Storytelling, a preview of storytelling information available through Storytelling Time.
This workshop is presented by Mary Jo Huff, accomplished storyteller, staff trainer, and
director of Kinder Country Preschool.
The video contains developmentally appropriate instruction for early childhood educators
and caregivers, teachers, counselors, librarians, special ed, after school caregivers, and Sunday
school teachers.
Mary Jo has 23 years of experience with young children.
Your goal is to motivate the creativity within every storyteller.
Storytellers must find their own technique for telling story.
There are certain things that you need to learn to do when telling that story.
Number one, pick a story that you like.
Go to the library, find a particular book at a bookstore, look up old fables, old tales,
even nursery rhymes have a lot of story in them.
You then need to own that story.
And in order to own a story, you have to learn it.
The easiest way for me to learn a story is to repeat that story three, four, five times
and then possibly tape that story and listen to my voice in the tape recorder.
And then also in order to own that story and to find an easy way to learn it, I learned
the very beginning as tight as I can.
And then I learned the end of that story.
Once I've got those two in my mind, I'm ready to kind of muddle around in the middle.
I bring a lot of community into my story.
I talk about the dam at the Ohio River that's very important in Newburgh.
I also talk about the local orchard or the local coal mines, the lumber yard that's there
in our town that's very meaningful to us.
So pull community into your story.
Talk about your policemen, your veterinarians.
Make them part of your stories.
When you're ready to tell a story and you know that beginning and you know that end,
never, never change the plot of the story.
Never change the sequence of that story and try to keep the characters that were originally
put into that story.
Now you can take that story that you know, put it into your curriculum.
Do that either seasonally, thematically or alphabetically, whatever suits you and suits
your curriculum.
Voice is a technique that each of you can work on periodically while you're learning
to tell story.
Let me share some voice with you.
You can be very, very angry.
You can be very loving and very compassionate.
You can be loud.
You can go over the mountain.
You can go under something.
You can become very quiet, very soft, almost to a whisper.
You can also teach the children how to do these things.
And let me tell you my own coined phrases that really work with young children.
In order to teach them how to drop their voice very low, I tell them to find their belly
button, rub around on it, give it a push and talk belly button talk.
Belly button talk comes from way down low.
Now I'm going to give the children the opposite end of that range and it's way up here and
we call that monkey talk.
And I teach them to screech like the monkeys in the trees.
So they've got a range that's high and a range that's low.
Once the children learn those two, I'm telling you in the middle, they muddle around with
all kinds of voices.
Eye contact.
You need eye contact with the children when you're telling a story.
That's the advantage of telling a story over reading a story.
You're able to look at a child and to pull them in to what you're saying.
You're able to move close and to get your eyes very near them.
Gesture.
You've seen some of the gestures that I do.
I'm free with my gestures.
I talk on the phone.
If I throw something up in the air, I try to bring it back down.
If I open a door and I need to close it, then close that door.
You can put voice with those gestures.
You can stomp your feet if you get really, really angry.
You can fly like a bird.
You use your hands, your elbows, and give a little hip motion now and then.
Use what you've got to put in that story.
Now I would like to share a story with you, a story that shows all of the things that
we've talked about in the technique section.
This story is my adaptation from a story written by David Novak, a storyteller from California.
And it goes like this.
The house, all nestled in the side of a hill, was a quaint little town.
The dew had settled over the top of that town early one morning and the sun had just begun
to rise.
There was a lot of noise in one house.
Down in the kitchen was a clanging and banging going on.
It was the only house with the light on.
Mother came down from upstairs and she said, young man, what are you doing?
Oh, Ma, he said, I didn't mean to wake you up.
I really didn't.
I tried really hard to be quiet.
But I ask you, what are you doing?
Well, Ma, it's time for me to leave home.
I'm a big boy now and I've got to leave.
Oh, this was the last child in the Weensee family and his mother wasn't ready for him
to leave.
Her heart was so heavy.
This was her baby.
He kind of backed up and he looked up at his Ma with all of those eyes and he said,
Don't worry, Ma, I'll be just fine because you know a spider's got to do what a spider's
got to do.
Oh, she knew her son better than anyone and she knew when he made up his mind, he did
exactly what he said he was going to do.
So she wanted to make sure that he wouldn't get hungry and, you know, good mothers fix
good lunches.
So she went over to the kitchen counter and she fixed him a fly salad sandwich.
And then she got real busy and she chopped him up some grasshopper legs.
She put those in a little baggie and dropped them in a little sack.
And she knew that he might get very, very thirsty.
So she squeezed him out some fresh caterpillar juice, put it in a little jar and handed it
to him.
Oh, thanks, Ma.
Thanks.
I'll enjoy this, he said.
Could you give me just a little kiss before you leave?
Oh, yes, we do like the kitchen stuff, he said to himself.
But he really loved his mama.
So he gave her a big kiss on the cheek and a big hug with all eight of those legs.
And out the front door he went.
And down the sidewalk he started.
And he was moving along pretty good.
Down the walk he went as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky and it became warmer
and warmer.
And as he moved along, he saw it.
His adventure.
The adventure he'd been waiting for.
It was right there in front of him.
It was a waterspout.
Oh, he moved up real close to that waterspout and he rolled some of those eyes up in there.
It was dark in there.
And he stuck some of those legs up there and it was cold and it was damp.
He backed up and he looked at that waterspout and he said to himself, I've got to do, I've
got to go up and find that waterspout.
So he spun him some web up in there, tested it real good and he started to climb.
And up and up and up he went.
He was moving along pretty fast inside that old waterspout when he noticed a little hole
in the side.
He remembered how warm it was outside and he remembered that sunshine and so he hooked
himself on and he stuck some legs out and sure enough it was warm out there and he decided
he would climb outside that spout.
So he spun up some web and he hooked it on and then he popped his body out of that hole
and he started to climb on the outside.
Oh, this was nice, he thought to himself and up and up and up he went.
He went until he got very, very hungry.
He remembered the lunch that his mama had fixed for him so he hooked himself onto that
little piece of web, took out his little bag and he ate the entire fly salad sandwich and
he ate every one of those chopped up grasshopper legs.
You know his mama was right.
He was so thirsty.
He opened up that little jar of caterpillar juice and he drank the whole thing.
Oh, he felt so much better.
He was ready to continue his adventure.
He hooked himself real good and tested onto that web and he took a couple of tugs when
he realized the sky was changing.
The sun was disappearing behind the clouds and in the distance he could hear boom, boom.
It was thunder.
He became frightened and he went back down that piece of web and he climbed back inside
that water spout and even though it was cold and dark and damp he felt safe and as he held
onto that piece of web suddenly down came the rain, washed that spider out.
There he was lying in that mud puddle, all those legs sticking up in the air.
He felt so sorry for himself.
He'd never bitten anyone and he'd never spun a web in the corner of anyone's living room.
He'd been such a good little boy.
What he told his mama, he stood up and he shook himself off.
He got those legs ready.
He went up to that spout and tested that piece of web and he was ready to go back
up in that spout.
He started to climb as he thought to himself, I told my mama, I do, I do.
And he climbed and he climbed and he climbed.
And do you know to this day no one's ever heard of that little guy?
He disappeared but the people in that town knew he was a hero.
He'd gone on his own adventure.
He'd done what he really needed to do in life.
And so just so people like you and myself would never forget him, they created a song
and the song goes like this, the incy wincy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the incy wincy spider went up the spout
again and that's the story of a very heroic spider.
Welcome to my story, Connor.
I would like to share with you today many of the ideas that I have gathered over the
past 22 years.
Ideas that I know are tried and true with young children, whether it be at a daycare
center, a preschool, or in a home setting.
Many of these ideas can be used by all kinds of people.
First thing this morning I would like to introduce you to the mascot in our classroom.
His name is Varmint.
He lives in a box.
You know every puppet should have a home.
They shouldn't just be tossed over in a basket or hanging on a rack someplace.
Give them a place of importance, some place that you can go to, to invite them into your
story, Connor.
I'm going to see if Varmint will get up this morning.
You want to come and help me?
Varmint, Varmint, it's me, Mary Jo.
Come out and join me for a story.
Varmint, I want to know, are you in there?
He really is in there.
Let's ask him one more time.
Varmint, please come and join us.
Well, okay, you've made so much noise I've got to get up this morning.
Hi, Varmint.
How are you?
Well, I was a lot better before you woke me up.
I was really, really tired last night.
Oh, Varmint, perhaps I better put you back.
Maybe you don't want to stay for our story today.
We'd really like to have you join us.
No, I'll stay.
I want to know what's going on.
Hey, how are you today, Jake?
How are you, Cindy?
You see, Varmint is a friend to all the children.
He does a lot of crazy things.
I use Varmint many times, change his costume.
I put things on Varmint to make him a bee.
Yeah, I get to go around and sting people when we're pretending that I'm a bee.
I also dress him up as a fly because flies only have two wings.
I learned these from a puppet friend of mine named Joyce Davis in Toledo, Ohio.
Varmint, I brought you a snack today so you'd be really good while I'm telling my story.
Oh, what kind of snack?
Did you bring me a chicken wing?
No, I didn't bring a chicken wing.
I really like chicken wings, you know.
Well, I tell you what, I brought you something that's kind of sweet and got chocolate in it.
Do you like chocolate?
Yeah, I like chocolate.
I'll give you a kiss for the chocolate.
Ooh, I'll give you the chocolate.
How about a big cookie?
Look here, I have a cookie.
That looks like chocolate to me and that looks like a green cookie.
Oh, I know, Varmint, but the chocolate's inside.
You have to take a big bite to see if you like it.
You know, you should try everything at least one time.
I know, my mom tells me that every night when I sit down for dinner.
Okay, give me the cookie.
Here you go.
Oh, I didn't like your cookie.
It didn't taste like chocolate to me.
Oh, I'm really sorry.
Maybe at lunchtime I can pick you up a chicken wing.
How about sitting down now and enjoying the story with me?
You're going to make sure she picks me up a chicken wing.
I'll sit down and listen to the story with you.
Will you make sure, Cindy?
I'm sure that Cindy will make me remember to pick up that chicken wing for Varmint.
And now Varmint will sit down and he will join us for a story this morning.
Now, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite tools in the storytelling area.
It's the apron, the storytelling apron.
It can be used for many other things besides just telling story.
But let me show you this special tool.
It's adjustable so that it will fit any size person, no matter how tall or how wide.
The top blue section is a loop fabric.
It is compatible with Velcro hook.
This particular piece of hook is packaged with this apron.
And it comes with self-sticking hook that's an inch wide.
You need only a tiny little piece to use on the apron.
Anything that you put here will stay right where you put it.
The pockets are designed three across the bottom so that nothing sticks in there with the hook Velcro on it.
Gives you kind of a little bit of a surprise, a little anticipation for the story.
The children want to know what's down in your pocket.
You can bring it out and put it right on the apron.
I'll share a story with you.
I'll begin that story and then I'll just zip through it real quick because I'm sure you know it.
Once there was a farmer.
He planted a seed in the soft brown dirt.
The sun shined and the wind blew and the rain came and the plant grew.
One day that farmer had to go out into the garden and harvest that plant.
He took a hold of that plant and he pulled and he pulled and he pulled but it didn't budge.
So he called to his wife who was in the kitchen baking pies and she came out and she took a hold of the farmer.
And together they pulled and they pulled and they pulled.
Now the repetition of this story goes on when the wife calls to the daughter and the daughter calls to the dog.
And the dog calls to the cat and the cat has to ask the mouse for help.
And when the mouse grabbed a hold of the cat and they all pulled together out came the plant.
The enormous turnip.
Now of course the little mouse took credit total credit for getting that plant out of the ground.
Another way to tell this story is to tell it on a hook and loop board.
This board is made of the same material as the apron.
Anything that is put on this board will stay right where it's put.
If you notice I can tip it over upside down.
I have the turnip folded.
It will not fall off.
It's a big tool to have in your storytelling area.
The back is also designed for draw and tell stories using a wipe off marker.
Another way to tell story is with a magnet board.
This particular magnet board is a stove cover that you can pick up at any local variety store.
The characters that are on this board have a piece of hook Velcro and a magnet on them so they can be used on an apron.
Or a magnet board. They can also be set out for the children to let them retell the story.
Magnets are come two fold.
Magnets can also be used to tell story on a can. This is a plain old coffee can.
Get a three pound coffee can, spray paint it and then add your characters to that can.
The characters can be told, the story can be told around and around with the characters.
And then the characters can be stored inside the can for easy storage.
Now the big turnip story comes from the storyboard.
This is a storyboard box which has 32 different stories in it.
Each of those stories are written on the inside of the envelope.
The entire story is there and all of the pieces come inside that folder.
Like the three bears. That's how the pieces are stored.
And the story is written here by Linda Umberg from California.
When I do the three bears story I like to get out my flip puppet.
Mama bear, baby bear, papa bear and here's Goldilocks.
These are wonderful puppets that can be bought at any of your local educational stores.
Another fun thing to do with hook and loop is the mitt.
This particular mitt is using pom poms from the monkey mitt man.
This is the story of, five fat turkeys are we.
We slept all night in the tree.
When the cook came around we couldn't be found.
So that's why we're here you see.
And there are all kinds of five little fat turkey poems and finger plays to do.
These stick to the mitt and they stick anywhere that you put them.
You can take them off the front and you can store them on the back.
This is another small tool that can be added to a storytelling corner.
A special area in the story corner are the story starters.
Most of these are homemade items.
Things that can be put within your budget that can be picked up at local variety stores or lumber companies.
Let me share some of the handmade creative objects that I have accumulated.
Number one, look at our guy.
I picked him up at the lumber company while I was waiting in line to buy some light bulbs.
You know how they put chewing gum and all that stuff out for you to buy for your children.
I'm almost like a child when it comes to picking up a funny little puppet.
And earlier we talked about voice reflection.
We had a high range and a low range.
This guy would have a very high screechy little voice to invite the children to put your bristle blocks away.
And I have a story.
I'll get right inside the book with you today.
He would introduce them to the story for that day.
Another interesting young puppet is a puppet that the children can then make themselves that day and take home.
And perhaps you can type the story, share it with the parents and let the parents talk with the child about the story that goes home.
This is made out of a detergent bottle.
It has a ruler in the back of it that's been glued on with some E6000 glue, a very, very strong glue.
These are pieces of foam that you get at the local craft store.
They can be cut for the eyes, for the hair, for the mouth.
You can put these out and let the children create their own puppets.
One of my very favorites, she comes out twice a year.
You know, it's very important to have a lot of variety in your story, Connor.
Don't use the same puppet over and over.
Give them a chance to be special.
She has on her Christmas outfit.
She has a very loose head of hair.
She came from the dusting department at a local store.
And you know what I say to the kids?
I'm going to just be a nervous wreck if I don't get to start this story pretty soon.
How about you put the bristle blocks away and let's get ready to go.
She has on her Christmas bow.
I put a pink bow on her during the Valentine season and she comes back out during the Valentine season.
These are the only two times of the year that she comes out of her puppet house to join us.
A couple of other homemade items.
This is a spoon that came from a local discount store.
Some pom poms and some ponytail holders.
Many times you'll find things like this in your drawers at home.
This is a plug from the hardware store.
And these are just wiggly eyes.
But it's very effective.
It has a sound.
It has a noise.
And the children relate to him when he invites them to story time.
This is Butch.
Remember we talked about those voices.
Oh Butch has one of those bellybutton voices.
Butch talks to the kids about things they should and should not do out on the playground.
He tells them about kicking those balls too high and going over the fence.
He also tells them about running too fast on the playground and bumping into each other.
Butch is made out of a kitchen mop to do dishes with.
A piece of foam and a little ponytail holder.
At the beginning of our school year, spoons are gathered for each of the children.
These can be purchased on sale many times during the summer if you'll watch.
You can get three packages of these maybe for a dollar and have nine puppets for a dollar.
Our children decorate their own puppets, put their own faces on.
And then on the back in the bowl area we put their name.
And during the year they'll sit in circle and they'll get to use their spoon to tell
us different parts of the story.
Also to give a reflection on where they think that story might go when I stop that story.
It's exciting to listen to them tell that story.
But the important part is that at the end of the year they own this spoon and they get
to take this spoon home and keep it forever.
During the year I send storybooks home with their puppet, our story typed with their puppet
for them to share with their parents.
But then the parents also have to send me back a note on how that story was shared at
their house.
In another department in the local store, I found this marvelous glove made with yarn
sewn onto a work glove.
This is a very special work glove because on the back we have beautiful long fingernails
and a gorgeous diamond ring.
This glove was originally designed for dusting and the minute I saw it I knew that two little
eyes and a mouth would make a wonderful hand puppet.
This is another inviting puppet for story time.
Two finger puppets are easy to use and this is a mop from the local hardware store.
It is a mop replacement.
You can put your hand in the back, you can squeeze it like this.
The pom poms were added and he has a lot of action.
He's an exciting invitation for story time.
I've saved my favorite for last.
This is Molly, Molly Mop.
Molly Mop comes out a lot during M week.
We do a lot of things with the alphabet at our center.
We do a lot of thematic things so Molly's back out different times during the year.
The children also have a Molly in their story corner.
She has pony beads in her hair that the children have added.
She has some fuzzy little stuff up on top that a little girl named Melanie Joe wanted.
She has some pom poms in the center for her eyes and a little tiny piece of garland from
Christmas that made the mouth.
Molly's very effective, easy to use and she's washable.
These are the story starters that I use to get the children interested and ready to come
get on their little rugs and sit with me during story time.
Each of them has a special rug.
They gather around me and it doesn't matter if they're totally enthralled with what I'm
doing.
They're listening because I've given them reason to listen.
Music is also a big part of story time.
Since I'm not a musician and don't have a musical background, I've looked for things
that I could put with story that I could handle without feeling uncomfortable.
I'll share with you some of the ideas that I found is a thumb piano, an African thumb
piano.
It comes in many sizes, many shapes and many forms.
This was a handmade one from Brown County, Indiana.
I use this with story, for instance, the little red hen.
I could use this to interject the characters in that story back and forth by just picking
on it.
You don't have to have a musical background to do that.
Also you can run your finger across it to make things zippy and zappy and at the end
I would flick it to say the end.
That's the only way that I know to play this thumb piano.
Abiyoyo is one of my favorite stories and I like to have the props to go with Abiyoyo.
Number one, there was a magician and a musician in the story.
The magician uses a stick from our children's music department and the musician uses the
ukulele that plays itself.
It's very effective and the children get excited.
I also then let them retell the story using these props.
A kasoo, a very affordable item in your story, Connor.
You merely buy one because it cannot be transferred around the room because of germs, but listen.
A true invitation to come and join me on your rug for story time.
This is a cat's paw.
I just bought this.
It's exciting.
I've not learned to play it very well, but I will tell you that the children that I've
used it with get real excited about the quietness and the loudness.
It can start a story.
It can end a story.
The drum.
African tales are very easy to tell to young children, especially Anansi tales.
Anansi tales are from the deep parts of Africa and that tricky little spider does wild things.
In order to introduce that story, I always use this particular sound.
The children know that it's time for an Anansi story.
Many times if the bristle blocks aren't picked up fast enough, I may go, time to join me.
Anansi time.
A favorite story of mine is JB's harmonica by Garth Williams.
This is a story of a little boy and his father.
This is a story about a little boy who wants to grow up to be just himself.
His father gives him a harmonica and he learns to play it.
And without the musical background that I needed, I had to teach myself a song so I
put my fingers over the end like the instruction said and this is what I learned.
And that's all I use the harmonica for to tell this wonderful story.
A storytelling file.
This is a very important part of your story corner.
It's a file that you need to create for the stories that you like best.
If you find a story that you like and that you're going to own, file it in your box in
whatever section you choose.
But when you do that, put the name of that story, the author of that story, and then
add to it any props, any puppets, any special books, anything that you might need to use
with that story.
Also, never forget to put down where that book came from.
In my case, I own many, many books so I would mark it that we own that book.
You could also put what library that book came from or where it might be available at
a local bookstore.
I'll share some of my favorite books that are filed in this particular box.
You couldn't guess which alphabet I filed this under because I do file A through Z.
But this is the story of two little girls in an Amish community that find an egg by
the mailbox.
They take that egg and they put it in their chicken house.
They're in charge of that chicken house.
But the egg doesn't match the other eggs in the chicken house and they become very worried
for they hear a conversation about another friend of theirs who was shunned from the
community.
They're afraid that their egg will be shunned.
In a conversation with one of the elders, the young Amish girl finds out that they won't
shun that egg.
The elder lady explains to her that that particular bird is just plain fancy.
And that's kind of where the name of this came from.
This is a Patricia Palacko book.
I filed this under.
What letter do you think I filed this under?
I'll let you decide.
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell is an excellent publication.
The graphics in this book require that you read this book, that you not just tell it.
The children need to see these illustrations.
In this story, three owls are left by their mother in the tree.
One of the owls can't accept that his mother is gone and he says, but I want my mommy right
now.
I don't want to talk to you.
It's very important that you use that voice to extend his need for his mother.
It's also a story of leaving and coming back.
It's a separation story that can be used at the beginning of the year when children are
having a very difficult time when mom or dad drops them off at a preschool or daycare center.
Along with that story, let me show you my puppets.
I found three baby owls that fit right inside of this mother's wings.
These three owls, when I retell the story, carry on the conversation.
And mother is an excellent, excellent puppet.
She's expensive, she was not in my budget.
But when I get a puppet that's not in my normal budget, I try very hard to find at least five
different stories to put with that puppet.
I now have four stories that I use with this owl puppet.
Here's one of the reasons that I purchased her.
Her head turns completely around.
The children get so excited.
She also flies very easily in and out of the story.
Along with this story is a story of friendship.
Little Beaver and the Echo by Amy McDonald.
This is another two-owned story.
I'll share the props in this story with you.
They were made of foam, craft foam.
The Little Beaver thinks that he is the only lonely person in the whole world.
These particular figures could have a piece of hook velcro on the back of them.
They could also have a magnet and be used on a magnet board.
But he finds out that there's an otter, a turtle, and Mr. Mallard, who are all his friends.
These were made out of the foam and a Sharpie marker was used to do the detail on them.
A very easy thing for you to make and to put with story.
And then they were filed in my story box.
After a child has learned a story, after a child gets interested in story, let a child
tell their own story.
This is my story by Melanie.
This is a story that was written last year.
You must know Melanie cannot write, but Melanie did the pictures and I did the writing.
I said, what's your name?
Melanie Jo Brown.
So she drew a picture of Melanie Jo Brown.
I said, who lives at your house, Melanie?
She said, my mom and my dad and my bubba.
And I said, who's bubba?
She said, my bubba Kurt.
She drew her bubba Kurt holding a ball.
Her brother always plays ball.
I said, do you have any special friends?
She said, yeah, Haley girl and Matt man and, and Nick Nick, you know, Nick Nick.
And I said, yep, I know Nick Nick.
I happen to know that those friends were all her cousins.
And the smallest picture of Haley is the youngest of all.
And is that not neat?
The way they were drawn, I then asked her if she had any pets.
And she said, I have big fish in my goldfish tank and I have a kitty cat outside and I
have a dog.
I said, what's your dog's name?
She said, Hershey dog.
And she drew Hershey dog.
And that was the end of her story.
And as she grows older and as she returns to our center this year, we'll have her make
another story, maybe four or five.
And we'll do the writing because you see her story is in the illustrations.
So know how important it is that you document children's stories.
A fun way to introduce children to story is a box, any kind of a box.
It can be a shoe box, a big cardboard box.
This happens to be a pizza box.
Now you go down to the local pizza parlor, down to the Little Caesars and you say, oh,
I'd like to have six pizza boxes to tell some stories at my center.
They'll give them to you.
I guarantee it.
In the top of the pizza box is a piece of that wonderful loop of fabric.
And this happens to be a story about Scat the cat.
And the rhyme for the children goes like this, I'm scat the cat and I'm sassy and fat and
I can change my color, just like that.
The story goes on about good old Scat wanting to change his color.
It's a detailed story, but it's an exciting story for the children.
And what's nice about the box is if you don't know the story, you can type it and read it
from the box.
You can also store your characters down in that box.
And they're right there any time you're ready to tell it.
Hi, my name is Jack and this is my family.
Hi, sister.
That's mom and dad.
We came with Mrs. Huff in the van today.
We wanted to share some fun things with you.
You see, it's very important, I feel, that you have a people puppet in your center.
These particular people puppets are my very favorite.
I'm able to mouth that puppet.
I don't use the syllables, particularly as I say them.
I just let his mouth move.
The children become very intrigued by what the puppet has to say.
He teaches them a lot of lessons like, remember to hold on to the bar when you get on the
bus, guys, or we won't get to take another trip.
And when we go to the nature center, he explains things as we go along the nature trails.
He's usually with me most of the time when I'm with the children.
And what makes these puppets more exciting than anything is, oh, not now.
You're not going to do it now in front of everybody, are you?
Well, really, Jack, I really was going to do it in front of everybody.
It won't hurt, I promise.
I know it won't hurt, but it's embarrassing.
Well, just kind of hold on a minute, and I'll do it quick, OK?
OK, everybody, are you ready?
She's going to do something very exciting.
Watch.
I'm going to take off his hair, and I'm going to take off his legs, and I'm going to take off
his shirt, and he becomes a polypuppet.
Polypuppets are totally interchangeable.
Their hair, their outfits, their legs can all be interchanged so that one body can become
many different puppets.
The moms, the dads, the boys, and the girls make up an entire family.
You can have as many as two poly bodies and 20 different puppets.
I have a friend that has that many puppets in her center.
They all have a different name, and they come out different times of the year.
Now I'm going to put Jack back together, and I'm going to show you some special things
that Jack can do.
Jack can talk, just like he was a moment ago, and I don't try to throw my voice.
It's not important that I do that.
I'm not a professional puppeteer.
I'm only a storyteller.
I put Jack back on my arm.
He's very, very lightweight.
And if you'll notice, Jack will talk right along with me.
The children will be looking right at my face and Jack's face at the same time.
They won't even know I'm talking because you see, Jack's the important figure in this conversation.
When you want Jack to talk to you, you turn his head, and he talks right to you.
Jack's really special, too.
He gives lots of kisses.
He loves his mama and he loves his daddy, and he tells many tales to our children.
Find yourself a people puppet.
Put a people puppet in your center.
Put a people puppet with your children and listen to the conversations.
Even the shyest child sometimes will talk to a puppet because puppets are powerful.
Hey diddle diddle in the cat and the fiddle.
The nursery rhymes are a very important part of early childhood education, and along with
those nursery rhymes, I'd like to introduce you to some special props.
Here on my hall tree are props that the children are allowed to use after we've told a story
so that they can interact and retell that story.
These are butterfly capes that the children wear and do the story of the three butterfly
brothers as an example.
When they do this story, they always wear the headpiece with the antenna.
Each of them have a set of antenna that go with their butterfly capes.
There's also a bee costume.
Old Mr. Bee plays a lot of important parts at our center.
Another favorite cape is the black cape, the black cape that they put on, and sometimes
they tell dark stories.
We have a story about a beautiful rainbow fish that goes to visit the octopus in the
deep dark cave, and they've used this cape to pretend they were the octopus.
Pretending is a big part of their life, and this is how they learn.
When we tell stories to children, we're helping put images on the walls of their minds.
They need to use their imagination to stretch stories, not for us to create them and put
them in their minds.
So remember that when a child is pretending how important that can be.
This is a box that has stories in it in alphabetical order.
Due to the fact that I've been in this business for 22 years, I have gathered numerous, numerous
stories.
The quilt story is one of my favorites.
My mother is a quilter.
I always bring in a quilt and some pillows.
We lounge on the floor and I read this story or I tell this story.
I have a piece of quilting inside that I pass around for the children to feel and that as
an extender, they make their own quilt on paper to take home to share that story with
their parents.
This is a nice way to file stories, props, books, and tapes.
It makes it accessible for numerous people that are working out of a resource area.
We have seven people working out of that particular resource area at our center.
The prop bag.
I have a number of prop bags.
Each of them are packed, some thematically.
I have a whole bag packed with farm animals, a whole bag packed with zoo things, but this
particular bag has many different items that I can share with you.
My hat.
My beautiful hat.
Came from a local department store.
It was on sale.
I left the tag on just so people would believe me.
I paid half of the half price.
I talked to the manager and said, if there were that many hats left, surely not everyone's
going to come in wanting one and I need that to tell with the story.
So I got a very good discount on that hat.
Now let me show you the book that goes with this hat.
It's by my favorite author, Patricia Polacco.
It's called Chicken Sunday.
It's about a grandma.
That particular grandma wanted to have this hat so badly, but she didn't have any money
and neither did her children.
But the children found a resource.
They found a way to get that hat for their grandma.
They went out and they worked for this man.
It was an exciting story, not a story that you could probably read to three, four and
five year old children, but a story that you could tell to those children.
And just putting this hat on will invite the children to sit on their rugs and partake
of that story with you.
This is my worry hat.
Has lots of little children on there and sometimes I get really worried.
We don't get the bristle blocks put away and it's almost time for us to go outside and
play and I have a really special story today.
So when I put the worry hat on, I share that worry with the children and I leave that hat
on through my story and they know that I'm worried when I put this hat on.
I have three masks that I wear at different times of the year.
And do you know when you put this mask on and you start to tell a story to the children?
You could tell a wonderful Halloween story with this colored mask.
I have a red and green mask that I pull out at the Christmas time.
I also have a mask that I bring out in February during Mardi Gras because they hear that on
the news so much I explain a lot of that celebration to them.
Scarfs are important in a prop bag.
When I was a young girl, my mother would say, oh, the wind is blowing.
You have to put your scarf on so the wind doesn't blow in your ears.
And she would tie the scarf on my head.
I would have to wear that on the bus all the way to school.
Also from my religious background, we wore scarves to church.
And you know, the stories about your babushkas, Patricia Polacko has created one of those
stories.
You need a scarf to tell that story.
It's just an added prop, something very easy to store in a bag.
One of my favorite props I have to share with you.
It has a story behind it.
A young man named Kevin Foley wore this hat in a Christmas program.
Kevin's family got transferred to South Bend, Indiana, and he was leaving the area where
he lived.
He was very sad, and he didn't want me to forget him.
So he brought this hat, and he said, I brought you something so you wouldn't forget me, Mrs.
Huff.
And I said, what's that, Kevin?
And he said, my hat.
And he laid it on my desk.
It was exciting that he thought that much to bring that hat back to his preschool, for
he was in the second grade at that time.
That hat was on my desk for a while, and one day one of the teachers was having a difficult
time in her room, and I picked the hat up, and I put it on, and I walked into her room,
and I...
Me standing there motionless made the children wonder, what was I doing?
When they quieted down, I said to them, I have a story to tell you.
A story about a tree.
The tree's name is Ellie, Ellie Evergreen, but Ellie didn't like being an evergreen.
She really wanted to be a tree with yellow and orange leaves, and that's a way to use
props in your story corner.
Where do my stories come from and where do my stories go?
They come from deep inside of me to share and to show.
Take my stories with you and learn them with your heart.
Learn them in your own way, and believe me, you'll be story smart.
For information about booking an original interactive workshop, including keynote addresses,
staff development, full day in service, and storytelling presentations, contact Storytelling
Time, Mary Jo Huff, 6722 Outer Lincoln Avenue, Newburgh, Indiana, 47630.
You may call toll free at 1-800-213-0527 or fax Storytelling Time at 812-853-3024.
Thank you for joining us for Storytelling Time, Mary Jo Huff, 6722 Outer Lincoln Avenue,
Newburgh, Indiana, 47630.
Thank you.