The Glass Disc

Friday, I participated in a school's amazing all day storytelling and reading event. There were over 30 volunteers, made up of storytellers, authors, retired principals, librarians and teachers all visiting classrooms to read and tell their favorite stories to over 800 children at Crescent Town School. Everyone, students, teachers, staff and guests wore special tee-shirts that read, "Share Your Story."

I believe I had the best gig of all by meeting with all 13 kindergarten classes! I was happy as a clam telling stories to the sweetest children ever. At lunch, as I was sipping my coffee and enjoying a homemade cookie, one of the kindergarten teachers told me a story from her childhood in Switzerland.

In the tiny Swiss village where she grew up, everyone took their milk pails to be filled with fresh milk at the dairy. Pasteurization had just begun so after buying milk, the pail was placed on a burner to boil. This job was given by her mother to my storyteller, who loved to read. Each day as she waited for her pail of milk to boil, she eagerly read her book, but she was supposed to be watching the milk so it didn’t boil over the rim of the pail, a challenge indeed since her nose was buried in a book. After many a day of scalded milk and reprimands from her mother, a new device came into my storytellers life that kept her reading and saved the milk. It was a simple glass disc. When the milk began to boil, the glass disc, placed in bottom of the pail would begin to rattle, jarring my storyteller out of her pages just in time to snatch the pail off the burner!

After a day of storytelling, it was wonderful to have been told such a lovely story from long ago and far away.

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

We just got back from introducing Storyvalues to the USA at conferences in Washington D.C. and NYC. In the workshops, I told stories and invited the grownups to put on costumes and help dramatize the tales. They participated with gusto! Most of them were teachers and librarians so, no strangers to theatrics. The fish in the platypus story in D.C. was fabulous, as was the hungry goddess and the hunter. I was so impressed and amazed at how willing and enthusiastic everyone was to participate, but I guess it is not often we get the chance to step into roles such as kangaroos, kiwis and feathered snakes. Hats off to the young at heart!

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

Kids Are So Short

I'm often inadvertently placed in the role of the straight-man (woman) when working with kids. Yesterday during an all school assembly of 250 students, a four year old, playing the role of the lion in Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse, totally upstaged me. As the jr. kindergartner stood next to me under the hunter's net, I was going on and on about how the poor lion, try as he might, could not escape. All of a sudden, the audience burst into laughter. I looked down and saw the net on the floor and the lion smiling triumphantly up at me. He was so proud of himself and so cute! I waited until the laughter died down, picked up the net, put it on his head and continued with the story.

Those are moments in my life as a storytelling that I will always remember.

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

What Day is the Day You See Me

Every Thursday, I meet with two groups at a public school daycare centre for regular storytelling gigs. The first group is made up of 24 2 and 3 year olds and the second group has 18 4 and 5 year olds. There was an unhappy 2 year old among the ranks of the little ones this morning. Apparently, she had just returned after a long enjoyable family vacation and wasn't happy about being abandoned at school. Half way through my first story about the creation of the platypus, she burst in to tears, wailing, "I still want my mom." Other than that, the little ones were totally involved in the stories. After the Platypus myth, I told them the myth of Gilgamesh, a tale from the Congo called, The Crocodile and the Hen.

When I entered the room of the 'older kids, an eager 5 year old ran up to me and said, "I'll wait until you put down your story bag and drum to hug you," and he did. Then he proceeded with some shop talk, asking if I remembered to bring the second installment of Hercules. In addition to these stories, I'm telling the older group a Hercules labour each week. 4 and 5 year olds love the Greek myths as much as I do. Today they heard the second labour when Hercules battles the 9 headed hydra. Next week, it's Diana's hind.

After I finished our session, the same sweet 5 year old asked, "What day is the day you see me?" I answered, "Thursday." "Last Thursday," he continued, "I told my dad the story about the green gourd and today I'll tell him about Hercules, because I really like your stories." It is always great talking with 5 year olds!

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

The Long Journey to Next Door

Even though it is mid-October, school, still seems to be a new concept to the batch of junior kindergarten students that I met last week in Scarborough. At 8:45, I received my visitor's badge in the office, was shown to the French room where I would be performing and told that the kindergarten classes, in adjoining rooms, would be coming to me at 9:00.

As with most kindergarten classes, and especially early in a new school year, it takes them forever to walk from one place to another as a group. The teacher must call upon them to combine several of their newly learned skills all at once in order to get the job done.

1. First, they must form a line at the door, (a line is a very tricky idea to a 4 or 5 year old).
2. Second, they must walk while maintaing the line formation without getting lost (I have seen it happen many times before, that a four year old will end up in a classroom far, far away during one of these sojourns to the room next door.)
3. Third, once they arrive at the room next to their classroom, they must sit on the floor, facing the right direction, still maintaining the line formation.
4. Finally, they need to sit so they are not clumped together in one corner of the space.

This complicated procedure is rarely executed even close to perfection during the first half of their kindergarten year. Even at the end of the year, at least 50% of them will enter the room and sit facing the wrong direction. Usually, this happens because one child will get temporarily disoriented when lowering him or herself from a standing to a sitting position, and then all the other children behind him or her will follow the direction set by their colleague.

The first class arrived at 9:10 and we had to wait another 5 minutes for the second class to appear, (apparently there had been an issue with a lost shoe somewhere along the way).

Once we were gathered and in the brief moment before I began telling stories, they excitedly told me, a total stranger everything that was happening in their lives: someone had a new shirt, someone had new shoes, someone had a Band-Aid covering an old scrape, someone had a new baby brother, someone was going to visit grandma, someone was going to have bow-tie pasta for lunch. Once I began the first story, they settled down and we had a wonderful time together.

I knew our adventure was over, not by looking at the clock on the wall, but by the number of children doing the 'I need to go to the washroom' wiggle. We sang our good-bye song and I returned them to the care of their teachers. After I had packed my storybag, retuned my visitor's badge in the office, I looked down the hall and saw that my audience was still making their journey back to their classroom. One of the last in line saw me and asked, "Are you coming back tomorrow?" I smiled and thanked him for the compliment.

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

How to Make a Fish

During the past week, I've been trying to get my head around performing in schools again. My first performance is coming up on Wednesday and I'm feeling like a fish out of water. The last time I told stories to kids was in June, which seems so long ago and far away! All summer, I've been working on creating new programs for Storyvalues, so I've been writing, recording and illustrating, but not performing with an audience.

To prepare myself for my Wednesday debut, I washed all the animal hats and put together a list of new costumes that I'll need: a platypus, a wombat, a fish bag, a kangaroo mom and joey, and a fish hat. I also need the golden goose's neck to be repaired. Yesterday, I took the sketches for the costumes and a huge pile of fabric to Peter, the amazing costumer. It's so great to know someone who doesn't blink an eye when asked to make a fish hat or a platypus, he was actually excited about the creativity of the work. He even told me he can make a frog head that can spit water, (the water will actually be blue organza), but still, how impressive it that?!

Storytelling is a lot like riding a bike; once you learn how to do it, you don’t really forget. At least that is what I’ve been told, by a storyteller.

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton

Time to Wash the Chicken Hat

School is back in session and I'll be making my first school visit to tell stories in less than a week. Time to wash the chicken, turnip and monkey hats!

It is not as easy as it sounds: the chicken is white with yellow legs and a red comb. The red comb can't get wet or it will bleed into the white and yellow parts. Last time I washed the monkey, it's eyes fell off in the soapy water, but it looks fine when all clean and fluffy--just like a freshly bathed two year old. The turnip is never a problem and always smells so good when cleaned.

There are several new stories that will be needing hats. I sent an email to my costumer to see if he could stitch me up a platypus and a wombat. I also need a basket of talking fish, but that is better to ask for in person.

This year promises to be a great year of introducing new stories mixed in with some of the old tried and true ones. Can't wait!

Happy Storytelling!

Cheryl Thornton