Storytelling about Nature

Comment

Comment by Juliet Robertson on October 22, 2011 at 1:44pm

Hi Janine

I do have one or two examples which I could email to you - for Everybody Needs a Rock, The Gruffalo, An African Book Bag, Handa's Surprise, Harry Potter and the Snowy Day.

 

If you contact me via my website and send me a wee reminder, I'll send these on - I've a couple of busy weeks so if it takes this long for me to respond, please don't worry. 

Comment by Janine Carpenter on October 20, 2011 at 6:00am

Jan,

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I've forwarded the information to my local library and plan to follow up to see what they think and how we can pull off a naturelibrary here.

I like your ideas and suggestions and will speak with them about that when I follow up. Also, thanks for the Burgess book recommendation, I'm in the process of creating an outdoor library for my forest kindergarten and have now found some interesting books I'm looking into from the site you mentioned below.

One of my personal favorite authors is Byrd Baylor (can't remember if it was mentioned in the list, I'll have to let them know).  "I'm in Charge of Celebrations" is very close to my heart, but some other great titles of hers are "Everybody Needs a Rock", "The Other Way to Listen", and "The Way to Start a Day" (Caldecott Honor Book).

Wow! Children, nature, and books are my top three passions in life--I could go on forever on just these subjects alone =)

Comment by Janine Carpenter on October 20, 2011 at 5:36am

Juliet,

I've been to your site and I felt like I struck gold! There is just so much information and I know I will be re-visiting over the course of time. I spent over an hour there the other day and I've only just scratched the surface! What you are mentioning here is something I've been thinking about doing with my own little forest kindergarten as well. I've decided to put together literacy backpacks with an outdoor activity for them to take home and do with their parents. Do you have examples of these on your site where I can look to jump start the process? Over time I will create my own but it's going to be a slow process as I try to think up my own for every backpack and this would really help to get it moving. I'll also make a list of the ones I make to share with this group, your blog, and my area libraries when I get mine together.

Thanks for any info!

Comment by Juliet Robertson on October 20, 2011 at 1:43am

Jan - I've lots of books on various listmania on Amazon. If you would like a guest blog post, please let me know - I should have some time in December to do a few reviews and link these to outdoor activities. 

 

By having lists on Amazon, this makes the reading lists available to a wider audience than those who attend my courses or look at my blog. I'm going for guerrilla marketing tactics to get children outside.

 

For the past 12 years I've always advocated schools using outdoor book bags. This is a bag with a book and a few simple activities that link to the book which can be done outside. I also encourage schools to insert outdoor ideas and activities into any and every book bag that are given to children and parents as they move from pre-school into Kindergarten. 

Comment by Katia Rossi on October 19, 2011 at 10:50pm

Hi all! I am excited to join the group!

Next week I will be taking Head Start kids outside to read and providing their families with C&NN bookmarks. See more at:

http://www.aahperd.org/headstartbodystart/news/take-it-outside-week...

Comment by Jan Hummer on October 19, 2011 at 7:35pm

Margie,

 

I hope you have checked out the post by Anne (NCTC Head Librarian)  below about the Connecting Children to Nature through American Literature Blog and Curriculum page which needs more posts from families and teachers.  A good source would to be to ask your local librarian about nature books written by a local authors. You could maybe invite them to come to an community event or school to talk about why they were inspired to write stories connecting people to the natural world.  Or you partner up with them to create a workshop ...

On a side note:  Many of the Burgess stories are chapter books foster creativity within the young child. 

I have a four year old daughter who likes these tales (even without the pictures) and has made references to certain parts of the books when we are on family hikes. 

Blessings, Jan

Comment by John Thielbahr on October 19, 2011 at 11:35am

Greetings to all,

At our recent Children & Nature Network annual Gathering in San Diego, we held a "naturebraries" workshop led by Lori Kiesser of Inside the Outdoors, Anne Post of US Fish and Wildlife, and Barry Garst of American Camp Assn. about the lessons learned from our Naturebraries pilot project with the Huntington Beach, CA public library.  After that workshop, 20 people from around the country signed up to stay involved with this new initiative as a sort of planning committee.  We will be sharing ideas for fund raising, program development, connecting with American Library Assn. and other professional societies, and for collaborating together to enhance children's literacy through nature-based reading and activities at libraries, which also includes nature-based writing.  If any of you would like to join this committee, please email me at john.thielbahr003@gmail.com .  Please continue to share ideas and suggestions on this site.  Since our Gathering, initiatives are already being started in Colorado and Washington.  We want that to spread to every state and every community, and I hope this site will be the meeting place for everyone.  Tell your friends to join us.  All the best,  John

Comment by Anne Post on October 18, 2011 at 7:27pm

Hope you all check out a recent exhibit and companion website - Connecting Children to Nature Through American Literature 1890-current.  http://library.fws.gov/children-literature-exhibit.html   and discussion blog here: http://childnatureamericanlit.blogspot.com/    Think we have identified some pretty cool books that exemplify all the marvelous features - in story and illustration - that connect kids to the natural world. Hope you stop in and leave a comment.  See list of book titles (very selective): http://library.fws.gov/Children-literature-exhibit-book-list.html#b...

Comment by Margie on September 26, 2011 at 4:45pm

Gave my first class on storytelling...  I'm no pro by any means, but have had some really great mentors, and I really wanted to share with others how to bring stories to life.  We went beyond reading from a book to standing before a group and telling a prepared story, using voice techniques, gestures, props - what fun!  I recommend http://www.storynet.org/ as a resource.  Is there a storytelling group in your area?

Comment by Margie on August 30, 2011 at 2:50pm

This is a great new collection:  "Tales with Tails," by Kevin Strauss.

Find the book at Amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591582695/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Find Kevin on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/kevin_strauss

Also love collections by the authors of the Keepers of the Earth series:

Michael J. Caduto:  http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Tales-Around-Michael-Caduto/dp/15559196...

Joseph Bruchac:  http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Me-Tale-about-Storytelling/dp/0152012214...

Looking for advice on telling Native American stories - when is it appropriate for a non-native to tell?

 

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