Download
1 / 9
E N D
Storytelling By: Katelyn Schneider
Miss Pointy’s Stories • “Miss Pointy told a story about a fox and a stork. The fox invites the stork for dinner, but serves food in a flat saucer, so the stork can’t eat. The very next day, the stork invites the fox to dinner. For revenge, the stork serves food in a narrow-necked jar, so the fox can’t eat”. • Most of the students in Miss Pointy’s class just thought the fox should have eaten the stork.
Miss Pointy’s Stories • There was once a very old teacher. She lived in the country and walked to school every day, always taking the same route, because she loved watching the animals and looking at the trees. Finally she would see the schoolyard full of children. After 25 years of the same route, she began to get a little jealous. She would see the birds and think “Why can’t I fly?” she would see the children and think “Why can’t I play?”. To make matters worse, there was a boy in her class that was really bad and mean. One day, the teacher made the class write down their biggest wish. She simply wrote, “I wish I were a bird, a horse and a child”, and the boy wrote, “ I wish she was not my teacher”.
Miss Pointy’s Stories The next day when the boy came to school, the teacher wasn’t there, and he started feeling scared. The substitute was really mean, and made the boy feel invisible. When he was walking on a path, he found an apple tree and picked some of the apples. He set his last apple on a post, and a little while later, a bird started to eat it. The next day, when he set his apple on the post, a horse came up and started eating it. When the boy was older and became a teacher, a little girl came up to him and gave him an apple. She said “ This is for all the days when I was a bird and a horse . You gave me an apple, and now I will give, and now I will give you one”.
African Storytelling Almost everyone in traditional African societies participate in storytelling, and it is an essential part of children’s traditional indigenous education. African societies have high standards for participating in storytelling performances, and audience members usually interrupt less talented storytellers to suggest improvements or voice criticisms. After these performances, an audience might chant “Ka nyama bo!” Which means something like “ May the powers of nyama safely disperse!”
Black Snake and the Eggs(African story) A chicken returns to her nest to find that one of her eggs is missing, left with only eleven instead of twelve. Frantic, she flees to go find Rooster, but as she is gone, Black Snake slithers over to her nest and gobbles down two more eggs. Chicken tries not to ever leave her nest, but she has to go get food and take care of her chicks, and every time she leaves Black Snake comes back and eats another egg. Finally, Chicken and Rooster come up with a plan. When Chicken leaves again, Black Snake comes and eats another egg as usual, but this time it won’t go down his throat! Black Snake chokes on it and dies. Later, Chicken finds him and sighs, “ How could Black Snake have known that the egg was hard boiled?”
Native American Storytelling Aadizookaan means “ a traditional story” in Ojibwa language, and to most are very sacred. Some of the stories represent big themes of human existence, like where we came from and how we should live. There are also smaller stories that answer the “Why?” questions about behavior and natural phenomena. These stories were also just told for entertainment, because traditional indigenous people didn’t have televisions or books.
How the Crab Tricked the Rabbit(Native American story) A rabbit got together with a crab to plant some carrots. For several days they worked together and were in agreement, but when the time came to divide the harvest, arguments began. The rabbit suggests to have a race, and the winner gets the carrots, knowing that a rabbit could outrun a crab by a lot. The crab accepted, but only if the rabbit took a head start. The rabbit agreed hurriedly. As soon as the race began, the clever crab pinched on to the rabbit’s tail without him noticing. When the rabbit was just about to reach the carrots, he turned around to look for the crab, and at that moment, the crab released the rabbit’s tail and landed on the pile of carrots, winning the whole harvest.
