Learning is a Treasure No Thief Can Touch

This week’s storytelling adventure continued with wise sayings from India similar to these.
–“Dig your well before you are thirsty.”
–“Great anger is more destructive than the sword.”
–“A tree starts with a seed.”
–“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.”
–“You do not stumble over a mountain, but you do over a stone.”
–“Learning is a treasure no thief can touch.”
–“Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.”
–“They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing.”

What a lot to think about!  The students were challenged to create modern dramas illustrating ancient ideas.  We discovered that the most hilarious fish in the world and the most creative homework excuse makers dwell right in our classroom!  Many thanks to our START volunteers for this marvelous experience!

Preview of next week:  Chinese mask storytelling!

King o’ the Cats

Storytelling shenanigans continue with our extraordinary START volunteers!  We explored stories behind our own names, played a giant Mad Libs game to remind ourselves of the importance of creative and careful word choices in our storytelling, and then worked as a team to act out various parts of an old English fairy tale called “King o’ the Cats”.  MEOW!

START Storytelling Takes Off on Dragons’ Wings

Our delightful START volunteers grabbed us immediately with their dragon tale, and we freshened our understanding of story elements such as plot, mood, character, and setting through a variety of engaging activities.  The whole session was full of laughter . . . and frightful moments . . . and heartbreaking loss of ice cream . . . . and joyful dragon feasts . . . and so much more.  We can’t wait for our next storytelling escapade!

Tell Me a Story, Mr. Van

What are we doing with all those trash cans?  What do lunch trays, a 3-speed fan, a flashlight, and wooden drumsticks have in common?  Would you ever guess that these are the tools Mr. Van used to tell the story of the National Anthem to our class this week?

We are busy preparing for the Veterans’ Day program, which will be broadcast by Skype to troops in Baghdad this year.  It is important to understand the words we are saying as we sing and speak to the soldiers we are honoring, so we invited the man who can bring history to life to visit our classroom on Wednesday.  

Mr. Van has a storytelling gift, and we hope you will indulge us as we share a very lightly edited audio track about twenty minutes long, for cutting it down might snuff out the tale-teller’s magic.  This experience will probably be one these fourth graders will remember their whole lives, and we wanted you to share in the moment.   We added a few pictures (which were mostly taken in the dark during the “battle”) to help you picture this extravaganza.  So, pull up a comfy chair and sit back.  Prepare to experience with us the thrill of seeing our flag was STILL THERE!

 

 “The Star-Spangled Banner”

Eyes welling with tears, voice trembling, Mr. Van reminded us of the importance of what we are doing to remember the veterans of our country. He helped us to picture Sergeant First Class Mitchell putting on her gear in Iraq each day as she protects our freedom.  We hope our program will show that we care, and as we sing the National Anthem for our troops, we will still be feeling a little tingle over the sight of our flag waving in the “rocket’s red glare”.

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!