New Term Session 4

New Term  Session 4

Frustrating, difficult, depressing - this really is a steep learning curve.

There was still a great gale blowing outside, after two days of noisy buffeting... I think we were all a bit stressed.

We started with my own Tale of the Tintagel Dragon - reduced to almost bare bones as it was clear the children couldn't follow any of the subtleties.

As planned, I introduced all the props first: a friendly, soft, young dragon, a cuddly jackdaw, a glittering crystal pendant and a small jet fighter plane. They were greeted with great excitement. Every one wanted to touch every item. Unfortunately this created a new game; from then on almost all the children were focussed on trying to sneak up on me and touch whatever prop I was holding. If one succeeded, then everyone else had to try straight away. it was impossible to get them to actually listen to anything.

So that experiment failed! But the small tray itself is still a good idea - it creates a flat platform on my lap where I can put props down and yet still keep them under my control.

There was only time for one more story - the simple tale of the lion cub from Papa Joe's story of Jinook the Lame. This has only one prop - a sweet cuddly lion cub - so much easier to keep control... and some of the youngest ones had moved away, so there was less disruption, but it was still not a happy experience. Some of the older ones had sensed victory in a power struggle and were not prepared to give in by being seen to listen.

It is clear that a group of 12 children with ages ranging from 2 to 4 years is just not appropriate for my kind of storytelling. I cannot maintain eye contact with all 12 of them at once - and without that eye contact, my words alone are not enough to hold their interest.

It feels as though every skill I have developed - vocal control and expression, story structure, pace, tension, emotion, shared references and understanding with the audience, subtle jokes and hints - none of them are of any use with this group. 

The staff say that the most popular stories are the two, very simple SuLi ones. Is that because the SuLi doll, though not pretty, is very expressive and friendly? Or is it just that the stories could not be more basic? In the first, the sky is still sitting too low on the earth, forcing people to bend down all the time, so SuLi prods it with her cooking stick until it breaks up into little fluffy clouds and flies up high. In the second the village is threatened by a dragon that wants to eat young maidens and frightens away all the brave men - so SuLi volunteers to be the next maiden sacrifice and, with her father's hunting dog and sword, slays the dragon and marries the king.

Perhaps I can find some more such basic tales and create a series of SuLi tales. I will try.

There are only two more sessions with this large group, then, after the half-term break, it will be a new, much smaller group. There will be only 3 sessions with the new group - so I can use just the most successful stories. Perhaps that will work!