Q. Can we make one big story out of many?

I work with a group from the kindergarten every day for an hour. This group of storytellers seemed like one who could do more work with narrative. What was a likely a challenge? Could they make one big story out of many individual ones? Duke and Xander told the group they were hoping to finish a project from last year- a play about the Trojan Horse. We pulled out the handy dandy Daulaire's Book of Greek Myths and got into the story of the apple of discord and the 3 Goddesses who argued over it. Everyone agreed it would make a good play, and so we got to work.

The other children decided on characters they wanted to be- a Greek army soldier, two mermaids, a dog, a cat, a fox, and a ninja. I asked everyone to draw a picture of their character, so we would know what kind of costumes we would need to make. As they drew, they fleshed out the characters and the story.

 There was a problem. Our ninja said he didn't know how to draw a ninja! Luckily the soldier spent a good part of a preschool year drawing ninjas, and gave N a lesson.
     














It was a good lesson, because after that N could draw ninjas doing all sorts of exciting things.













The children took a big step forward in their collaboration when they decided on a title.

"The Trojan War with a Mermaids, Soldiers, Dog, Cat, Fox and a Ninja"