Abiyoyo

We are seeing a new theme emerge in the Frog room. Lately the Frogs have been fascinated with stories. Especially this Pete Seeger story;

We have been reading the book Abiyoyo and it's companion, Abiyoyo Returns every day. To expand on the idea of storytelling, we have also been adding in a few new 'folk tales' about things that we've seen around Nonotuck...Like yesterday's circle time story about the squirrel that Michelle (Frog Room co-teacher) saw sitting on top of the dumpster eating a paper towel;

Once Upon a time, about an hour ago when I was on my break,

I was walking out to my car when I heard a sound coming fromthe dumpster. I looked, but I couldn't see anything. Then I heard it again- scritch, scritch, scritch... I peeked behind the dumpster, and then I saw it! Two big black eyes, one fluffy, curly tail, lots of fuzzy grey fur, two teeny-weenie claws- Right there, behind the dumpster was the biggest, roundest squirrel I have ever seen! The squirrel jumped on top of the dumpster and I noticed that it was eating something. "Hey, squirrel!" I said.

The squirrel stopped eating and looked right at me.

"Is that a paper towel?"

It was a paper towel!

"Hey, squirrel!'

He looked right at me again.

"Don't eat paper towels!"

the squirrel thought about it for a minute...then went right back to eating the paper towel.

(you get bonus storyteller points if you act out the part with the squirrel eating the towel...)

Really, everything can be a story- it's all in how you tell it!

If you are a Frog parent, ask your child if they can tell you the story of the squirrel and the paper towel. It would be an interesting experiment to see 1.)How much of the story the Frogs remember, and 2.) How it evolves with each re-telling.
Next time we'll tell you the Nonotuck folk tale about the Raccoon With The Teeny-Tiny Spoon...
*Edited to add the whole story about the squirrel, 12-2-08 4:37pm.