THE ART OF STORYTELLING

8^th of October 2013 

For this week we had to create our own storytelling by following the structure seen in class (“The Princes and the Dragon”):

Once upon a time there was a brave knight. One day he was riding through the forest when he met a beautiful princess.

-   “What is your name?” he asked.

-   “My name is Penelope” replied the princess.

-   “Where do you live?” asked the brave knight.

-   “I live in a big castle” the princess replied.

Suddenly a huge dragon appeared.” I am a dragon. I am going to eat you!” said the huge dragon.

-   “Oh no!” said the princess.

-   “Don´t worry” said the knight. “I am strong, I am fast and I am clever. I will fight the dragon”.

So the brave knight took his sword and fought the dragon. They fought and fought and fought and finally the brave knight killed the dragon.

The brave knight and the princess got married and they lived happily ever after.

Before starting to build our story, Raquel demonstrates us some talks of storytellers. The first one was about If I should have a daughter… by Sarah Kay.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html

“If I should have a daughter, instead of “Mom,” she’s going to call me, “Point B.” Because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I’m going to paint the solar systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.” And she’s going to learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.”

It is a great way of telling us a story, through poetry. The way that Sarah Kay expresses herself is quite affective. She talks about how would she raise her daughter by adding some trust and vulnerability through her actions. We should all think positively in opening ourselves up to being hurt, to always love others and of course, to always presume that everything occurs because of a reason.

The next storyteller’s name was Michael Rosen’s Chocolate cake. Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures in the children’s book world. He works as a poet, broadcaster (journalist), performer and a scriptwriter.

We have thought of many ways in telling stories, which have been written by another person, written by you written by students or just made up in that moment. 

Then, we watched another video of the same author “We’re going on a bear hunt” The song is about four children and their father going on a bear hunt. The family slips down a grassy slope, swishes across a river, smudges through mud and finally sees the bear, who chases them all back to their home.

With the whole class we did a fantastic and outstanding representation of the song by doing scaffolding. We were divided in groups and each of the groups had some words of the song, for example: grass, swish, swash, swishy. First of all, we had to remember the whole song, and then the different verses. So, with these words, we knew that belonged to the first verse. Once the group did the movements we represented outside. We broke the story into pieces and then we rebuilt it by adding some movements. It was jolly good!

Later, we practiced working with the story of the very hungry caterpillar on YouTube.

The 8^th of October we presented our story by using some movements and showing the pictures via PowerPoint.

Conan, the butterfly

Once upon a time there was a colourful butterfly. One day he was flying around an oak, when he met a hairy caterpillar.

-   “What is your name?” asked the hairy caterpillar.

-   “My name is Conan, the butterfly”

-   “Where do you come from?” asked the hairy caterpillar

-   “I just got out of a pupa” replied the colourful butterfly.

Suddenly, a starving, angry bird appeared.” I am a bird. I am going to eat both of you!” said the starving, angry bird.

-   “Oh no!” said the hairy caterpillar.

-   “Don´t worry” said the colourful butterfly. “I am strong, agile and I can camouflage in the oak. I will fight the bird”.

So, the butterfly used his muscles and his wings and fought the bird. He flew, hit and fought and finally Conan the butterfly scared the dragon.

During the fight, the hairy caterpillar started a pupal stage. Conan the butterfly was very sad because he felt alone. Conan the butterfly waited for weeks and finally, one day, the pupa broke and another colourful and big butterfly appeared. Conan the butterfly and his big friend lived happily ever after as friends.

This is another video of other groups

Previously I had invented one but it didn’t really follow the structure of Raquel's The princess and the dragons story model. 

The wonderful mama pig and her eight little piglets

I really liked the activity, therefore I put it into practice with my students, each of them had to invent a story. It is unfinished but here is an example: 

The Frog and the Monkey

Here you have the video of once upon a time with my students, hope that you like it!