Elements of Stories and establishing some feedback mechanics.

Friday morning, Oct. 4th 2013 was my first visit to Elk Meadows.

To get an idea of what I taught these wonderful 3rd graders, check this out.

I used many of the techniques found in this video that I only just watched myself the first time for my IP&T class less than a week prior to my visit.

Not only did I teach that CHARACTERS are people and sometimes animals, SETTING includes where and when, and PLOT is a problem, events, and solution... but we also set up some feedback mechanics that I'll cover later.

We then read "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco so we could practice identifying the characters, setting(s) and the elements of the plot. They did awesome. I told them I had only skimmed the book but because Ms. Douglas said it was a good book, I would like to read it with them. They said they had read the book the year before and were excited to hear it again. They asked if they could flicker the lights when there was lightning - they already knew who the light monitor was and he jumped up and was poised ready at the light switches. I also suggested they pound their fists on their desks to make the thunder sound. We had to do a quick science lesson about how light travels at 186,000 miles per second and that sound travels slower (at only 340 miles per second). They caught on real quick and we were into the story having fun. I did a great "old grandma" voice but my Russian accent was horrible and I ended up just dropping it. At the end of the story we wrote identified the different parts of the story and I was impressed that Cash even identified the "Thunder" as a character in the story.

The Feedback Mechanics
I also established that they must say "OH YEAH!" when I say "One second party!". I also told them when I ask a questions when my hand is up, I want them to raise their hand if they know the answer. If I put my hands out and say "everyone" at the end of a question, I want them to all call out the answer together. (Sometimes I put my hands out and stop short of finishing a sentence, and they know to also finish the sentence now too.) So, we've got some ways to unify the group and get good feedback if they are following along now.

In closing we practiced with one more book that I brought called, "The Bug Cemetery" by Frances Hill, Author, Vera Rosenberry, Illustrator.

Before I read the story, I shared a quick lesson about how stories are made up of information. I told them I have done improvisation comedy for over 20 years and that it is my strong suite. I told them there are three main ways to add information to a scene: 1. Verbally 2. Emotionally and 3. Space work. I then wrote the 5 main emotions on the board: happy, sad, fear, anger, loving. I shared this with them because I knew there were some sad parts of the story.

I'm excited to go back next week and review what we learned. We will also begin to write our own stories and after we develop a story with a few different characters, we'll actually get up and act out a story! This will probably not all happen during our 2nd visit but we'll see!

Here are a couple pictures from my morning:

The morning drop off hustle and bustle.



First time at Elk Meadows.