a monster of a tale

A small group of boys and girls wrote quite an imaginative tale today. I wrote their words and then we acted the story out. There was really only one star of the show (T-Rex) and when I asked who wanted to be T-Rex all five little hands flew up into the air - so we reenacted the story five times to be fair.

"One day there was a T-Rex in the market and he eat all of the dinosaurs and the food. They eat all the building and the people. And then he has nice sharp claws and sharp feet to stomp and kill all the big dinosaurs. All eat! There will eat the car and she throw out the wheels. He walk and walk. The dinosaur can't see the people - the people make a shower to put on dinosaur but he was angry so he roars "raaaaaaa!" He bump his knee on the floor, it bleeding. She dies. No she go to the doctor and the doctor just did a big injection to him. And the dinosaur didn't be sad, he is happy. The end."

A pretty fun story, especially when being acted out. We found some pretend food, made blocks into buildings and cars, and had toy dinosaurs for the actors to "eat" on stage. Afterward, to continue weaving in thinking about each other, the six of us sat in a small circle and each child gave one person a compliment. The compliments impressed me because they spoke directly to each other's performance. Like J telling S "I like the way you eat food." Or to Z "I like when you throw the building."

Do you weave storytelling into your day? If so I would love to hear how - I'm always looking for new ways to encourage speaking and dramatic play into our day.