The Sun and the Wind and Winter King Summer Queen

In April we had a look at two stories about the weather.

The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind.

It’s an Aesop’s Fable retold by Heather Forest. It is my favourite Aesop Fable and one I remember from being told as a child.

Heather Forest is a storyteller and author and you can find her website Story Arts here. It has some great resources and I would highly recommend it to everyone interested in storytelling.

It is illustrated by Susan Gaber and you can find her website here and some more of here illustrations from this book below.

I also told the story Winter King and Summer Queen by Mary Lister. This is a beautifully illustrated book by Diana Mayo and published by Barefoot Books. 

There are some great character names including Philippa Freezo, Danny Drizzle, Callum Cloud and there’s also a Serena Sky! Here are some more  illustrations from the book.

We then did some weather related worksheets.

The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs!

If you wanted to hear the “true story” of The 3 Little Pigs you should have been in the library in Sant Pol de Mar on Saturday. If you were not, you may never know that it involved a sneeze and a cup of sugar.

There are many sides to a story and these two pictures books are wonderful re-workings of The Three Little Pigs;

After all the storytelling we had fun debating the all the facts.

Then we did some great writing and drawing! Well done everyone.

In the library February 2013 – Chinese New Year

In the library yesterday afternoon I told The Great Race; The Story of the Chinese Zodiac.

We also talked about Chinese New Year and sung Gung Hay Fat Choy

Chinese New Year is the most important of all the traditional Chinese holidays and is celebrated in many countries around the world.

The Chinese New Year festivities in London are the largest outside Asia and include a parade, a lion dance, food and craft stalls, live performances and a fireworks display.

Based on the lunar and solar calendars, the actual date of Chinese New Year varies, but always falls between late January and mid February.

Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

2013 is the year of the snake.

For the older ones I had made a short play from The Magic Paintbrush

and we all performed our parts.

After the storytelling we made some posters

and did some colouring.

See you next time!

Let the wild rumpus start!

My story session at the library in January was inspired by the demons that appear in the nativity story here in Spain. I’m sure that other English people living here also find these extraneous characters especially if you have made a fancy dress costume for your child to wear during the festive season but that is what is so great about different cultures.

So inspired by Spanish demons, I chose for the younger children, in my view the best monster books ever written in English; The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler

and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

We roared, learned the word for claws and chanted The Gruffalo song. Then we did some colouring and vocabulary.

For the older children in the second group I told Rama and the Demon King; An Ancient Tale from India. I was so proud of my group who followed the story with such interest and really enjoyed the episodic tale of Rama, Sita and Lakshman who were banished to the forest for fourteen years, fought the demons and were tricked by Ravana, the ten-headed king of all the demons.

The illustrations from Jessica Souhami are wonderful and this is the second book I own of hers the other being Baba Yaga and the Stolen Baby which I told back in February 2012.

I told the children about the Hindu festival Dussehra  that commemorates the triumph of Lord Rama over the demon king Ravana marking the victory of good over evil.

Here is a photo of  an Indian artist who rests near his effigies of mythical demon King Ravana. The effigies are burnt on the Hindu festival Dussehra.

Photo from Hürriyet Daily News taken by EPA/JAIPAL SINGH

Christmas Books – My favourite artwork.

In this post you will find my three favourite artwork books for Christmas.

A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith. Who followed Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem? The shepherds tending their flocks nearby, the wise men–and also Rebecca, Mary and Joseph’s young neighbor. With his richly detailed paintings, glowing vibrant colors and shining gold, Wildsmith gives readers a fresh vision of the familiar Christmas story.

The Night Before Christmas written by Clement C. Moore and illustrated by Eric Puybaret. The much-loved classic Christmas poem is brought beautifully to life in this gorgeous new picture book, sure to bring visions of sugarplums to everyone’s head. With dreamy, magical artwork by Eric Puybaret.

The First Christmas by Jan Pienkowski. Stunning silhouettes by Jan Pienkowski, the master of dramatic design, bring to life the story of the very first Christmas. With words from the King James bible, this is a truly classic and beautiful book to be treasured.

Beautiful and stunning artwork for Christmas. I also found these wonderful colouring pages on Jan Pienkowski’s website which have the added bonus of the written word on the page and all the children in my groups took some home for Christmas colouring.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Fun

In the library in December I told lots of Christmas stories and we sang some Christmas songs. I really enjoyed selecting my books for this session, my criteria were good storytelling, beautiful artwork and humor. All the children enjoyed the books especially the funny ones which are included below. I will be using these books for inspiration for writing my next children’s play for LOOK OUT! Theatre Company which will be ready for Christmas 2013.

Santa’s Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene illustrated by Henry Cole. One snack too many lands Santa in a tight spot—literally. During his appointed gift- giving rounds on Christmas Eve, Santa can’t resist nibbling the numerous treats and sweets the children leave out for him. But the goodies take a toll on his waistline, leaving him wedged, unable to whisk himself back up a chimney. Luckily he receives a helping paw. This was a huge success with the younger members of my storytelling group which had them gasping at all the food and giggling with the consequences.

Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs. Father Christmas awoke from his dream of summer in the sun, and there it was on the calendar, December 24th, Christmas Eve, the start of his longest night’s work of the year. This book was awarded The Library Association’s Kate Greenaway Medal. This was popular with my older members who saw what it’s really like to be Father Christmas and gave them lots of down-to-earth detail.

The Nativity Play by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. The Nativity Play is a celebration of the event and a tribute to all those who perform miracles with wire coathangers and stripy towels! Both groups of children enjoyed seeing familiar scenes from the Nativity Play which in Catalonia is called “Els Pastorets” which follows the shepherds that went to Bethlehem to adore him. As well as telling the story of the birth of Jesus there is a fight between the angels and the devils.

In my next blog I will include my top three Christmas artwork books. After I told all these Christmas stories we still had time to write our letter to Father Christmas and look at some worksheets from British Council.

Here you can some of the activities on line.

A letter to Santa

Christmas find the pairs game.

Little Red Riding Hood – November 2012

Hello, I’m back again in the library in Sant Pol de Mar just outside Barcelona in Spain. We have started a new season of storytelling sessions. This year we are continuing with the two groups but in the first group we have some new young listeners who are all keen to learn English and in the second group are the children who have been coming to my storytelling sessions for a few years now.

The idea will be to look at a familar story for the first group and mix it up a bit for the older children.  I decided to start with Little Red Riding Hood which has some great aspects for young learners and after putting the illustrations by Pau Estrada (see above) in order we were soon chanting “what big eyes “. For the older children I told the story Lon Po Po a red-riding hood story from China by Ed Young.  I was very impressed with my group who now have enough English to be able to tell me the differences between the classic story and this one from China.

After all the storytelling we did some worksheets from the British Council Teaching English Website

The older group loved working on My Little Red Riding Hood Story and here are some pictures from the younger ones who followed my comands by drawing a big head, two small eyes, two big ears, one big nose, one big mouth and lots of small teeth.