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Gadgets and Gizmos for Storytelling

4/8/2014

14 Comments

 
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fan, wooden flute, thunder tube, woodblock and mallets, yarn ball, caterpillar (wooden slatted instrument), wood spoons, funnel, and ocarina
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I enjoy telling stories to students in the elementary school grades. Every once in a while, it's fun to pull out gadgets and gizmos that work well with some of your tales. I thought it would be fun to show you some of these items that I use and some items I wished I owned. Hopefully you'll share your artifacts that are used in stories you tell.

Here's just a handful of gadgets and gizmos artifacts I have laying around my house that I've used throughout my storytelling career.

1. plastic funnel: I have fun telling a well known folktale but I make sure I just tell the barebones and nothing more. If you were teaching the writing craft of adding details, you could read the bare bones to your students. The kids aren't at all satisfied with the story and will fill in the needed details to add depth to the tail. This is when I pull out the funnel as a visual for "vague" versus "detailed."   The top of the funnel represents the big idea (vague story) and as you add the details you get a refined, polished tale with images, actions, characters and their traits, along with a grabber lead, exciting plot, and an ending no one will forget.

2. fan - please see my "F" blog about fans

3. flute, wood block, spoons, ocarina - I love teaching the listeners how to use these in various stories, have them practice with the instruments, and then participate by guiding them at the right times in the telling.  My inspiration is Heather Forest and her wonderful musical tales. Check out her website!


4. Yarn ball - I love this artifact when teaching tales in a small group. I begin a story holding the piece of yarn with the students sitting in a small circle. As I begin telling I gently and slowly unwind the yarn ball. As I near the end of one color, I stop telling and pass the yarn ball to another child in the circle. This next child has to continue where I left off, gently and slowly unwrapping the yarn until another color appears. This child then passes the ball of yarn to another teller who was listening quite intently to the other tellers. This continues until the story has a beginning, middle, and end.  What's cool, is by the end, there's a web of yarn which I always tell the kids is our teamwork of connections made to create a story together.


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Here's Donna Ingham and Angela Lloyd with their artifacts: washboards with gizmos and gadgets all over the place. I wish I could play those!

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Airpipes on your iPhone
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Digital Ukelele for your iPhone
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Ocarina on your iPhone
Finally, what I am really excited about, are these digital gadgets for your iphone to use while storytelling. I kid you not, I have had so much fun learning how to use these relatively easy instruments on your iphone.  Try those bagpipes out for a scottish tale, the uke for a tropical tale, and ocarina for almost any tale you wish. I've included a youtube of the Ocarina.  The best part about these instruments is they are cheap, cheap, cheap!
I'd love to hear what "artifacts" you use to enrich some of your stories - a autoharp, shakers, washboard? Do tell!
14 Comments
Jacqui Malpass link
4/7/2014 05:21:48 pm

What brilliant ideas. I love the ball of wool idea and think I may just steal that - if you don't mind.

I use things like random pictures from magazines (which they do not see before hand) and ask people to write about what the picture means to them.

Reply
Sue Kueentz link
4/7/2014 10:54:49 pm

Thanks Jacqui - I love that "spinning yarns" idea - it's been around longer than you or I - try it out!

Reply
Sandra link
4/7/2014 05:51:03 pm

very interesting Sue and reminds me of the years when I did drama with children often usinf a random prop to draw a story out of them or indeed a whole play...
Sandra (aust) a to zer ' life without television '

Reply
Sue link
4/8/2014 12:09:41 am

Kids love props! Thanks so much for replying

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Romi link
4/7/2014 05:51:40 pm

You have great ideas! I can picture how effective and enjoyable your storytelling classes are.
I once taught English as a foreign language in high schools in Japan, and my favorite activity was "Show and Tell."

Reply
Sue Kuentz link
4/7/2014 10:58:29 pm

Romi,
Show and Tell is so important for all of us - not just kindergarteners. Thanks so much for your reply!

Reply
Wendy link
4/7/2014 11:55:15 pm

As a writing instructor on the college level, I always emphasized "showing," not merely "telling." Love the gadgets and gizmos.
Wendy
Visiting from A to Z
http://jollettetc.blogspot.com/

Reply
Mary Grace Ketner link
4/8/2014 12:12:54 am

Oh, my! I wonder if I could learn to play the phone!!?
I have a Japanese wooden comb shaped like a crescent, or sort of, more like a letter "D." When I tell the tale "The Mirror," where the farmer's wife tries to help her husband remember to bring her a comb by telling him to look at the moon, I show that comb. I figure kids would never think the moon was shaped like a comb if they didn't have a visual! Of course, two weeks later, when the farmer finishes selling his goods at the market and looks up to the moon to remember what his wife wanted, the moon is full, so he brings home a mirror. More to the story, of course, but the "gadget" gets us past the tricky part.

Reply
Sue Kuentz link
4/8/2014 12:54:47 pm

I'll show you at TLA Mary Grace how that Ocarina works - my favorite! I love that Japanese tale - yet another that I've never heard before. I believe I do have one of those combs though! Thanks so much for your reply!

Reply
Tarkabarka link
4/8/2014 11:20:48 am

I love gadgets, although I rarely ever use them. I once did a paper on traditional Chinese storytellers and the tools they use. My favorite was a jade stick they could use to bang on the table to tell the audience to be quiet. I need one of those. :D

Reply
Sue Kuentz link
4/8/2014 12:51:46 pm

haha - I need one of those jade sticks too (for my college students)

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Jocelyn Rish link
4/8/2014 12:23:05 pm

That's so impressive that you tell stories live. I could never do that - I'd get all flustered and breathless and be going, "And then.. and then... and then." I love the visual of passing the yarn ball and how it shows the teamwork in creating a story.

Hope you’re having fun with the A to Z challenge,
<a href="http://www.jocelynrish.com/blog">Jocelyn</a>

Reply
Pam Faro link
4/8/2014 01:51:02 pm

Hi, Jocelyn! Your description of your imagined breathlessness was vivid and made me smile...! - you might enjoy reading my B post on Breathe! [http://www.storycrossings.com/2014/04/02/body/] Cheers!

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Coyotetools link
11/25/2022 10:55:25 am

Very nice… I really like your blog as well as website. Very useful information and worth reading. Thanks.

Reply



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