Date: Tue 07-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-sandy-hook-stories

Full Text:

Storyteller Entrances Third Graders

(with photo)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Kindergarten to third grade students at Sandy Hook School have been hearing

musical tales and creating their own entertaining stories throughout this

week, following the lead of Eshu Bumpus, storyteller.

Mr Bumpus, a musical performer, visual artist and teacher, combines his

talents to help raise students' confidence with creating, writing and telling

stories.

Mr Bumpus started a session for the children with the tale of "Che Che Kole,"

set in Ghana.

The children laughed as Mr Bumpus, taking on the part of an old tortoise,

walked with aching slowness, trying to get food at the market.

Then, when the tortoise had the idea of climbing into a palm tree and asking a

palm tree to dance in the marketplace to get food for him, the children sang

with great enthusiasm, "Palm tree dance dance, all around the marketplace,

dance!"

As the story goes, the people of the marketplace were so scared of the dancing

palm tree that they ran away. The tortoise then stole their food.

Although this solved the tortoise's problem, it created a problem for the

merchants. A guard, then later the chief, came to the marketplace to try to

overcome the "palm tree monster."

Finally, King Oba himself came to market. When Mr Bumpus said that even King

Oba "got so scared, he jumped right out of his shoes," the children chortled

with delight. To the children's obvious relief, the slow-moving tortoise never

went hungry.

But what about the people of the market who were losing their food and their

livelihood?

With a reward set at half the kingdom, an old man rose to King Oba's challenge

of overcoming the palm tree monster. The children exploded in laughter at Mr

Bumpus' imitation of the fearsome face of the statue that the old man had

placed in the marketplace to catch the thieving tortoise.

The tortoise, bewildered that there seemed to a person who wasn't afraid of

him, came too close to the statue and got caught by the sticky stuff that the

old man had put on the statue.

In the end the old man invited the tortoise to live with him; which was easy

now, because the old man owned half the kingdom!

The story, as warm and playful as it was improbable, helped children to

empathize with every characters' needs.

Mr Bumpus went on to invite more audience participation in two other stories,

and children eagerly called out their names to be included in the stories.

After 45 minutes in the auditorium, a room full of budding authors returned to

their classes, got out their pencils, and wrote!

Mr Bumpus followed up the performance in the auditorium with in-class

workshops for kindergarten to third grade classes.