Yesterday was Halloween and I told ‘scary’ stories’ to my Thursday group of 5 and 6 year olds.
After telling the Chinese folktale,The Brave Girl and the Monster Snake, a little boy told me he had a video showing a capybara being eaten by a python and thought it was too bad the capybara hadn’t heard this story about how to survive a monster snake attack!
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Last week, after telling the story of The Ghost Dog and the Milky Way to a group of grade 1 students, a six year old little boy raised his hand and said, “I know dinosaurs used to be real, but they are extinct now. I think ghost dogs were real too. Were they real before I was born?”
The spoken word is so powerful. Stories seem believable because listeners actively participate by creating mental images of the narrative. If you can imagine it, it becomes real, right?
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Finishing up the Halloween candy doesn’t necessarily mean that Halloween is totally gone for another year.
You can keep the sweet thrill alive by telling more scary stories.
Here are three that I highly recommend for 4 – 7 year olds, which are scary, but not too scary.
Lon Po Po is a Chinese tale, similar to Little Red-Riding Hood. Ed Young has a wonderful retelling of the story.
The Funny Little Woman is a Japanese folktale about the adventures of a rice dumpling maker who is pursued by wicked oni (scary monsters). Arlene Mosel’s retelling is my favourite.
Sukey and the Mermaid is an exciting African-American mermaid story, retold by Robert D. San Souci and beautifully illustrated by Brian Pinkney. It is not really scary, but it is definitely suspenseful and worth the read.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
The Hobyahs is a spooky old English tale. It’s a little scary, but 4 year olds love it. It involves a little girl, a bunch of dogs and some hungry creatures called hobyahs.
Robert D. San Souci has a great retelling by the same title.
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
Filed under Art in Education, Children, Creativity, Fariytales, Folktales, Ghost Stories, Literacy, Myths, Stories, Storytelling
Today, my audiences of 4 and 5 year olds were filled with Ninjas, Spidermen, Sleeping Beauties and Cinderellas. Halloween was made for this preciously imaginative age group!
As I told two ghost-themed stories, The Teeny Tiny Woman and The Boy Who Spent the Night in a Haunted House, I noticed a couple of children covering their eyes during the suspenseful parts! There was of course, nothing scary to see in the physical world, except for me sitting awkwardly on a tiny child size chair. The children were attempting to cover their mind’s eyes for protection. I have seen this a few times before, and it is usually a cue for me to lighten up on the suspense.
After listening to our two ghost stories, we filled the room with peels of laughter with some good old fashioned bathroom humour while listening to Hercules’ fifth labour about cleaning the poop out of the Augean stables!
All in all, it was a good day of telling ghost and poop stories to very appreciative listeners!
Happy Storytelling!
Cheryl Thornton
