Where Stories Begin

Stories often spark during 

play

conversation

connection with others

a movie or book that two or more have enjoyed (like Star Wars)

shared experiences of childhood

N., Ac., M. and An. began to tell a story of shared memories from Christmas. The light and color of the light table inspired the holiday tale called the Beepers.

Once upon a time there was a Beep Town. The people in Beep Town are called Beepers.

 It is Christmas time. The Beepers are having a dance party and celebrating in the town square. They are singing songs and putting up decorations and eating candy.

The Beepers put up a tree and decorated it.  They are making food for the celebration. Suddenly Santa came and they hear him dropping the presents on the town square. 

Bam Bam Bam

The Beepers are dancing around the Christmas tree because it was Jesus' birthday. They eat more like chocolate chip bagels and chocolate salted oatmeal on turkey.

             

The Beepers hear elves dropping on the roof.  The Elves crash into garbage cans.

As the story is read to the class later, the children laugh together and they shout the sounds in chorus. 

D references the book Giggle Giggle, Quack written by Doreen Cronin. This book is humorous and uses onomatopoeia (yes, this entire blog was written with the hopes of using that word) 

J: Hey, the Elves can say giggle giggle when they crash into the garbage cans. 

C: That's not what it would sound like. It would make this sound "crrrrrrrsh".

The sounds brought the audience into the story which felt satisfying to the writers. 

The children returned to the story intent on adding more sound. They strung bells over Beeper Town because this is a sound often associated with the season. 

D. and T. begin a new story using collage materials. This is a relatively new medium in our classroom. Notice the way the boys build on the plot through play...stacking thoughts on top of each other.