"I Eat A Dragon."

We haven't had a storytelling session for a few weeks now. It felt like we were in a bit of a rut, so I wanted to take a break to give the children a chance to have some new experiences to write about. I'm eager to get back to storytelling after our mid-winter break next week, however. The 3-year-olds, as a group, have taken some long strides in the past month or so. They have become much more vocal at circle time (both with raised hands and not), for instance, and have really stepped up their game as far as taking full participation roles during clean-up. Not to mention the fact that they've all now turned the parallel play corner and don't need to work through the adults as much to interact with their friends.

In other words, the 3's are claiming their full ownership of the classroom now, stepping up alongside their older classmates. Typically March is when they start telling more sophisticated and purposeful stories and this group seems right on track, even through they tend to be a young group in terms of the calendar.

I'm still catching up with the transferral of the older stories to the computer. Here are some of the 3-year-old stories from December.

Lachlan has always had a narrative sense beyond his years. It may come from the fact that he has an imaginative older sister who lovingly includes him in her play.

A ghost. And then a bat. And then a skeleton. And then adult. And a person and comed in the woods. And her is scared ‘cause there was a bear. And there was a baseball hitting her. And her was running really fast. –Lachlan

About a bear. An angry bear. Then he eat somebody. Me! I eat a dragon. And then my tummy was full. And then that’s the end. –Lachlan

Ariya, Dennis and Orlando have really only scratched the surface of storytelling so far, but they've all taken turns in front of the class and seemed to really like the experience. I'm really expecting big stuff from these guys this spring:

The tiger and lion. –Ariya 

It’s a angry one. –Ariya 

There was a fat dog. –Dennis 

It’s a dark, dark night. --Orlando

Finn V. is the oldest of our 3-year-olds and he has so far told a series of stories involving monster trucks and war themes.

About a monster truck. And then the monster truck went over a ramp and jumped over this whole pool. Then the scary monster truck came out. And then the other monster truck came out. And then a jets comed. And then they shot at them. And then when it was dark they did a dark race. And then a monster truck was driving and then it went off and then it went over a car. Because I watched this movie about it and they go on cars. Once thing they had a war and guys went on top of a car and shot. –Finn V.

Lately Finn seems to have been doing a little deeper thinking on the topic of "army guys."  For instance, a group of boys were using the sticks from a set of small flags yesterday to play guns. I pointed at our list of rules and reminded them that they and their friends had made the rule, "No real or pretend guns in school." Thomas objected, saying, "We built an army fort. We have to have guns." Finn replied, "Army guys can do other things too. They can march and camp." He then he stood at attention and saluted. It sort of took the air out of the gun game. I'm curious to see if that will show up in his stories.

If you're interested in reading more of the children's stories, here are the links in order of appearance:

And Now The Children Tell Their Stories
And Now The Children Tell Their Stories 2
There Was A Bad Dream In My Bed 
Where The Wild Things Are
Stories From The Edge
Short, Smart, Sweet And Silly
A Muddy Puddle Of Morality
Wearing His Cape Every Day
One Thing At A Time
And Now For Something Completely Silly
I'm Thinking Something To Ella
Then A Monster Truck Came
Inspirations And Influences
Squirrel Stories (So Far)
Preschool Poets