Pirates, Lasers, and Lucy: Storytelling at Lavington Kindergarten

 

 

I had the pleasure of visiting Lavington Montessori Kindergarten today, a small school in Nairobi for kids between the ages of two and six. Between the whistling lessons ("bird-language"), snacks, and chalking, I led a storytelling session with the group. I brought with me a bag of assorted objects: a shawl, a map, a fork, sunglasses, a baby's bottle, a bracelet, a flashlight, and so on. One of the kids would take out a single object, and we would use it to move forward the story we were improvising out loud together. My role was mostly asking questions ("Does she have a secret?" "Why would we have found a fork in her bedroom?") and to knit together the wildly imaginative ideas the kids contributed.

 

 

Our story featured a woman named Lucy from South Africa. She had three kids: Baby Charlie, just two months old, and Peter and Emily. Lucy had a treasure map that took her to the beaches of Mombasa, where she spent her cool nights wrapped in a shawl, looking for buried jewels that would make her rich. After a long night's seeking, she went back to her hotel -- where the very pirates who buried the treasure raided the hotel. The kidnapped Lucy and the kids and took them onto their pirate ship. The pirates had special sunglasses that they wore that could shoot lasers, so this was quite a dangerous situation for Lucy. Luckily, she was able to call her dad for help on her cell phone. Lucy's dad and a bunch of police came on a ship from South Africa to rescue her. Lucy went back home -- but the pirates followed her. They must've thought she was still looking for their treasure! When Lucy went back to her house, the pirates tied up the whole house in string and rope, while she and the kids were inside it.

Showing great tenacity, Lucy made her way out of the tied-up house -- though she was forced to endure another kidnapping. But this time, as the ship crossed the ocean to an island, things took an unexpected turn: by digging with a fork, Lucy discovered a great deal of the pirate's treasure without them noticing. When she was rescued again (miraulously!), between her and the kids, they were able to smuggle a great deal of the treasure away with them. Lucy, Charlie, Peter, and Emily found themselves suddenly rich. They lived happily ever after.

It was a good day.

 

 

What I like about this storytelling activity is, first of all, that it's collaborative. While I was invited to the school as a "guest writer," this sort of game puts us all in the position of being creators of a common story. What I see as key to my role is making sure different voices have an opportunity to contribute details or action to the story, or, giving an opportunity to the quieter ones to participate by choosing them to pick out the next object in the bag and present it to the others.

At the same time, we are all listeners to the story: we all found ourselves surprised by a turn that one kid's contribution would take a story. There were a few moments when we all gasped and clapped in delight. And of course, whatever we might add to the story depended on what we heard others tell. This agility -- of being simultaneously storytellers and listeners -- is a potent place for us all to be in together.

I also like that this activity is tactile. Stories are spurred not only by what objects come out of the bag and into their hands (which they hold for the length of the story), but by what order we find them.

And I like that the core element of this activity is play: the sheer joy of making things up. The fearlessness of no wrong notion. The joy of seeing what happens. Of stories being, first of all, fun -- from whatever side we approach them, as a listener or a creator.

There were a few language issues that emerged: as a teacher reminded me, some of the kids stumbled in their storytelling not because they were shy about describing what would happen next to Lucy and the pirates, but because they were learning English and words might escape them. I think the fact that our story was a collaborative one was significant in creating space for this; kids could help each other out, as we are all positioned "on the same side" as storytellers. And they did just that.

Comments

[margosita]

This really brightened my afternoon!