Stepping Into Fairy Tales

Stepping into The Three Little Pigs

Serving time in Pre-K is a sentence I've come to embrace because the students (and my coworkers) are very endearing.

And although I am not teaching the literacy skills I find most interesting - due to the age of the children - there are brilliant features ripe for exploration.

These include poems and nursery rhymes (for developing phonological awareness) and fairy tales (for building an understanding of narrative story structure and story elements).

Stepping into The Gingerbread Man

We've been teaching and learning about classic fairy tales and providing opportunities for our little ones to embody the characters through diverse media.

Our partnership with The Children's Museum of the Arts has resulted in the creation of a stop animation film using clay figures set against well-known fairy tales settings all made by 4-year-old hands.

Stepping into Little Red Riding Hood

We have story tables and SmartGames to push student thinking. There are cool costumes for the dress up center and figures for the block area.  We've made 3D houses, dictated and documented hilarious student retellings and have played, laughed and run around the room with these characters.

Stepping into Goldilocks and the Three Bears

They are all fun (and educational) activities but I am a little bit in love with their water-color drawings - mixed with photography - showing the children stepping into the shoes of the fairy tale characters.

Stepping into Goldilocks and the Three Bears

There is also a cool drawing of Hansel & Gretel with more on the way.  I can't wait to see what they do with Jack and the Beanstalk (one of my favorites!).
  

A Broadway Books First Class Visit From Kecia Lewis

Planting the golden seeds of childhood magic with Broadway goddess Kecia Lewis

One overarching message woven throughout the narrative of my Sunday school years is the notion that each and every one of us is blessed with unique gifts. As I grew, that conjecture - or belief - sprung up again and again across the various disciplines of my life from performance, education, and an interest in comparative mythology to relationships and multifarious love. 

And like The Hero with a Thousand Faces our "road of trials" is managed through rescue from within and assistance from without. It is by placing ourselves inside the mosaic of humanity that we overcome obstacles and achieve something far greater than we could ever achieve on our own. In essence, nature (or God) has designed us to triumph and grow strong by sharing our individual strengths (gifts). Then with knowledge, empathy and good 'ol kick ass determination we develop spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. 

In this model we free ourselves from the need to be perfect in all things and take comfort in what we can do, while trusting that help will find us when it is most needed. It also challenges us to be that source of support when called on by others. 

Such were the thematic pillars of the most recent Broadway Books First Class guest artist visit from veteran performer Kecia Lewis. 

Students introduced themselves to Kecia Lewis in American Sign Language

Kecia's career as a storyteller is shaped by portrayals of formidable women either overcoming obstacles (Effie in Dreamgirls), providing help to others to prevail over obstacles (Asaka in Once on this Island) or embodying those obstacles (Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago). 

As she depicts these various roles from divergent vantage points the audience realizes what it is to be human. And sitting out there "in the dark" we join the archetypal hero in crossing the threshold from struggle to triumph and deeper understanding. That is the cathartic journey of spectator and performer. We all exit the theater somehow changed by our time together. 

The Pre-K and Second Grade students got a taste of the passion, pain and power of live theater as they sat in my classroom at 10:00 on a Tuesday morning in late January to witness Kecia's roof raising rendition of "I Am Changing" from Dreamgirls. Click here to watch a short clip.

The resolute "pick myself up and start again" lyrics reflect what Joseph Campbell described as the adventure of the hero's transformation.

I am changing

Seeing everything so clear

I am changing

I'm gonna start right now right here

I'm hoping to work it out

And I know that I can

But I need you

I need a hand

Kecia Lewis reading THE LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET

The children's book Kecia read, The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena and Christian Robinson, also related to expanding one's perspectives with the guidance of a mentor. In this case, it is a young boy named C. J. who comes to view his urban surroundings in a very different way thanks to his nana and a visit to volunteer at their soup kitchen. 

"He wondered how his nana always found beautiful where he never even thought to look." C. J. returns from his afternoon adventure seeing the world in a new way. Finding and appreciating the beauty in everyday events is transformative, such is the gift his nana gave.

Kecia Lewis signs a book for a second grade student

And, of course, we all wanted to learn more about Kecia whose gifts are so abundant. 

The children asked about her inspirations (The Carol Burnett Show, I Love Lucy and laughter). 

How she feels when she performs, "Most of the time I feel really happy. I feel like I'm giving service to the people that come to see the show because sometimes people come to see shows because they want to forget for two hours what's going on in their lives. And they want to laugh and they want to smile or they want to be touched by someone else's story and so it makes me feel good to do that."

Her obstacles (within the context of performing it is going on with the show when things in her personal life are difficult).

And her favorite song ("I am Changing" from Dreamgirls), favorite costume (the "trick dress" that went from simple skirt and shawl to evening gown when she sang "I am Changing") and favorite show (Marie and Rosetta).

Photo Credit: Eileen Lograno

Students each received a copy of the book autographed by Kecia Lewis

I believe that after sharing stories, music, tears, laughter, hugs and gifts we were lifted out of the ordinary and transformed. We were not the same group we were when Kecia first stepped into the classroom. And that is a journey worth taking!