Bark, George – A Story for Retelling

One of my favourite stories to share, at the moment, is by Jules Feiffer called Bark, George.
              
It’s a very simple story and the illustrations in the book are wonderful for showing the mother's feelings. 

Last year I read the book and told the story as a felt story.  You can find the pictures at Making Learning Fun.
                      

But last month, at our Storytellers group, one of our members shared the story by telling it with stuffies. 
                   
After our members left I remembered that a parent had given me a dog stuffie, which had a mouth/stomach that you could put things in.  I found it and quickly found some small animal stuffies.  I decided it wouldn’t matter which animals I used so they could be different that in the book.

Then I told the story.  This video shows the first time I did. 
What I've learned from watching my video...
1) I needed to have George more interactive rather than just sitting on my lap.  I've improved on that.  I move his head more when talking to him or when he makes each sound. 
2) I'm more aware of how it looks from the audience's perspective.  And because of that I'm gentler when I'm sticking my hand down George's throat.
3) I've also added a rubber glove that the vet wears.

                                
What I've enjoyed about this story is that the children enjoy retelling it.  The video above shows a three year old telling her version of the story. 

 Each time I tell this story, and I've told it many times in the past few weeks, the children giggle and are very engaged.  I've even changed the animals to a horse, cow and lamb to keep them guessing.