Grandpa Chris Catches Fish for Christmas

It's still November but, for kinder children, it's definitely Christmas.

I had fun today at Jamboree Community Kindergarten. I did some of my usual jokes to start off with and I slipped in one about Christmas already being over and that I was sorry that they had missed out.

It's strange doing the northern winter snow stories in subtropical Brisbane. They like it though. This time I did my version of the First Gift of Christmas.

After that was my 'The Possum and the Garbage Truck Driver." It's good. They get lots of laughs about the garbage truck driver being outwitted by a possum and then by the kookaburra. Of course it finishes in a spirit of cooperation and friendship so that's appropriate for Christmas.

I had planned to do 'Grandpa Chris' which starts with the song 'Grandpa Chris catches fish to give to all his friends' and goes on to say what the other grandpa's are doing for the community in their active retirement. It didn't quite feel right for this group though.

I wanted something that involved Christmas and the children more so we created a new Grandpa Chris story called 'Grandpa Chris saves Santa Clause'. Some children get to help as well of course. It worked well and it definitely much more local coastal Australian summer in feel. (Santa's sleigh crash landed in a mangrove.)

'Ho, Ho, Ho. Deck the halls with lots of mangroves'
(photo Tatters; on Flickr)

I'm looking forward to retelling it over the next couple of weeks.

Use of Stories Around the World

I keep on being pleasantly surprised by the number of people making use of stories in all sorts of creative ways.

I just replied to an email from Liz Gregory, a teacher in Rugby in the UK, seeking my permission to use my version of the traditional folktale 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin.'

She wants to 'create a compact unit of work as part of a mathematical investigation with cross-curricular ICT, music, environmental science and literacy links'. She pointed me towards an NRich maths activity based on the story. Here's the link - http://nrich.maths.org/1996

This activity is based around the number of people and rat legs that might exist in the story but there are so many other possibilities as well. The Piped Piper has so much potential to be used as a modern day parable around sustainability as well. That was one of the things I had in mind when I did my version of it. I look forward to seeing Liz's version.

Here are some 'rat plague' images:

From a series of images showing the areas in Sydney affected by the outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1900. Taken by Mr. John Degotardi, Jr., photographer from the Department of Public Works, the images depict the state of the houses and 'slum' buildings at the time of the outbreak and the cleansing and disinfecting operations which followed.

Professional Rat Catchers (in front is a pile of dead rats)
Dated: c. 17/07/1900
Digital ID: 12487_a021_a021000009

I like this one of  celesteh Charles Hutchins of some grafitti in Killarney.



and here's the Pied Piper in Hamelin (photo by By sophiea sophie)

Hickory, Dickery, Docket

'Hickery, Dickery, Docket,
The mouse ran up the rocket,
He climbed through a hole
As the rocket took off
And hid in the austronaut's pocket.'

There I did it. I've been meaning to use 'Hickory, Dickory, Dock' as the start of a story for ages and never quite managed it. This week Wilston-Grange Kindergarten had indicated that their children were interested in, among other things, space and rockets and planets. It was clear they were to. There was a neat solar system mobile hanging from their ceiling.

I had fun creating a new story about a mouse that went to the Space Station and helped install a space telescope and I've added another nursery rhyme story to my repertoire.

Under 8's Week Storytelling & the red peg

Under 8's Week is not as big as it used to be but I am busy telling stories however. Had some wonderful sessions this week. One of my centres warned me that the audience would be mainly boys and they were. We had heaps of fun. It was fascinating watching them struggle with male conditioning to be 'boofy' and at the same time letting themselves enjoy story and fantasy and fun.

One of the stories I regularly tell is 'Grandpa Chris' about 3 grandpas and their mateship on the one hand and their volunteering for community on the other. The boys loved it when Grandpas Chris (who catches fish to give to all his friends) goes zooming along in his tinnie. I could see them wanting to resist singing the different grandpas songs but joining in just the same. The story and the fun kept them there.

After the story session while I was packing up, one of the boys came back in and said, 'I found this in the garden. You can take it home if you like.' I said, 'Oh thank you. I'll put it in my treasure chest.'

It was a small piece of broken red plastic clothes peg.

He went out with a big smile on his face.

A Story for Slippery Financial Times

There have been a number of times lately when I've realised that I, and many other people around the world, have not kept their eye on the ball. Watching the value of superannuation investment falling rather precipitously has been quite unsettling for quite a lot of us. So as I was reading my bedtime story from 'Classic Folk.Tales from around the World', I came across a rather nice Irish story that seems to sum up a quite a bit of the current situation. It's called - 'The Basket of Eggs' and goes something like this.

There was once a fine woman and she was on her way to market counting the price of her basket of eggs as she walked.

"If eggs are up," says she, "I'll be getting a handful of silver, and even if prices be down I'll not do too badly at all for I have a weighty supply."

With that she noticed a wee little boy sitting down by the hedge, he stitching away at a brogue.

Now everyone knows that if you manage to grab hold of one of the little people and keep your eye on him at all times he will lead you to a pot of buried gold.

She juked up behind him like a cat after a bird and she caught him a strong grip of his kneck. Well he let out an odious screech for he was horrid surprised.

"Will you show me your treasure?", says she.

"You're a terrible fine woman, mistress dear," says the leprachaun, "I've travelled a power of the earth and I never came in with your equal."

"Go on with your old fashioned chat," she replies and pops him up in her basket on top of the eggs, all the time keeping her eye on him and a good hold of his ear to make sure he didn't escape.

Well as they walked on, him giving directions and keeping up his flattering banter, what did he do but reach down into the basket with both hands and begin to bail out eggs onto the ground behind them.

She fetched him a terrible clout, but the harder she beat him the faster he threw out the eggs.

"Stop! You unmannerly coley,' cries she.

"Sure it's doing you a favour I am. Every time an egg dashes to the ground a well grown chicken springs up."

"Quit raving," says she.

"If you doubt my word," says he, "Just look at the fine flock of chickens that is following us."

She could resist the temptation no longer and turned to look and, with a twist and a spring, the leprachaun slipped from her grasp and disappeared under a hedge.

"The wee lad has fooled me entirely and my eggs are ruined but it's a good thing to know that I'm the finest woman he's seen across the wide world, that it is."

So there you go - 'don't count your chickens', 'keep your eye on the ball', 'don't be beguiled by smooth talking lads' and 'keep a good grasp on ... on... on?'

p.s. 'Classic Folk-Tales from around the World' by Robert Nye does have some classics and some quite good stories as well. One of the disappointing things however, is there is no record of where the stories were collected or copied from. If anyone knows, I'd appreciated hearing.

Entertaining Storytelling Guild Lounge Telling

Mmmm - another Storytelling Guild Lounge Telling. They really are a very sane and entertaining way to spend an afternoon and evening. We lots of shared lots of 'bring a plates', shared conversation, shared stories and shared laughs. The world would be in a much better way if it spent more of its time in Lounge Tellings.

One of the highlights was a visiting storyteller from Sweden - Kerstin Thuresson. She regaled us with Swedish Folktales mostly - some we knew and some we didn't but it was all great fun.

She said:

"I mostly do performances in different culture houses, stages and festivals all over Sweden. I love folktales from all around the world and I'm extra fond of those who have a bit of humor in the end. I do also love the stories from India. I sometimes tell what we call Life Stories: screamingly funny things that has happened to me in my own life, a bit extra salted/spiced. I also do a special performance with stories about strong women on the International Women Day every year.

I’m the secretary of the non-profit association of Storytelling on the West Coast of Sweden. Comparable to your Guild, I think.

The Swedish storytellers are organized in approximately 8 geographic non-profit associations. An these associations are organized in one national association: Storytelling Net Sweden, an approximate translation. We have two big festivals every year, the biggest a week long in June every year is also the oldest and they celebrates 20th anniversary 2009, the second one has ran for four years and lasts over a weekend."

It's good to know that storytellers are so well organised in Sweden. If you are interested in Guild events the best way is to visit the blog and join the Guild and the email list.

Sweet Stories in the Pop

Greetings from Deniliquin. Karen and I are having a break from the big smoke and visiting family in country New South Wales.

Not that I've been idle mind you, I've been taking some time to update my website.

In the process, I came across the 'Sweet Stories in the Pop' project I did with Alex McCallum and Karen Tunny and one of the Radio Lollipop Mater Children's Hospital support teams in Brisbane.

It was such a sweet project - telling stories over Radio Lollipop and visiting the wards telling and creating stories with children in the wards.

I just enjoyed reading one of those stories 'Jimmy Makes a Wish'. Hope you'll enjoy its fresh, young innocence as well.

St. Joseph's Book Week

Ahh! - very pleasant morning at St. Joseph's on Gregory Tce with year five students. A good time was had by all..

Head of Library, Helen Stower, put it well in her request for the sessions - 'The purpose of the sessions is purely to build a love of story. For the students to be involved in a dynamic story telling session which is fun and builds their appreciation for story.' By the reaction of students and teachers, I think we managed that.

Each of the first three sessions started with a folktale such as 'Kassa the Brave', 'Thomas Rhuag the Seal Catcher', 'The Bell of Four Metals' and the 4 th session with a group of 'Exceptional Learners Writers Group' a good old Australian Tall Story 'The Big Red Roo'. I then usually followed up with a story created by similar aged students in other places including one from last weeks trip to Emerald - 'The Hand'.

Then we started them along the way to creating their own stories. One was about a student's funny experience when he went to a school fete. Another was about two students who saw a strange old boat steaming up Oxley Creek behind Terrace's playing fields at Tennyson. A third was about ghosts and blood and the tunnel between the school and Victoria Park and the fourth was about a school social studies history tour around Spring Hill and the Old Wind Mill on Wickham Terrace and the ghost of someone unfortunate enough to be hung from one of the sails.

I'm looking forward to publishing some of these stories on this blog.

Thank you St. Joseph's for a good mornings creative work and a wonderful venue in the hall lined with student class and sports photos.

Sam and the Shipping Container

Sam lives in Emerald, a growing town in the middle of Queensland. One of his favourite places is the top of the old reddish-brown shipping or cargo container which sits in his backyard.


View Larger Map


Sam likes climbing up there, sitting quietly and watching the clouds float across the sky or hearing the cockatoos fly screeching home to their nearby roosting tree.

One afternoon after school, Sam had climbed up on top of the cargo container again and was listening to two girls talking in one of his neighbouring yards.

"Hey yah, what're ya doing on the weekend?"

"Dad said we can take the jet skis out to Fairburn Dam. Want to come?"

"Oh cool, I'll come," said Sam.

"Go away Sam. Stop listening to us. Anyway you can't come because you haven't got a jet ski - ha!"

"I don't care," said Sam but he did. He jumped off the shipping container and kicked his football as hard as he could. It slammed into the rubbish bin near the fence and knocked it over.

Sam stomped into the house slamming the screen door as he went. He sprawled onto the lounge chair and turned on the TV.

"What's wrong Sam?" said his Mum.

"Nothing."

Sam's Mum came into the lounge room and gave him a hug.

"You know Sam, sometimes you have to wait a little bit to get what you want."

"What do you mean Mum?"

"Well inside that shipping container you like to climb on is ...."

"What Mum?"

"... a jet ski."

"Ohh. Sick! Can we go out to Fairburn Dam on the weekend?"

"Nope. Sorry. You'll have to wait a bit longer because we're still saving up for the trailer."

"Ohhh, Mum."

"Don't worry Sam, we'll soon have enough money to buy the trailer and we'll be able to go jet skiing out at the dam."

But Sam couldn't wait and as he watched TV he hatched a plan. That night when everyone was asleep, he snuck down the hall, carefully lifted the keys off the hook in the hall and silently walked outside to the shipping container. He tried the keys in the padlock until one turned and the hasp clicked open. Sam carefully swung the container door open, hoping it wouldn't squeak too much.

He flashed his torch inside and there amongst the cardboard removalist boxes was a large wooden crate and on the side was the stencilled outline of a jet ski - "Yes!"

Sam stayed up the whole night dismantling the crate. The jet ski looked wonderful but Sam had a problem. How was he going to get it to the dam? It took Sam quite a while to think of a solution. He had to climb up on the roof of the cargo container and jump off three times before he remembered that his friend Joel liked go-carting. He ran as fast as he could over to Joel's place and knocked on his window, "Joel. Joel. I want to borrow your go-kart."

"Huhhhhh, what?" yawned Joel?

"Wake up Joel. I want to borrow your go-kart."

"What will you give me to play with. Have you got an x-box?"

"What about my new laptop. It's got some great games and I've got three DVDs you can watch."

"Cool. Here's my helmet. Be careful."

"Don't worry. I will. Thanks."

Sam pushed Joel's go-kart at least two blocks away before he started it. 'Raaaa, raaaa, raaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.' Off he went driving down the back streets towards his house. He turned the ignition off before he got near the house and coasted in silence down the driveway and stopped near the shipping container.

"Sick. All I need now is a trailer. What can I use?"

Sam used the side of the wooden crate and to the bottom he screwed his skateboard on one end and two of his sister's roller blades on the other end. Then he tied the jet ski to his trailer with five ockey straps and tied the trailer to the go-kart. He put on the helmet, started up the go-kart and roared down the driveway and out of the street before his parents woke up.

"Yahoooooo! We're off to ski at Fairburn. Yes!"

Soon Sam ran out of back streets and had to drive on the main road towards the Dam, going as fast as he could. He felt great as the farms sped by and he got closer and closer. Well he felt great until he heard the sound of a police siren behind him. Sure enough there was a police car driving along beside him. The red and blue lights were flashing and an angry looking police man was telling him to stop and pull over.

Sam knew he had to pull over. The police man hopped out of his car and "Right young Sam. You're in trouble."

"Trouble? Why? I was just going jet skiing out to Fairburn Dam. Everyone goes out there."

"Yes Sam but not everyone tries to do it with an unregistered go-kart and an illegal trailer. You'll have to leave it here and come back to your parents with me."

"Ohhhh!"

"Don't Ohhhh me Sam. Get into the police car you little squirt!"

Before Sam could unbuckle his seat belt he heard, "Base to highway patrol one, Base to highway patrol one, there's an emergency at Fairburn Dam. Two jet skis have collided in the middle of dam. Attend immediately to help in rescue!"

"Rescue!" said the policeman, "I can't swim!"

"I can," said Sam, "I got my bronze certificate in lifesaving last year. I'll help."

He started up the go-kart, "Ra, ra, raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" and went speeding as fast as he could along the road to Fairburn Dam.




When he got there, sure enough, he could see the two jet skis out in the middle of the dam and holding on for dear life were the two girls.

Sam went speeding through the car park and down the boat ramp. He hit the brakes and spun the steering wheel as fast as he could. The trailer spun around and the jet ski slipped off from under the ockie straps and into the water with a splash. Sam jumped off the go-kart and onto the seat of the jet ski. "Reeeeeeee, reeeeee, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" He was off speeding across the dam towards the crash scene.



"This is fun. Yehhhh!"

Sam steered the jet ski around the two girls and helped them both onto the back of the ski. Slowly this time, he headed towards the shore.

As he got back, people were cheering, "Yey Sam. Good one!"

Waiting for him beside the police car were his parents. "Good one Sam. We're proud of you. Your our hero but .........

............ you're grounded for 3 months."

Sam spent a lot of time on top of that shipping container for the next 3 months but at least the girls he rescued spoke to him sometimes.

('Sam and the Shipping Container' was created by Daryll Bellingham and the Year 4 and 5 students at Emerald State School on 13th August, 2008 ©)(Photos with thanks from www.ausiecampovenforum.com and flickr download photographer - QbiT)

The Sleeping Dragline - a story from Anakie

Had a great time out at Anakie School today. It's a small bush school servicing the small towns of the Gem Fields area. The atmosphere is really positive and the students are friendly and creative. They were getting ready to participate in the Gemfest happening there this week. The year 6/7's had made a Chinese Dragon for a dragon dance and I was able to help them a bit with their drumming.

Dragons and gems and mining were really popular topics for the stories we improvised including this one below created with the Prep, Yr 1 and 2 students.

The Sleeping Dragline.

Now every knows that around the town of Emerald in Central Queensland there are lots of coal mines. Underneath the earth there is so much black coal that the miners dig it up with huge machines called draglines and load the coal onto trains to take to the ships waiting to take it to China and Japan.

One morning three children were sitting at home eating their breakfast and watching their Dad pack some lunch to take to work at the coal mine.

"Are you going to dig up lots of coal today Dad?" asked one.

"No. I don't think so. We've got to repair the dragline. It's not working. I think it's gone to sleep."

"Maybe if you say the right magic words it'll wake up," said the girl.

"Maybe it's like Sleeping Beauty and you have to give it a kiss on it's mouth and then it'll wake up," said one of the boys.

"Well maybe I'll have to do one of those if we can't get it started," said their father, "Now don't forget to clean your teeth before you go to school. I'll see you after work."

"Bye Dad."

Their father jumped into his four wheel drive ute and drove off to work at the mine as the children got ready for school. He drove out of town, through the bush and into the coal mine. He parked his ute in the carpark, put on his safety helmet, picked up his tool kit and joined the work crew in front of the huge dragline down in the open cut mine.

"Look at it," said one of the miners, "You great, ugly, expensive bit of machinery get to work, you lazy machine!"

He turned the key in the switch to start up the dragline but it just lay there like it was sleeping.

"My boy said I should try giving it a kiss and then it might wake up like sleeping beauty."

"Oh yuck, I'd rather try magic words. Abracadbra, Abracadabra, Abracadabra. Wake up, Wake up, Wake up - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

No one knew whether it was the magic words or the scream but the drag line woke up and began to move. The huge scoop opened and closed and began to swoop down towards the men.

"Watch out. That scoop is coming for us!"

The men started to run but they weren't quick enough, the scoop had turned into a giant claw and had grabbed them. The big treads had turned into legs and out of the body of the drag line had sprouted wings. The drag line had turned into a dragon.

It leapt out of the coal mine and flew off with the men, roaring as it went.

Back in Anakie, the children were lined up at the school parade listening to the Principal telling them all about the GemFest that was happening that week. They heard a roar and looked up into the sky and saw the dragon flying towards the school.

Bigger and bigger it got as it flew closer. "Look at that!" Every student and every teacher looked up into the sky. They saw the huge wings beating the sky with sound of drums, the long tail swishing from side to side, the enormous mouth with its cruel curved teeth and its sharp claws holding ....... holding ............ five struggling coal miners. "Help! Help!"

"Hey! That's Dad! That dragons got our Dad!"

"What are we going to do?"

"It's probably flying towards the old volcano. If it gets up there we'll never find them."

"We'll have to lassoo it as it goes past. Anyone got a rope."

"What about the tug-of-war rope? It's with the phys-ed gear."

Five students ran and got the rope. One climbed up the gum tree with the rope and dropped the end down by the tuck shop. They tied a big knot and then stood in the front yard of the school near the gate.

They started to sing out - "Ha, ha Dragon. Ha, ha Dragon.You can't catch us. You can't catch us!"

The dragon looked down and saw the children. He roared a roar so loud the children's teeth shook and their hats blew off in the hot blast of the dragons foul polluting breath.

"He's coming! Get ready to duck!"

The dragon flew down towards them with his spare claws stretched out to grab them, his eyes glowing red like burning rubies. His head and neck flew through the loop of the rope but his wings and body were too big.

The rope snapped tight around the dragon's wings and he crashed to the ground. The coal miners rolled out of the dragon's huge bucket claw and ran under the school with the children.

The dragon opened his mouth and the flames burnt the rope. He beat his wings and leapt into the sky again. The children watched him flying towards the old volcano.

"Hey Dad. You woke up the Dragon .... I mean the Drag-line."

'Yeh, kids. Thanks for that. We owe you one."

No one really knows what the dragon did at the old volcano although there have been reports about it terrorising students and tourists who visit there and the climate around the volcano seems to be getting hotter and hotter. Just ask the Year 6/7 students at Anakie about their excursion. Some people say though that the dragon flies back to the mine every morning to dig in the coal.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham, Storyteller and the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students at Anakie State School - 12th August 2008. )

Stories from Emerald North - 1

Doing a nice project this week in schools around Emerald. First up was Emerald North State School with P - 4 students. It's been a good day telling and creating stories in the phys ed room. One of the pleasures was creating a new story based on one of the folk tales from China I told - 'Ming Li and the Tortoise'. In the story the tortoise had a special mark on its head so I thought a story about an animal that one would normally find in Emerald but had a special mark on it would be a good start for a story.

The students decided that a Bearded Dragon subject for the story and we began. Here's the story:-

The Emerald Dragons

Emerald is a nice place to live. There's plenty of work for parents and the children can play lots of sport. One day some children were kicking a football around at Emerald North School and one of the boys said, "Hey! Want to play a game that my Dad used to play when he went to school?"

"What's it called?"

"Force-em-back. You see there are two teams. One team kicks the ball to the other and if they catch it on the full they can advance 5 steps and kick it back but if they don't they have to kick it from where they stop it. Eventually one of the teams is forced right back to the fence and they lose."

Well that's what they did. The game was going fine until one of the kicks went so high it went right over the school fence. No one knows whether there was a sudden gust of wind or what but that ball flew over the neighbouring houses towards the river with the team in hot pursuit.

They saw it flying over the trees and thought, "Oh no someone is going to have to swim for it."

When they got to the river bank however, the ball wasn't floating on the water or anything. They could see it anywhere. All there was in sight was a bearded dragon sitting on a log.

One of the girls said, "That bearded dragon looks a bit strange. It's got marks on its back."

"Maybe the ball landed on it's back and left those marks. They look like the marks of a football."

"No," said the girl, "The marks are on the inside. Hey I think the football has turned into a bearded dragon."

"Ha, ha! Don't be silly. How can a football be turned into a bearded dragon?"

"Yeh. I know but let's pretend. We'll take it back and pretend it's the football. Should be a laugh."

Well that's what they did. They picked up the bearded dragon and took it back to the school fence and said, "Sorry it took so long but the ball turned into a bearded dragon and we'll have to kick it instead."

They held it up and pretended to kick it but the bearded dragon flew from their grasp went sailing up into the air and down towards the other team.

'Catch it! Catch it!"

As the bearded dragon bounced the whole team dived on it and grabbed hold but they could not stop the dragon it flew up into the air with the students holding on. Higher and higher it went and they all went flying up and over towards the river.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Call the Principal! Call the teachers! Help!"

The other students ran into the office and called out "Emergency! Emergency! The kids have disappeared! "

Admin dialed 000 and it wasn't long before there was police, ambulance and fire brigade in attendance. Every headed down towards the river and started searching for the missing students. They couldn't find them any where. Once the police and fire brigade had gone home however, the students saw 10 little bearded dragons sitting on a log. They took them back to the school and fed them all their favourite foods - pies, sausage rolls, chocolate and ice cream - and eventually they started to grow slowly back into children again. Do you know what though, every single one of them had long skinny finger nails and marks on their backs like football laces.

It's not surprising, I suppose, that no one plays 'Force-em-back' at Emerald North School these days. They do take special care of bearded dragons though.

Here's where it all happened -
View Larger Map

(Story created by Daryll Bellingham, Storyteller and students from year 1b/2a at Emerald North School, following a Chinese folktale about a magic tortoise with a special mark on its head.)