Story Show is a growing phenomena at Steppers. It all started several weeks ago when Anya J. invited me to partner with her and Lila for our typical showtime performances that tended to revolve around music, song and acrobatic feats, but this time was different. When we stood on stage together, Anya froze so I began to narrate a story along the lines of "Little Miss Muffet" as Lila was dressed as a spider. The performance seemed to grab the audience of players and from that day forward children now request a storied performance with me as narrator.
Being the narrator is a role that I hope the children will take over from me in the 'stage' arena. After all, they are narrators of their own dramatic play most of the time. The stretch is to learn to create and share a simple story as a performance piece: deciding on character, the problem and resolution. The setting for beginning, middle and end. Interpreting how the characters engage, what they say and do together as a diverse group of people/objects.
For now the first step for children is to decide on their character. The range has been quite diverse; some predictable like: Construction Workers, Ballerinas , Kings , Queens, Guards, Mermaids , baseball players, super heroes, spies, fairies (all kinds but in particular: Fairies with the power of strong eye-sight [Cora] and tooth-fairies [Amelia]), cheetahs , lions , dinosaurs, baby shark and Butterflies . AND there are some not so predictable characters like: a dump truck (Damien), and a football (Zinn)
Needless to say telling stories with any combination of these characters has been an interesting challenge for ME to narrate on the spot! But as play and practice grow and children settle into preferred roles, and want to re-enact favored story-lines, I now challenge them to help develop the dramatic encounters as well as think about how to set the stage. If only I had octopus arms (a wish all us teachers think from time to time) I would be able to capture more photos/videos and record the actual stories we create....which can be quite charming.
Here are some photos to enjoy of our indoor and outdoor Story Shows:
Being the narrator is a role that I hope the children will take over from me in the 'stage' arena. After all, they are narrators of their own dramatic play most of the time. The stretch is to learn to create and share a simple story as a performance piece: deciding on character, the problem and resolution. The setting for beginning, middle and end. Interpreting how the characters engage, what they say and do together as a diverse group of people/objects.
For now the first step for children is to decide on their character. The range has been quite diverse; some predictable like: Construction Workers, Ballerinas , Kings , Queens, Guards, Mermaids , baseball players, super heroes, spies, fairies (all kinds but in particular: Fairies with the power of strong eye-sight [Cora] and tooth-fairies [Amelia]), cheetahs , lions , dinosaurs, baby shark and Butterflies . AND there are some not so predictable characters like: a dump truck (Damien), and a football (Zinn)
Needless to say telling stories with any combination of these characters has been an interesting challenge for ME to narrate on the spot! But as play and practice grow and children settle into preferred roles, and want to re-enact favored story-lines, I now challenge them to help develop the dramatic encounters as well as think about how to set the stage. If only I had octopus arms (a wish all us teachers think from time to time) I would be able to capture more photos/videos and record the actual stories we create....which can be quite charming.
Here are some photos to enjoy of our indoor and outdoor Story Shows:
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