The Tykes Get Traditional

In my new effort to keep up to date with lesson plans and what not I have also tried to keep up to date with topic links so that the songs and musical examples have something to do with what the tykes are learning. One of the reception teachers pointed out that Traditional Stories was a couple of weeks ago, but WHATEVER. It was still this half term and that's close enough for me!

I found this wonderful song. Well, I've known this song for ages- but I found wonderful lyrics for the tune. Do you know "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" I love that song, I really do.

These words are for traditional stories. For instance (this is an example I made up and in the style of the lyrics but not from the actual song which is, I think, copy written)

I have a basket and skipped to Grandma's, I have a basket and skipped to Grandma's, I have a basket and skipped to Grandma's, Do you know my story?

or

I sold our cow and got three magic beans, I sold our cow and got three magic beans, I sold our cow and got three magic beans, Do you know my story?

or

My hair gets longer day by day, my hair gets longer day by day, my hair gets longer day by day, Do you know my story?

or

We wear our shoes out every night, we wear our shoes out every night, we wear our shoes out every night, Do you know our story?

Clearly I could keep doing this all day, but I'll stop now.

Some of the stories chosen in the real lyrics (that are on the CD) are less popular, so I started off the class by listening to the song and then finding out if they knew all of the stories. This turned out to be a fascinating exercise since what ended up happening was that in each class there were a couple of tykes who would volunteer to tell stories.

Have you heard a four or five year old tell a story? It's amazing. There are no "um's" or "ah's" and strange things are important- there isn't really any dialogue, but the structure of the story is all there. They understand how these things work. They know the stories. Well, the ones that they know, they know. Would you remember that Jack bought the beans from an old man? I mean, I think if I were telling Jack and the Beanstalk I would have remembered that there *were* magic beans, but not necessarily how they came to be.

The difference in storytelling style was made abundantly clear when I got to the third and final class because no one in that class knew the story of Rumpelstiltskin. It was up to me to tell them the story. Do I really remember how Rumpelstiltskin goes? No. I mean, sort of? My version was full of "So he was like 'blah blah blah' and then she was all 'blah blah blah'" Which is silly. And hard to follow. And not clear and concise and full of the important things like the tykes' versions were. Also, does Rumpelstiltskin burst into flame and then end when he is jumping up and down so mad at the Queen/peasant girl? Because in my version he did and the other teachers disagreed...