Session 7

Session 7

Fantastic session!
I took a large basket filled with all the props from the 17 stories I have told over the previous 6 sessions - it seemed a good time to see if the children remembered any of them.

Much to my surprise - and to the amazement of the staff - as soon as I picked up a prop, they called out the name of the story. Every story was remembered, even the earliest ones that did not involve large, expressive soft props. And they could tell me the basic barebones of each story!

I never dreamt that each story would fix itself so strongly in their minds after just one telling.

As we went through the basket some of the children indicated which stories they wanted to hear again. Of course Mighty Mouse was the first on the list, and this time they really did listen to at least half the story. The loss of interest came when the mouse saw the corn-stalk. The children didn't know what a corn-stalk was so the staff promised to find some pictures.

Then Father Mouse was requested. This was the very first story I had told in that first session two months ago. The puppet is so expressive that the children were all fascinated with him.

And the last story of the day was SuLi and the Dragon.... they were most insistent on finding SuLi's sword in my basket so that she could chop off the dragon's head.

Next week I will try a much longer story and see if I can hold their attention all the way.