Mary Medlicott, Storyteller and Author - Storyworks

Posts Tagged ‘noticing pattern’

Storytelling Starters ~ Pattern is key

Saturday, June 29th, 2013

Pattern is everywhere.

We see it in people’s behaviour where, over time, it can be a sign of problems and sometimes, sadly, we discern it too late.

We see it in natural life where often it’s a thing of great beauty as in the seed-pod of a poppy which provides my photo today.

We see it in the weather – and what strange weather we’ve been having this year. We must surely see it as an indication of the great upsets in the world’s climate which are being caused by global warming.

We see it in the life of birds, for instance in the cuckoo’s annual migrations which I regularly learn about in the Cuckoo Blog which the British Trust for Ornithology sends out to cuckoo-sponsors. (more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Adults, Personal experience, Props and Resources, Storytelling in Education | No Comments »

Storytelling Starters ~ Making Connections 2

Saturday, November 12th, 2011

Making Connections moves on this week to another story involving a key and the role of pattern in it. It’s a story in the style of the traditional tale.

Keys – and a tale for telling to children

Traditional tales

Traditional tales are one of the three great categories of stories where storytellers look for stories to tell. For some, their favourite category is personal tales like my last week’s story of a forgotten key. Others believe that storytelling is essentially about creating new stories, maybe even making them up on the spot. That’s something we’ll move to in a couple of weeks.

For most of the working storytellers I know, however, traditional tales form the bedrock of the stories we tell. We may reformulate a story, update it, relocate it or otherwise change it in all kinds of ways. But we like to maintain that, whatever we do, traditional stories are fundamental. They’ve stood the test of time. They occur in all cultures. They contain keys to the problems of life. Myth or legend, fairy story or fable, ballad or morality tale, they are at the heart of storytelling.

For many people – new storytellers especially – this raises one immediate problem. (more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Early years, Follow-up activities, Primary, Props and Resources, Remembering | 1 Comment »