with little cardboard boxes.
 

Of course The Three Bears
            

The Great Big Enormous Potato

That was a lot of fun to do outside and while actually harvesting our potatoes.

And finally Pete the Cat – I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
               
The children loved using the slippers to walk in a box then out of the box with new coloured slippers.  Each box had a label - red for strawberries, blue for blueberries, brown for mud and then a light blue for the water.

Little Treasures

                     
I found a new home business in Burnaby last week when I was attending a conference.

It’s called Little Treasures and they create ‘invitations’ in a kit.

“Discover how natural and real materials can be used

in creative ways for children.”

                      
I purchased three of their kits and could have bought more but finally took control of myself.

The kits are beautiful, attractive and I just wanted to get my hands on them.
                      
I believe in using real materials with children, it adds authenticity to their play.  Using natural materials, wood, bamboo, glass, etc.  lends to the sensory exploration in play. 

Plus it is aesthetically pleasing.

I can’t wait for them to have their website up and running.

Waiting for Fall

I wrote a post at the beginning of May about planting sunflower and pumpkin seeds with our big buddies.

It took quite a while for the seeds to sprout.  After a few had popped through we moved them to the greenhouse.

That helped.

When they were big enough to transfer we prepared the soil.

Once ready, the plants were added.

Then watered.  

The fun part.

   

Don’t forget about the sunflowers.

We’ve been visiting them a couple times a week to water.

  

Can’t wait till September to see them again.

S’Mores by the Fire

Camping is so much fun, even indoors.

Sitting around the campfire and roasting marshmallows is a favourite.
Especially one of mine.

              

And many of the children too.

But more than just roasting marshmallows is making s’mores. Yum!

Light brown fun foam for the graham crackers, dark brown for the chocolate and white playdough for the marshmallow.

  

Once the s’more was assembled they took it to the fire pit and put it on the stick to roast.

   
Careful they don’t burn.


 

Play Trays Final Week

 Our last week of school and here are our trays.

Our last play with marbles for the year.

Spinning Tops

      

Eye droppers, coloured water and little cube trays

Finally, little bears and furniture.

Snail Release

It’s been another successful year growing our snail garden.

But the time arrived to let them go.

We took them to the same nature park that we released our tadpoles.

Interestingly the snails wouldn’t leave their garden.

Couldn’t have been because the children were so well trained to put them back into the garden, when the snails got to the top, that they didn’t have a chance to leave????

We went for a walk and came back to check if they were gone.

    

We found only one part way out.

We had to help the others.

Then they were on their way.

Play Trays Week 21

The first tray contains flowers to button onto their stems.

Great practice unbuttoning and then buttoning.

The second tray has a fishing game.

You wind it up then try to catch a fish as it spins around.

The fish are opening and closing their mouths.

It took a lot of patience to catch a fish.

It came with two little fishing rods,  perfect for friends to fish together.