"Not a Stick": a one-prop story

Book:  "Not a Stick"  byAntoinette Portis
Props:  Stick
Puppets:  None
Technology:  Projector with scanned images
Presenters:   Two (could work with one)

Not a Stick is one of those books that's brilliant and at the same time so simple.  And it's a natural fit for the way we often act out picture books.  We do it with two people:  One is the guy with the stick (this was me when we did it a few weeks ago), while the other (Terri in this case) responds to each new idea.   So I find a stick and pretend it's a fishing pole.  Terri asks what I'm doing with the stick, and I reply of course:  "It's not a stick."  I think the story would really work just fine if that's all we did.  The kids would still chime in with their ideas about what I'm imagining the stick is.  But we add projected scans from the book.  So the first slide is just the stick with the posture:



Then I take the stick and pretend to be fishing.  The kids will usually make a guess or two without prompting.  Then when I reply "It's not a stick," the rest of the picture fades in, showing the hook, fish, sea, and dock. 

And the pattern continues just like that.   The plain slide appears.  The stick guy looks at the slide, ponders a bit, then starts doing the thing that he should be doing.  The kids guess, the narrator prompts, and then the full picture fades in.  It's an easy one to tell, with lots of room for improvising and interacting with the audience, which is always nice.  You don't really even have to memorize, since the slide on the screen tells you what actions come next.  (Unless you get mixed up and think the bandleader's baton is actually going to be the knight's sword, and spend a bunch of energy battling a pretend dragon only to see the next slide appear and reveal the marching band....not that you would ever do that.  I'm sure I wouldn't.  At least not more than one time anyway).

Since the kids are guessing what you're doing and filling in the blanks with their imagination, this approach really captures the essence of the book.  And it leads naturally into an after-comment about the importance of "play" in developing early literacy and learning skills. 

After one presentation I was talking with a boy about this story and the companion book Not a Box (which he knew) and asked him if he could think of any other similar possibilities....and he came up with:  "Not a Blanket!"  And with a few hints, came up with some great ideas:   Flying Carpet;  Fort;  Parachute....   So that made me feel like we did do some justice to the book and its potential for inspiring imaginative play. 

Having one "observer" and one person acting out works nicely.  It gives you more room to play and interact and the narrator can prompt and manage the audience interaction.  It could work with one person, though, talking more directly to the audience to get them to say "it's a stick."

Portis Not a Box is an equally excellent book and could work with the same approach we used, but the imaginative activities in Stick just adapt a little more easily to acting out. 

Labels added for one-person/two-person tales

Some of the stories I post on this blog are for solo presenters; others require two or more.  Someone pointed out that it would be handy to be able to look at one or the other, since not everyone has other tellers they can team with.  So I've added "labels" for One Teller, Two Tellers, and Three Tellers to all of the postings.  So you can click on one of those labels (on the right of the screen) to just see those.  Hope it's helpful....

Elephant & Piggie & Suitcases & Umbrellas & More

Book:  Let's Go for a Drive by Mo Willems
Puppets:  None
Props:  Many:  2 or 3 Suitcases;  2 or more Sunglasses;  2 or more Maps;  2 or more Umbrellas; Pig and Elephant stuff (optional)
Presenters:  2

Our latest attempt to act out an "Elephant & Piggie" story is one that Sheila and I first did as an outdoor story at the City's Art Fest. It's a little prop-heavy for an outreach performance, but Sheila had all the stuff and it worked fine, it's just that the crowd was small.  Small crowds were not a problem last week when Sheila and Terri did  it for their "Preschool Stories & Science" presentation.

We do this one as an act out, following M.W.'s just-right words as usual.  For props, they had a three-bag set of suitcases, a couple of umbrellas, a couple of sunglasses, and a bunch of old maps set behind our backdrop.  Piggie goes and fetches each one as the story progresses. 

E & P decide to go for a drive and share an excited:  "Drive, drive, drivey, drivey, drive!"  Gerald's the planner in this one and reminds Piggie that they will need a map.  When Piggie returns with the map it's:  "Map, map, mappy, map, map!" and again "Drive, drive, drivey, drivey, drive."  A refrain that repeats with variations and more props as the story continues which works great for audience participation and for storytelling.  (Also for beginning readers using the book, further evidence of Mo's genius).   

 

As always with Elephant and Piggie, capturing their distinct personalities is a big part of it.  Sheila's been Piggie many times, but still uses the specific illustrations with each book to help her get Piggie just right...the expressions in the drawings really do show you just how to play them.  Terri adds a nice storyteller's touch to Gerald that I hadn't thought of when I performed it.  When he declares:  "Get those maps!"  (or "sunglasses," "umbrellas," etc.) she hesitates a bit and prompts the kids to join in.  It brings the audience even further into the story, highlights a key refrain from the book, and just as importantly, gives Piggie just a little more time to grab the props and return.

 

The ending is great in the book and works in the act-out too.  After both characters realize that they everything they need for a drive except a car, they decide to use the stuff they've gathered for something just as fun:  they can play pirates!  Here's where an illustrator has a distinct advantage over storytellers.  Mo's pictures clearly show the pirate ship they make, and those sunglasses really do look like pirate patches.  The transformation we do requires a bit more imagination on the part of the audience. 

We unzip one suitcase just enough to prop one umbrella up, then fit the second umbrella into the folds of the first one.  One big map with a precut hole is used for the sail.  With our big crowds of 130 or so it's a bit hard for all to see the suitcases on the ground, but putting them up even on a small table just seemed too unnatural; you don't construct a suitcase/umbrella/map pirate ship to look at:  you want to climb on and sail it.  So we kept them on the floor.  To make the conclusion work we veered from the book a bit.  E & P make the transformation from car trip to pirate ship wordlessly, but we narrated a bit to make sure the kids, especially the younger ones, could follow:  "...if we spread this map out, it's like a sail!...I can make my sunglasses look like an eyepatch!..." 

 

The only downside to doing an Elephant and Piggie in the summer:  There aren't enough books for kids to checkout after the story.  We own 96 copies of E & P and had 6 on the shelf, all checked in just that day.  So clearly the guy who orders early readers  needs a good talking to (oops, that's me...I'll go place an order now.)   

  

 

6 More puppet videos on youtube

With the "Storytelling with Puppets" instructional videos I've been doing,  I decided I'm tired of the post-one-video-per-week thing, so I just put all of the ones I have ready up on YouTube.  So now there's 12 up there.  And that will be it for a while, until I decide to make some more (or not).  The stories are:


What's in Fox's Sack  by Paul Galdone

Frog and Toad: the Story  by Arnold Lobel

Pickin' Peas  by Margaret Read MacDonald

The Big Fat Worm  by Nancy Van Laan

Squeak-A-Lot  by Martin Waddell

Morris and Boris: The Game  by Bernard Wiseman

Another Puppet Video on Youtube

I've added another video to my "Storytelling with Puppets" page on Youtube.  There are five others on that page, with more to come soon.   This one is Lizard's Song by George Shannon.  You can also view it below:

Seals on the Bus, Baby Driving

Book:  The Seals on the Bus  by Lenny Hort.  Illustrated by C. Brian Karas
Puppets:  Seal, Baby, plus a handful of Other Animals
Props:  None
Presenters:  One
Audience:  Toddler Time (1 and 2 year olds)

I always do one puppet story in my Toddler Time sessions and sometimes I have a tendency to try to squeeze a 2-3 year old story into this session for 1 and 2 year olds.  Partly because there aren't enough really great 1-2 year old books that adapt for puppets, but also because I just like a little bit more of a story.  Something like Squeak-A-Lot or What Will Fat Cat Sit On is just a little more fun to tell than Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?.  And really, those slightly more involved stories end up working well, but I have to admit, the simple stuff is really reliable for this age group.

Seals on the Bus fits that category.  I usually tell it just after singing (or having Raffi sing) The Wheels on the Bus.  Then I introduce the book:  "There's a song about wheels on the bus; what if there were seals on a bus?  So they get the idea that it's a take-off.  (I mean, Weird Al is always funnier when you know the song he's parodying).  The picture book is very clever, with Brian Karas' illustrations adding a kind of storyline to the progression of animal sounds....but for puppets, I stick to the progression of animal sounds.  Which makes it a simple series of Pop-Outs.  First it's Seal, then really any animals you want to bring out....I don't stick to what's in the book. 

After we've all sung:  "the seals on the bus go Arf Arf Arf," I kind of stop to build up to the next animal, and provide a clue or two:   "Now we know there are seals on the bus.  I wonder what other animals are on the bus?  [peek in the puppet bag].  Oh!  This next animal has a long tail...and eats bananas.  [pop out Monkey and all sing]: The monkeys on the bus go eee!  eee!  eee!  (or whatever your preferred monkey sound is).   So this sets up a nice pattern with some guessing, some vocabulary, and lots of participation.  The puppetry is easy to manage, since puppets don't even interact with each other.  Just pop out, make the sound, and back in the bag.

I always like to include a Giraffe for change of pace:  "the Giraffe on the bus goes..."[finger to lips and say nothing].  And I end it with the Driver on the Bus:   "Now it's time for the driver.  Who do you think the driver will be?...[anticipation builds....peek in the puppet bag].  Oh!  This is not the driver I expected!"  [anticipation builds even more....and out pops:  a Baby!]   I don't know why, but the idea of a baby driving a bus (and saying "Waa, waa, waa"] is just really funny.  And a good way to end it.

My one regret with this story is that I don't have a Pigeon puppet.  But it's probably just as well, because then I wouldn't be able to resist making it:  "The pigeon on the bus says:   'Please let me drive the bus!  I'll be your best friend!  I'll give you five bucks! I have feelings too!...'"  and on and on.  Which would amuse me quite a bit and maybe a parent or two, but those toddlers just wouldn't get it. 

"Storytelling with Puppets" videos on Youtube

Here's something new (for me at least) on this blog:  Video instruction/demonstration of some of the stories I like to do.  I can't manage to put our public, multi-person storytimes and programs on video yet, so I decided to focus on one of my favorite ways to tell stories without the book:  Storytelling with puppets (but without a stage). 

So I've started up a Youtube channel where I'll add videos, probably one
 per week.  The videos show the story being told, along with some tips and suggestions mixed in.  There are a few up there now, at http://www.youtube.com/user/stories13579.  Here's one sample (I know, I don't look very happy on this thumbnail, but the other choices were even worse...):

 

 

 

 

If these videos seem useful to folks, I'll continue adding them, probably once a week or so, and mention them on this blog when I add new ones.  I'll also add links to previous posts on this blog if there's now a video to match.

I'd be interested to hear if these are useful, and also any suggestions to make them better (as long as the suggestions don't require fancy equipment, any level of video expertise, or more than just a little bit of effort...).    And I'll keep posting on this blog the usual video-less way, as well...