This morning was a continuation of my adventures in semi-professional storytelling. I was invited by the Medford Family Network to tell stories at their Playgroup in the Park so I made my way down to Tufts Park at a little before 11. Andrea, the leader of the group, was reading the Hungry Caterpillar when I arrived because we had an unfortunate misunderstanding where she thought I was coming at 10:30 and I thought I was coming at 11:00. But despite this hiccup, once she was done telling I came in and was warmly welcomed.
The kids all seemed to want to be moving so I started by having the do a movement warm-up with me. Once they were all listening to me and happily moving around, everyone sat back down and I started to tell the Turnip. Since there was a large amount of kids I decided to ask them to be my volunteers throughout the story. At first, the children were shy and only two of the older girls in the back raised their hands. But as the story continued and the line of turnip-pullers grew more and more children wanted to join. By the end I had two cats, two dogs, a cow, two horses, a grandson, a grandmother, a grandfather, and a few enthusiastic stragglers.
Once the story was done everyone settled down and I went for my favorite, Stone Soup. Most of the children remained engaged throughout the story, although of course there were some wanderers, especially with the playground right behind them. All in all, I felt very welcome and had a great time. I even got one of the lovely women working there to take some pictures of the storytelling for documentation, which I’ve added here.
I’m looking forward to going to my next Playgroup in the Park this Thursday! Copen Park, here I come!