Folktale Festival - Day Two

Yesterday, the students were both the storytellers and the listeners (see yesterday's post about Folktale Festival - Day One). Today, the students enjoyed listening to and learning from someone who makes storytelling his profession.

Robin Moore is an author and storyteller who grew up in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. He entertained all of us this morning with "true" tales from his childhood that stretched the truth just a bit -- like the one about the day that was so hot the corn popped itself. Students could hear in his stories characteristics similar to those found in the folktales and legends from around the world they have been learning in class. Some lucky volunteers got to try on authentically made Native American and Early American clothing.

Following the morning assembly, Robin conducted writing workshops for the upper grades and introduced them to his Four Secrets of Writing. The first is to "see the pictures of the story in your mind." Robin helped the students to do this by leading them through a guided meditation, accompanied by soothing music played on his Celtic harp. The second step is to write using your inner eye (imagination) and your outer eye (paper and pencil). The third and fourth steps are to rewrite and read your story out loud -- advice that I know matches what their teachers instruct them to do every day. Robin also described his work as a published author, including working with editors, illustrators, and translators.

Meanwhile, over in the gym . . . students acted out tales narrated by T. Amy. After listening to The Crane's Walk, an Aesop's fable retold by Brishti Bandyopadhyay, they practiced their crab walking skills. Rabbit Plays Tug-of-War, a Native American legend retold by S. E. Schlosser, led to -- you guessed it -- a good old fashioned tug-of-war.

The day ended back in the meeting house with a second assembly. As in the workshops, Robin led the audience through a visualization exercise. Ask your child to tell you about their imagined trip inside their family tree and the symbol for their family that they found there. For the grand finale, Robin had students join him on stage for a rousing audience-participation story about how the rabbit lost its tail.

The Folktale Festival wraps up tomorrow. More to come . . .