Fractured Fairy Tales - Family Storytime

I changed my mind several times about the theme for this storytime! First, the new Pete the Cat book gave me the idea to do a pizza storytime. But, as I was looking for ideas, I found out a colleague was already planning a pizza storytime. So then I decided to do "Big & Little", but not as an opposite concept, rather looking at relative sizes. For example, a 10 year old child may be big when compared to a baby, but they are little as compared to an NBA player.

But as I was reviewing books for a libguide I had to make for my kid lit class (I decided to do non-Disney princess stories), I came across two fractured fairy tales that just begged to be read out loud. As I was thinking, "boy I wish I could do these now," I realized that I could! So, I changed my theme to fractured fairy tales, and the plus side is I now have two partially-planned storytimes to save for later!

I started with our welcome song, and then another song I first saw on Jbrary and have been using a lot as a warm-up song lately:

 "Hello, Everybody"

Hello, everybody! Can you touch your nose?

Touch your nose, touch your nose?

Hello, everybody! Can you touch your nose?

Touch-your-nose? 

Clap hands, pat head, rub tummy, wiggle ears.....

Then I introduced myself and the topic of fairy tales, and we talked a little bit about the typical characteristics of fairy tales: usually start with "Once upon a time...", often end with "...and they lived happily ever after.", frequently have dragons, princesses, princes, fairies, kings, queens, and magical beings in them. I told them the stories I had today were silly fairy tales, that might not end the way they expected.

Somehow I managed to forget to do our "story song" before jumping into our first book, Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox and Lydia Monks. I like this book because there is not too much text and the humor is very obvious and silly, making it perfect for reading aloud to younger kids. I do wish the book were physically a little larger, though. 

This is a story of miscommunication and misunderstandings, with comical results as Prince Charming mistakenly interprets Rapunzels crying about a bad hair day as a plea for help, and then she mis-hears him every time he asks her to let down her hair, culminating in a surprise ending.

I segued into our next activity, a silly crown song, by asking how they knew a character was a prince or princess or king or queen in a picture, and of course they said because they would be wearing a crown. I've seen this song done with a variety of themes, and I'm not even sure anymore what the original version was! I changed up the order and the words to emphasize the silliness.

There's A Crown On Me!

There's a crown on my foot, on my foot.

There's a crown on my foot, on my foot.

It just won't stay put; does it really go on my foot?

There's a crown on my foot, on my foot.

There's a crown on my knee, on my knee.

There's a crown on my knee, on my knee.

Goodness, gracious me, does it belong on my knee?

There's a crown on my knee, on my knee.

There's a crown on my arm, on my arm.

There's a crown on my arm, on my arm.

It's not doing any harm, but does it go on my arm?

There's a crown on my arm, on my arm.

There's a crown on my head, on my head.

There's a crown on my head, on my head.

Did you hear what I said? I think it goes up here instead!

There's a crown on my head, on my head!

I used a crown made from pipe cleaners that I had left from a drop-in craft program a colleague and I did back in December when we had the Maurice Sendak exhibit in our main library. I printed out clip-art images of crowns on cardstock and attached them to craft sticks for the kids to use.

The second book, Waking Beauty, was also by Wilcox and Monks, and again involves some misunderstanding. The Prince follows a terrible sound to a thorn covered castle, where he find a beautiful princess snoring away. The three diverse fairies beg the prince to wake her, as they've had to listen to her snoring for one-hundred years! 

But, he doesn't listen as they try to tell him he has to kiss her, and interrupts with his own ideas. He tries yelling at her, pouring water on her, even shooting her out of a cannon! When he finally gives the fairies a chance to explain, he is reluctant to kiss her at first, after all, he's heard girls have germs! When he finally does, the results are very unexpected.

I had one other very short story ("The Frog Prince" from Jon Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man) and a couple of other rhymes and songs (Dragon, Dragon, Turn Around and The Grand Old Duke of York), but I had already lost half the crowd, so I quickly went to our closing song and the optional craft.

Optional Craft 
I had initially planned to have them make pipe-cleaner crowns like mine above for the craft, but I realized (1) we didn't have any gold or silver pipe-cleaners, and (2) the age kids I typically get wouldn't be able to make them themselves, and the parents would just end up doing it.

So when I saw a fairy tale craft using construction paper in all different colors and shapes to make your own fairy tale castle collage, I decided to do that instead, thinking it would be more developmentally appropriate. They could identify shapes and colors as they worked, and practice fine-motor skills in picking up and placing the shapes using their pincer grasp as well as using crayons to add details or backgrounds, and most importantly the kids would be able to do it themselves.

How It Went 
It was really a mixed bag. The first half went really well, and the second half did not. I had a decent crowd of about 24 kids and adults to start with, and initially they seemed very interested and engaged. They participated with the opening songs, and giggled the whole way through Rapunzel. They also seemed to really enjoy the "Crown" song, laughing and enjoying telling me each time, "No, it goes on your head!".

But as I got ready to start the second book, at least half the crowd just got up and left. The kids didn't seen to enjoy the second book as much, and I had forgotten about the ending where Sleeping Beauty punches the prince for kissing her. I remembered just in time to skip it, but rather clumsily. Everyone left was ready to go at that point and only two families tried the craft, one of whom didn't bother taking theirs home. Then a co-worker told me people often ask the circ staff to throw them away as they are leaving!

So I ended up being rather disappointed and frustrated, and re-thinking the whole way I do this storytime, especially the craft. I need to do something different, but I'm just not sure what yet. Shorter storytime, different structure, shorter books, just one book, better crafts, no crafts??? 

I really don't think it's me, I mean I've done literally hundreds of storytimes, trained others, and I think I know I know what I'm doing. I really think it's just the nature of doing the weekend storytime versus a regular weekday storytime that has a regular crowd who come specifically for storytime. But something is not working and that means I need to change something I'm doing.

Once Upon A Time...

I've noticed that kids these days don't seem to be as familiar with all the old folk/fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and songs (though there are exceptions), so in the interest of cultural literacy, I decided to focus on "Folk Tales" for today.

I make a distinction between folk and fairy tales, though they are often used interchangeably. I think of "folk tales" as being the old stories that often have a lesson or moral to them, but generally don't involve magic or fantasy; think Little Red Hen, Chicken Little, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, The Enormous Turnip, etc. I think of fairy tales as the ones that involve magic and fantasy, the ones with fairies, witches, fairy godmothers, damsels in distress, and the handsome princes or knights in shining armor that rescue them, and don't necessarily have a moral; think Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, etc. 

I happened to have a Little Red Riding Hood costume, so I wore the hooded cape and carried my storytime books and stickers in a basket instead of my usual tote bag. At first glance, I think the kids thought I had made an unfortunate fashion choice, but a few of them quickly put it together and exclaimed, "You're Little Red Riding Hood!"

We started with our welcome song, then I asked them if they knew who I was, and by then they all knew I was Little Red Riding Hood, then I asked them what kind of goodies did they think I had in my basket, and they promptly said "Books! And stickers!" I then asked what did they think one of our stories was going to be, which of course they guessed right away. Then I explained how LRRH was a folk tale, and that folk tales were stories that had been around for a very long time, even hundreds of years, and often were used as a way to teach children an important lesson. I explained that these tales were told over and over and that everyone told them slightly differently, so there are many versions. 

Then we sang our story song and settled down for the first story, which of course was Little Red Riding Hood. I chose this version by Bernette Ford and Tom Knight (part of the Story House series) because it was short and simple, had simple, bright illustrations with heavy black outlines, and was not as gruesome as some others (yes, you, Lucy Cousins with your bloody wolf's head flying across the page 😏), though I did think the part about wolf's abdomen having a zipper was a little silly (I just said the woodsman opened up his stomach, didn't say how). I also like how it spells out the warning about not talking to strangers.

The kids enjoyed it so much they just wanted to go straight to the next book, so we did. I chose Harriet Ziefert's version of The Gingerbread Boy (illustrated by Emily Bolam) because, again, it was the only one I could find that was short and simple enough for three-year olds. I did make two slight changes to make it more participatory and more in line with the way I remember the story. 

While Ziefert only has the gingerbread boy saying his famous line "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me - I'm the gingerbread man!" only once, I had him say it after every encounter so the kids could be more involved in the story and say it along with me, since they all knew it. I also had the gingerbread boy moving up to the fox's back, head, and finally, nose because he was still getting wet, because that's how I remember it, and I think it makes more sense than him being heavy.

Before the final we story, we took a break to do a few traditional childhood songs and nursery rhymes. I started with "Mary Had A Little Lamb", using all the verses, then "Little Bo Peep" for another one with sheep. Then one boy asked to sing the "ABC's", and I suggested "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," pointing out that they both use the same tune. Then a little girl requested "Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and I followed that with "Little Miss Muffett" before moving on.

For our final story, I chose Glen Rounds' version of the Three Bill Goats Gruff. This version seemed to have the least text, and the most straight forward telling of the story of the several versions I looked at, and the illustrations are not too pastel or busy, and clearly illustrate what is going on. They are a bit dark and minimalist, but I think that helps convey the seriousness of the situation. The kids can join in saying the "trip, trap; trip, trap" and these didn't need any prompting. This story has lots of drama but no gore and is a lot of fun to read aloud.

We ended with our closing song and passed out stickers.

How It Went

This storytime went really well! The kids were really into the stories, and we all had a lot of fun. They seemed to be more familiar with them then I expected, and I even had to keep cautioning one young man not to give the endings or twists away in his enthusiasm. I think almost all, if not all, were familiar with Little Red Riding Hood and most appreciated my dressing the part. The little boy I mentioned above was so exited about the story, and just could not wait for the big, bad wolf to make his appearance! They were relieved Red and Grandma were unharmed in the end, and we discussed the lesson she learned about talking to strangers.

They weren't quite as familiar with The Gingerbread Boy, but when we got to the part where he says his famous line, they started joining in and seemed to recognize at least that part. The same little boy couldn't wait for the fox and almost gave the ending away. It was so cute how excited he was; he face was lit up with a smile and bright eyes, and he was practically quivering in anticipation of the dramatic moments in each story. We decided the moral to this story was to always listen to your grown-ups, and to never run away.

Though they liked all the stories, I think they loved the Three Billy Goats Gruff! I think partly because it wasn't as familiar, so the drama was more palpable, and the loved the different voices, especially the loud, grumpy troll. This one was definitely the most fun for me as the presenter, and they all joined in right away with the "trip-trap"s and also with the troll saying "I'M GOING TO EAT YOU UP!" each time.

I'll have to do another day of folk tales for them sometime with some of the lesser known stories.